wootri04

Setting my original cam in the new head. Clearance was on the loose side but within spec. I polished the journals by hand with some webbing and 1500 grit sand paper, and was able to remove most of the scoring caused by metal fragments pre-rebuild. I didn't want to invest too much in the old cam as I may upgrade eventually.



Here's the cam in head:

wootri04

And now on to the pistons... Here's everything laid out and ready to go. Piston assembly was probably the most enjoyable part for me, being my first rebuild. Lots of parts but fairly straightforward.

It went from this:

To this:

Checked the ring gap with a feeler gauge. I forgot to write this spec down but was referencing the FSM and Hasting's ring literature, and it was right on.

wootri04

One of my favorite shots of a rod bearing:



Piston #1 ready to install:



As a home brewer I found that a couple pieces of CO2 hose worked perfectly to protect the crank journals from rod bolt threads.



On with the caps, torqued to spec (51 rod, 76 main in my FSM)



And rotated a few times. Smooth as ever but I could feel the friction from new rings scraping on the fresh hone. Here she is @ TDC. I was feeling pretty good at this point. No other hiccups besides the trust washer mistake. At this point it was 2:15AM so I called it a night. At least it was Friday and I didn't have to work the next day. Well, I didn't have to work for someone else at least...

millball

Beautiful!!

Windsor

I've seen this before (not Toyota) and the difference was made up in the head gasket. Seems a strange way to do it. *shrug*

millball

Look carefully at the oil dams for the cam lobes on the new head too.
I've seen some aftermarket heads where a couple of the oil dams near the front of the head are incomplete to where no oil is puddled to lube those cam lobes.
Don't know what might be done about it. I keep my Toyota castings whenever possible to do so.

wootri04

Next was the oil strainer and pickup tube, followed by the timing set.



I think it might have been a tip from an LC Engineering assembly video, but I found it way easier to assemble with the block oriented upside down. This takes the slack out of the chain and everything stays tight while you attach the guides and chain tensioner. Thanks LCE! I also used 2 tiny zip ties to hold the cam gear in it's proper place throughout the assembly. The "HD set" came with a metal backed chain damper for additional peace of mind. I was not familiar with Engine Pro Timing, and the consensus here and elsewhere online is to use OEM parts like OSK when possible. But again this machine shop builds mostly domestic racing engines, and I could tell they stood by their parts. The owner Randy said they've build tons of 22R motors over the years so once more, I trusted his judgement.



With the timing chain cover in place, on went the head gasket. I was a bit bummed about the machine shop ordering fel pro gaskets but I'm not one to waste, and I figured with careful proper assembly, they should work just fine for me. The set was missing a few minor things (EGR valve to intake manifold, and one of the PAIR air injection manifold gaskets on the exhaust side) but I just used permatex ultra copper which worked great.

wootri04

Thanks for the input Windsor! You could tell the head gasket allows oil to flow from that galley to the head bolt, but I wonder if the extra restriction changes lubrication dynamics. My guess is that goes into the rocker towers and lubricates the rocker shafts. I do not know if this is the only source of oil flowing through the shafts, but if so, the rocker arms and shafts may wear more rapidly. Oh well, only time will tell I guess... Maybe it's not the most restrictive part of that path of flow either, but I imagine Toyota cast that channel for a reason. I suppose I have a tendency to over analyze any differences I run into when comparing the originals to the replacement parts.

wootri04

Yah I wanted to reuse my original head but I had been told it was milled under spec. I had heard negative things about using HG shims, so I went with a new casting. I'm not 100% sure but I think its an ITM. That's at least the first 3 letters of the serial number. I will have to check the oil dams next time I set the valve lash. The engine runs great but I do have an annoying little tick coming from #1 or #2 intake side and wondered why one valve is louder than the rest. You can't hear it under load, but when I let off the gas, if I listen it's there. I did reuse the entire rocker arm assembly including the adjusting screws, which looked pretty good although a bit rounded. I plan to replace those asap, and if the noise continues or worsens, a new rocker arm assembly and cam is in order.

wootri04

Alrighty here is the fully assembled long block. That shiny new head is making my rocker assembly look pretty grimy. I did not have it hot tanked, I just scrubbed it really hard with dish soap and a scotchbrite. After all no one will see it once everything is buttoned up. I cleaned all the parts besides my block, crank and rods by hand, as I was not going into debt over this Toy, so I was basically living from paycheck to paycheck during the rebuild.



I realized at this point the FSM says to do the rear main, but my engine stand was in the way. So I had to bring the engine hoist in and spin her around.

Rear main and oil pan in place:



Crank pulley, distributor and rear backing plate, plus a few other things on.


