coopster

pic post Number 65? (I think.)
That black bracket, it goes on the RHS, toward front, IIRC. Under the EGR pipe thingy (to use the technical term).
I'd post a pic (pretty sure I got one), but camera is over in midland (like 25 miles from here).

Course I took mine apart like a month ago, and left my brain laying right beside my glasses...

abj27

it started! Hooray!!!

Tonight I got the distributor and air cleaner assembly on and it started right up! I'm feeling pretty stoked right now. I had some issues getting the distributor on cause I was reading the FSM pages for the 22-RE. After trying to figure out why it was not working at all, I realized I was in the wrong distributor section and got it going.

Still need to put on the fan shroud, front grill and hood. I also need to get a timing light on it. Speaking of timing light, does it hurt it to run without adjusting the timing? As in, could I drive to the auto parts store in my truck to get the light? Or does it need to be timed ASAP?

Wrenchinjoe

Congrats man!

Often you can see an indentation in the distributor flange where the hold down bolt was before, that will likely be pretty close. You should be ok to make the trip to the parts store.

Cheers.

92 TOY

awesome. very happy for ya.

abj27

...and then blew through my new headgaskets

I am so frustrated right now!! So last night when I started it I only let it run for about 20 seconds and then shut it off. It wasn't long enough to realize that it hadn't sealed properly. So today I decided to drive it around the block. I got about 30 yards from my house and looked at my rear view mirror to see clouds of white smoke coming out. So I turned around and parked it in the driveway where it is sitting now.

So I figure it was one of three things:

1. Either the heads or the block didn't have a clean/smooth mating surface. I don't really think this was the problem, but it's possible.

2. Cheap head gaskets just didn't make a proper seal. I thought maybe the cheap head gaskets would blow sooner, I didn't think they just wouldn't seal at all.

3. I screwed up somewhere. I hate to admit it, but this is the most likely culprit.

So I'm not sure what I'm going to do now. I'm leaning towards just paying a shop to do it for me. Not what I want to do, but I really don't want to start over on this thing, especially since I have no way to guarantee I can get it to seal the second time around.

bugs1961

Man, I feel for you. I did this same job a couple of years ago and so far mine's been fine. It is critical that the heads are milled flat and the block is cleaned to a shiny finish. I would highly recommend new head bolts on the 3.0, although there has been much discussion both ways. They are torque to yield and I personally would never reuse them. It is critical to follow the FSM torque procedure exactly. If not, you are guaranteeing a failure. After 20,000 miles I can still see the green Sharpie marks I made to identify the 90 and 180 degree positions during the head bolt torquing.

If you aren't too demoralized, there is no reason not to try again. Keep in mind that you will do a better job than any shop. But do not go cheap on head preparation, head bolts, and the torque procedure. I used FelPro head gaskets (the truck belonged to my brother at the time and that is what he bought) but I insisted on having a machine shop resurface the gasket surface and I said I wouldn't do the job without new head bolts. These are the only true "mandatory" items (to me) in the whole procedure. If I had to do it over again, I'd use Toyota HGs, although the FelPros are working just fine so far.

Everything I saw that you did was fine but if the heads have a little bit of warp, it's all for not.

Good luck and PM me if you feel like talking about the job. I'd do it again in a second if necessary. Take care,
Bugs

bugs1961

Also, to be sure you have all the hoses in the correct position, use the info in this thread:

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...e-help-209069/

The first post has a picture on the plenum (left picture) and post 11 has a description of where everything goes.

Take care,

Bugs

Wrenchinjoe

Sorry to hear that man!

Before you tear it down or tow it off, do some diagnostics first. Is it leaking fluid anywhere? Check your oil and coolant... is it losing any of either? Are you getting the 'milkshake' in your oil? Do a compression test.

Lots of times a fresh rebuild can smoke for a while. I obviously did not see your situation specifically, and will defer to what you saw. But it might be worth running some tests before you throw in the towel.

Good luck, hang in there.

abj27

Turned it on again today. The HG's definitely don't have a good seal. No leaks anywhere else, just a bunch of coolant coming out my tailpipe. I've been going through this thing a million times in my head trying to figure it out. I'm pretty sure it is one of a couple of things:

Getting the driver's side head on didn't go quite as smoothly as hoped for. The head hit the pins protruding from the block that help to hold it in place. It is possible that that scratched the head. I also could have damaged the HG during this process, not really sure though.

Another possibility is that the block just wasn't clean enough. How vigorous can I get on scrubbing the block? Is it strong enough to take a brillo pad attached to my drill? I had scraped it with an old credit card and sprayed and wiped multiple times with brake cleaner.

So, I'm still undecided whether to try again on my own. I am kind of interested to see how much easier it will be to get it apart and together now that I know how everything goes together. If I try again, I have a couple questions:

Do I need a whole new head gasket kit? Or just new HG's themselves. What other parts would I need? Besides head bolts that is, cause I am going to replace those.

abj27

update: I DID do it right!! so I got lazy and just assumed it was wrong cause it was putting LOTS of smoke out the tailpipe. Turns out my whole exhaust system was just completely flooded. It took a while to blow it out. When I say awhile I mean 10-15 minutes to blow it all through. After the first minute of running it I just assumed it was still not sealing. So, yay for me! One of the hoses at the back of the engine isn't sealing right so I'm leaking some coolant back there right now, but nothing major. A new hose clamp should fix it.

bugs1961

That's great news! The J-shaped hose at the back of the plenum is a common leak problem. It really should be replaced with a new one if it's still original. Easiest to replace with the plenum removed, though.

92 TOY

That ^^^^ right there, is solid advice. I am going to replace whatever hose that is you are talking about with a new one. Just had a break-down in my 92 due to a ruptured small coolant hose near the thermostat (the #2 water by-pass hose to be exact) causing me to have to be towed home.

and glad to hear it was nothing major for you. must have been a heart attack while figuring that one out.

92 TOY

the little hose you guys are talking about...is it #16267???? in the pic.....if so, I will order one

abj27

yep, 16267. One of my hose clamps got kind of bent during disassembly. I bought a new worm gear hose clamp and it seems to be working fine now. I didn't replace that hose though, not going to now either.