The Wizard

im in the process of rebuilding an 83 toyota 22r motor. i wanna get some power out of it while im at it but nothing drastic thats gonna kill my pockets. im droppin my block off at the machine shop tommorrow, but i need to figure out what i wanna do with my head. i have a 20r head i could clean up to swap and get the better compression ratio. i could also buy some 10.5-1 pistons from LC and get my compression and work up a 22r head. i have googled the hell out of the 20r swap and got no real solid info on it. i hear the 20r flows better but with some porting and polishing. is it possible to make the 22r head flow just as nice?? im thinking about just going with the big pistons since it seems like an easier deal to do. what do you guys think?? the way ive been reading it the 20r swap just seems like a bolt on swap to get quick power instead of building a motor??

scooper

I have a 22/20r hybrid in my 80' and love the swap. You will need the 20r intake as well and an adapter to run the 22r carb or a weber series carb, otherwise you will have to run the water choked 20r carb that will really hold you back. You will gain NO power with this swap but your engines torque curve will kick in a TON sooner and feel awesome. This swap also LOVES and handles the RPM's so much better than the 22r head IMO. I used the 22r rocker assembley over the 20r one because it's a tad heavier duty. Everything else bolts right up, no problems. I believe that I also had to swap the thermostat housing on mine. You can also have the 22r valves cut to fit the 20r for even more performance, with valve job, then port and polish and sit back and enjoy.

The Wizard

well i called the machine shop i want to deal with, they are shop that primarily focuses on hi performance stuff. dude is all backed up over there and told me he doesnt even have room for me to bring a bare block over for atleast a week but maybe longer!! im still putting together a new motor but i gotta get my truck back together so today i started building a frankenstein hahahaha i took apart 3 motors with 3 different problems and stuck the best parts of each together. i also just happened to have a 20r head with a weber adapter layin around so that gonna get stuck on top. i'll run this contraption for now until i get the new motor in order and then i'll have a nice spare for my wheeler. frankenstein should go pretty good, its got a 20r head, a weber 38dgs carb,some kind of aftermarket cam i found, a double row timing set, a header with 2.25 exhaust and flowmaster behind it, and the distributor has some springs in it to change advanve for torque.
im still undeciuded though about what i wanna do with the new motor.

steve g

this is a perfect combo...... dont go with oversize valves if you are a crawler.... the smaller valves help with low end torque and smooth low idle... trust me.

tomjordanphoto

how much are you having the machine shop take off the head? what about the block. I have a 20r head and would like to do the swap. Have searched and found a few different answers.
thanks
tom