My 22RE block is torn down waiting for a new timing chain (in the mail).

Before the teardown it had poor compression on #2 cylinder (105-ish peak). #3 was also not great (125).

I was hoping I would find a blown gasket between them when I pulled the head, but the gasket there looked identical to everywhere else.

So what I'm wondering is...

I don't have the time to pull the block and put new rings in it. Is there anything else I can do, with the block stripped and bolted to the tranny, that might improve the compression when I put this back together?

The valve-heads (name?) on #2 look identical to the others - would I be able to see if it was burned?

Would disassembling the head/valves and cleaning/replacing the valves and/or springs help?

Thanks!

 

So in other words the head and front of the engine are off.

These engines are known for taking out the bottom end if you do a valve job or install a new head.

On a high mileage engine. What is a High mileage engine?? Good question new bottom end 50,000 miles or 250,000 miles

All I can say is good luck

 

how do you know it's the rings giving you bad compression. jut because you put a compression gauge on and read 105ish doesn't mean the rings are bad.

 

Thanks!

I think the engine is pretty young - my brother says he bought it as a remanufactured engine about 60-70k ago. I'm a little suspicious of how much it was actually rebuilt, though, since the timing chain went bad, which should be a 100k or more thing.

When I get it back together I'll definitely keep an eye on the compression to see about the rings.

I probably am not going to do the valves, just because they seem fine. Is there any way to see if they are not?
I know I should have squirted some oil into the cylinder and then done another compression test... but I didn't.

 

@2 - I don't know the rings are bad. It was just a guess since the gasket between the two looked ok and the valves weren't too bad.

Thanks!

 

I think whatever you do with the engine it's gonna be hit and miss. If it was a valve leaking and you don;t do the valve job on the head, or rebuild the bottom end if it was the rings causing low compression, there is a good chance that it's still gonna have low compression. Two adjacent cyl with low to no compression can be a headgasket and you might get lucky, but I would expect if everything isn't done properly that your wasting your time and money on it. Knowing the compression was low I would have looked into it more with a proper leakdown test before tearing it apart.

 

Thanks for your reply

I initially just wanted to do the TC. I did the compression test right before tearing down the engine, kind of as an afterthought. Since my bro purchased this as a 'rebuilt' engine I figured it wouldnt need any attention. I did the compression test only so I could have a reference point for when I put it back together, and only noticed the compression specs in the book after I was balls-deep in the intake manifold. So I'm definitely a little behind the game on this one.

At this point, actually, since the block is stripped, I'm trying to decide whether to just yank it, break it, and do the friggin pistons while I'm in it. Better now than later, eh? Except, more time wrenching = less time doing stuff I get paid to do.

Any advice on other little upkeep jobs I can do (cleaning the intake?) while I'm in there would be great.

Thanks!