i recently rebuilt the 22re on my 89 pickup. i went ahead and bought the new head too.
well the truck hesitates, chokes, and runs like ****. the shop said that its cuz the other shop that rebuilt the engine didnt adjust the vavles. he said to get about 600-700 miles on it and bring it back and he will adjust the valves. just wanted to get your peeps opinions. is the mechanic just giving me the run around or what?

 

That don't sound right. Take it back and tell him to fix it. When I put a motor in my 88 (which is my dad's now)it ran great. It could also be the timing. That guy sounds like a bum.

 

Once they get it fixed never go there again. That guy is full of it.

 

The valves should be set at .008 and .012 for intake and exhaust now. Since it's a new head , he's guessing the new valves are going to seat after 600 miles and then he's going to adjust them. Make sure there adusted now while the engine is warm, then recheck at 500 mi. As far as it running bad, I don't think it's a valve adjustment problem. Do you have alot of valvetrain noises? Does it change from when it's cold to when it warms up? I'm leaning towards the timing off.

 

thanx for the response guys.
its does make a good amount of valve train noise. but i have always thought these engines are kinda noisy. it mostly hesitates low in the power band. like when i shift it bogs. sometimes when i try and rev it a lil it pops(backfires?) in the engine bay.
im also thinking its the timming. im gunna look over it tomarrow. i checked the distributor cap and its in alright condition. im gunna change out the distributor cap, rotor, cables and check the timming. does anyone know what the timming has to be at?
and how hard is it to check the valves? what tools do i need?

P.S.
does anyone know how much i can advance the timming on 91 octane? i wanna do this after the engine has been broken in.

 

the popping and backfiring definitely sound like its misfiring, i would agree it does sound like the timing is off.....get yourself a timing gun and check it out, on a 22re the optical timing is 5 degrees...good luck getting things straight

 

great thanx!

 

ok well i checked the timming and it was in the middle of 5-0...now its in the middle of 10-5 with 91 octane. it feels better but the bog right after shifting is still there. it feels as the timming comes back slowly as the RPMs go up. anyone think it might be the knock sensor? also it idles funny. it goes up in down....in a slow manner.

 

bump^^^