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My name is Grant. New to the forum here on yotatech. I have used the forum a lot to gain knowledge of the truck I just bought a few months ago. This might be a lengthy post so anyone that takes the time to read it & help me out, I am greatly appreciative for that. First Toyota & first time forum member. I don't know if those are good things to say about the 22re haha just messing. I know these are solid motors but have their quirks just like any motor.
Long story short I bought a 1994 Toyota Pickup with 120K miles on it. I live in N.Ky & drove down to Georgia to get a clean one with no rust as a daily driver. I love the truck but come to find out I had a dishonest seller. He supposedly chained the timing chain & timing chain cover which came to be true. He also told me changed the head gasket but that came to be not so true. The head gasket failed around number one cylinder so I decided to pull the motor so it would be easier to work on. I have it on an engine stand and have got pretty far into. This is my first motor I have pulled & the first head I have had off an engine besides japanese quads & dirt bikes. I am a shade tree mechanic that has never taken any vehicle to get repaired so my pride filled self isn't letting me take this to get fixed by anyone else haha.
I am writing this post to get some opinions on my next options for me & the benefit of this motor in the long run. I would say this is the second time this motor has been milkshaked (coolant in the oil). First time being the timing chain rubbing through the cover & the second being when the head gasket blew on me. I drove the truck for about five miles before I could park it. It smoked pretty bad & ran like crap. I started cleaning the mating surface on the block tonight and will post some pictures if I can figure out how to. I am pretty far into as the engine sits on the stand completely stripped.
Should this be a complete rebuild?
If not then should i check rod & main bearings in the bottom end? If so then how should I go about doing this?
Should I take the head to a machine shop to get machined & do I need to take the block with it?
Is there anyway of cleaning these blocks up real nice without being acid dipped?
I'm trying to keep this inexpensive as possible but still trying to get 200k miles out of this once I get it back together.
I appreciate any input to my post & once again thank you for your time.
At 120k everything should still be fine but it doesn't hurt to check the rods and stuff. There's probably a service manual in the stickys that has all the specs. A wire wheel would clean off the block surface nicely. Give the head a good cleaning on the mating surface and use one if those super straight bars to check for warpage on the head if it isn't warped there's no reason to get it machined at the shop.
1. Don't forget that everything on this truck is 22 years old. So when you balance "inexpensive" vs. "200k more miles," remember that you could lose a 100 other parts before that expensively rebuilt engine fails. It's a question of balance.
2. Nobody "acid dips" blocks, but generically this is called "hot dipping." Back in the day it was NaOH (lye), but since you can't get aluminum anywhere near lye it's now a different chemical. If you want to clean off the grease yourself, get a plastic mortar-tub from Home Depot, and use something like Purple Power. (on this same topic, Purple Power has a very high pH, so don't ever soak an aluminum part in it. Sprayon-scrub-rinse is fine. Anything made of steel/cast iron is fine.)
3. I wouldn't use a wire wheel (or even a wire brush) on the mating surface of the block. nbl300 probably has a VERY light touch, but it is easy to damage that flat surface with a wire wheel. I start with a razor blade held at a low angle, and I touch it up with a Scotch-Brite equivalent non-woven pad.
4. I doubt you'll need to have the block surfaced, but the only way to know for sure is use a real straightedge on it. Since those are pretty expensive, I don't own one, and I'd take the block to a shop if I was worried.
5. If you have the engine out, I would probably replace the bearings and the rings. They're not that expensive. You check the journals with Plasti-guage. I've never done it because of the chicken-egg problem; you have to buy the bearings first, then you check whether they have the right clearance. If they don't, what do you do with those new bearings?
6. The Toyota TSB says you DON'T have to replace the head bolts. But that TSB was written when they were thinking about 4-6 yr-old trucks. Go ahead and replace them. They're not real cheap, but they won't break the bank either.
7. If you drove it "hot" for 5 miles, you could easily have cracked or warped the head (not quite as tough as the block). If it were me, I'd have a machine shop check for flatness, pressure test, then while it's there grind the valves.
Good luck, take lots of pictures, let us know how it's going.
1. Don't forget that everything on this truck is 22 years old. So when you balance "inexpensive" vs. "200k more miles," remember that you could lose a 100 other parts before that expensively rebuilt engine fails. It's a question of balance.
2. Nobody "acid dips" blocks, but generically this is called "hot dipping." Back in the day it was NaOH (lye), but since you can't get aluminum anywhere near lye it's now a different chemical. If you want to clean off the grease yourself, get a plastic mortar-tub from Home Depot, and use something like Purple Power. (on this same topic, Purple Power has a very high pH, so don't ever soak an aluminum part in it. Sprayon-scrub-rinse is fine. Anything made of steel/cast iron is fine.)
3. I wouldn't use a wire wheel (or even a wire brush) on the mating surface of the block. nbl300 probably has a VERY light touch, but it is easy to damage that flat surface with a wire wheel. I start with a razor blade held at a low angle, and I touch it up with a Scotch-Brite equivalent non-woven pad.
4. I doubt you'll need to have the block surfaced, but the only way to know for sure is use a real straightedge on it. Since those are pretty expensive, I don't own one, and I'd take the block to a shop if I was worried.
5. If you have the engine out, I would probably replace the bearings and the rings. They're not that expensive. You check the journals with Plasti-guage. I've never done it because of the chicken-egg problem; you have to buy the bearings first, then you check whether they have the right clearance. If they don't, what do you do with those new bearings?
6. The Toyota TSB says you DON'T have to replace the head bolts. But that TSB was written when they were thinking about 4-6 yr-old trucks. Go ahead and replace them. They're not real cheap, but they won't break the bank either.
7. If you drove it "hot" for 5 miles, you could easily have cracked or warped the head (not quite as tough as the block). If it were me, I'd have a machine shop check for flatness, pressure test, then while it's there grind the valves.
Good luck, take lots of pictures, let us know how it's going.
Keep in mind as well, with any high mileage engine, you will have issues of some kind later on. For your situation, I would do what scope recommended and if possible rebuild both the short block & heads. You can also just replace the HG if everything else is ok, However if something were to happen (bad pistion ring, thrown rod, ect) you would need to take everything apart again in addition to what was done.
Thank you to both of you for that write up. Greatly appreciated. I got most of the mating surface clean on the block last night. Would a fine grit sand paper be okay to use once I get most of it off? Like a 220 grit & just be really gentle?
11-22-2015 | 04:02 PM