Hey, this thing is finally starting to look like an engine again!

wootri04

With the flywheel in place, I realized it would not fit back on the engine stand, so I used a few old head bolts (yes they fit perfectly into the block, M12 x 1.25) wrist pins, and some solid oak washers I fab'd myself. My father is a wood worker/ boat builder and uses oak for frames for their strength, and I also work with wood as one of my countless hobbies. So, when I need something I usually try making it out of wood first. Since oak has a crush rating around 7000PSI I was not concerned about strength. I cut and drilled some custom spacers so the threads wouldn't bottom out, and voila, back in business.

wootri04

At this point however, the engine was getting pretty heavy, and my flimsy Harbor Freight engine stand did not seem to like it much. Sure, it's rated for 750lbs and the engine is probably half that at most, but torquing the crankshaft pulley bolt to 116 ft-lbs with a crowbar wedged in the flywheel teeth was a bit scary. I didn't want to break any toes so I left the hoist hooked up with slight tension on the chains.

Here is a shot of the lower intake mainfold, egr, heater hose, water pump and fan, alternator and probably more. By this time I had adjusted the valves to .008 and 0.012 cold, and sealed up the half moons with silicone, not to be opened until the engine is running and warm. I chose to install the original water pump too, because I checked it out and according to the FSM it was good to go. The bearing spun as smoothly as ever, had no play nor any sign of corrosion or rust.
And it said Toyota on the side.

It was pretty funny to see grimy old bolts and a water pump mounted to a brand new timing cover. I had cleaned and degreased everything and ensured no threads were stripped on any bolts, so I could not justify replacing them. Oh well, it'll all be filthy soon enough.

wootri04

Fuel rail, injectors and sensors. I did not have the injectors done, just new o-rings. I also reused every sensor and even the thermostat. After all these are easy to replace with the engine in the truck, and it was fun to test them all with my multimeter (especially the VSV) and find they did exactly what they were supposed to. The only one not original was the coolant temp sender for the dash. It hardly fit, I wonder if it was the wrong part. Only 1 or 2 threads screwed in as if it had too long of a collar. It doesn't leak though to it's fine by me.



And vacuum rail + hoses, upper intake manifold/throttle body, coolant hoses, resonator, etc. I switched oil caps with the donor motor because the Japanese cap looked WAY cooler IMO. Old rounded style like 20Rs and older 22Rs...

jakey poo

It'll be purring in no time!

Windsor

What, no Thorley header? tsk. tsk.

wootri04

Yah yah... I'll admit that for merely the cost of all the machine work I had done, I could have opted for something "loud and shiny" and gained a few HP (well, maybe...)

Actually, I was seriously considering some performance upgrades, but decided that can all happen later, once my truck is running smoothly and I get bored with the stock configuration. I may upgrade cams and add an intake and exhaust at the same time. However I would probably have to delete all the emissions stuff to run an aftermarket header, and I'm not sure I want to do that. If I wanted a screamin' demon I would have started with an improved head - one with OS valves at least.

wootri04

And speaking of purring, let's get caught up photo-wise... With the engine 90% assembled, it was time to install the clutch. The pilot bearing was nearly impossible to remove. After attempting multiple times using various non-SST techniques I was very frustrated. So I opted to use the grease back pressure method. Found a bolt that fit snugly within the center of the bearing (M12 I think) packed the hole with moly graphite grease and started pounding on the bolt. Nothing at first, but after topping it up with grease and pounding over and over and over... You get the idea. Eventually it began to move, and finally came out. It wasn't easy but boy was I pleased afterward.

Here's the resurfaced flywheel and new pilot bearing installed. The flywheel surface was a lot rougher than I expected, but I guess that's how the clutch grabs.




And here's the old and new pressure plates for comparison:

wootri04

Did I mention I got an AISIN clutch? I'm not sure what was on there (It just said "Made in England"), but the AISIN part appeared far superior, and was significantly heavier.

Clutch disc:



Pressure Plate:



New clutch release bearing in place. That bell housing took forever to get clean! It clearly had 28 years of engine oil and grime built up. But as with everything else on the truck, there was minimal rust.

wootri04

And now, 2 months and 2 weeks later, she's ready to go home. I used my trusty garden cart to wheel the engine across my property (gravel paths leading through a forested yard - it's anything but flat) Oh, and Windsor, here you can see my extra special super header - limited edition, vintage, by "Robert Rusty"

wootri04

And here's my extra set of hands. Thanks to "Winchy" I was able to remove and install the engine without any other humans. Since it only went straight up and down, I actually rolled the truck back with a come-along, raised the engine, rolled the truck back into place and dropped it in. Kind of funny, but the method worked flawlessly.



I discovered that my truck was missing at least 2 of the bell housing to engine bolts, which scared the heck out of me considering I'd been bashing it off road multiple times before the rebuild. So I ran to the dealer and bought 4 new bolts for the install. After 2 or 3 hours of wrestling with the winch & tranny jack and tightening the bell housing bolts one at a time, ever so lightly, the engine and transmission eventually married perfectly.

Here she sits all plugged in and ready to fire up: