gtct10b

I really did enjoy reading this thread and I can't wait to start on it, Terry87 lives about 500 miles away and I told him I'd come over to learn and help with his before I start to tear into mine really, lol.

joelsmithdesigns

Well after much research, I think the issues with the clutch and idling problem are both due to old / worn / kinked cables. That could be why when accelerating and letting off the gas the idle stays up and then jolts back down once the cable unbinds from it's sleeve. I noticed the clutch cable had some bigtime wear all the way through the sleeving right where it goes over the top of the bellhousing. Hopefully it's not something I caused when pulling everything in and out several times, but I figured it'd be a good idea to bleed the clutch and brakes, and replace both cables anyway.

At first I thought it might be a cracked clutch support bracket (one of those things that is know to crack and cause this type of issue) but that checked out, and the more I thought about it and researched, the more likely it is that there is a kink or abrasion in the cable and it's not moving smoothly through the protective sheath.

Sadly these cables are some of those parts that you can usually only get through the stealership or junkyard. I probably plan on ordering them off of www.toyotapartszone.com (now www.toyotapartsdeal.com).

joelsmithdesigns

Well I spent a little time on the rig this weekend. It turns out that the high idle and sticking or surging was probably due to an air leak in the intake tube that transitions from the long plastic arm to the Throttle body. It was cracked on the underside of the unit and was tough to find or see, but spraying some starter fluid around the engine in different places found it quickly when the motor revved up. I plan on swapping the battery and intake side later on for a cold air / snorkel setup, so I just temporarily fixed the rubber with some "Shoe Goo" (the best rubber / anything adhesive / filler ever) and some gorilla tape.

I also noticed a coolant leak near the heater hose coming out of the firewall. I had some issues with kinking when replacing the molded hose with newer higher temp silicone hose, as it did almost a 90 bend and the new hose closed itself off in making the bend. I bought a plastic "Heater hose 90degree fitting" for this issue and went about my business. Turns out the quality of plastic that they had used completely folds up and becomes pliable when heated up.....not the best material for a heater hose fitting. The below picture shows both ends of this cheap part completely failing. I ended up replacing the whole setup and got an external metal spring looking fitting that slid over the 5/8" hose and had a metal plate you could bend. The rings hold the hose in its natural circular shape and keep it from kinking or folding in on itself. I used the same style external frame bend near bottom of the thermostat housing on an almost 180 degree bend the hose had to make to get to the intake plenum.



So I havent had any idling issues so far, and the coolant leak from the heater return hose has completely stopped. I'll have to drive it around more to see if this fixed both issues, but for the moment seems to have worked.

I still need to read up and investigate what is causing the clutch to not engage sometimes, and stay engaged other times. I may end up having to drop the trans and see what is going on, but will try some simpler solutions first.

gtct10b

way to go dude, thats the way to fix them pipes that fold up when ya bend them, IMHO I would go thru the whole engine compartment and change out every hose top to bottom so you don't have anymore suprises, vacum lines also. from my expirience its always good to change out all the rubber under the hood, saves on diagnostic time and money down the road by doing the pluck and chuck method. I'll be keeping tabs on ya and hope the truck turns out to be ok.

joelsmithdesigns

I've got all new silicone heater hoses, vacuum lines, and radiator hoses. All new high pressure power steering lines, as well as new fuel lines. I figured if I was going to be replacing / rebuilding the motor, as many new parts as I could should be replaced at the same time. This was a hiccup that occurred when replacing pre-molded heater hose with a 90 degree elbow, and that elbow being completely void of quality.

gtct10b

Doesn't suprise me one bit but it was good that you went ahead and replaced the rubber tho, I hope it saves you time and money down the road dude

joelsmithdesigns

new high pressure power steering hose came in today from RockAuto...planning on swapping that out and bleeding all the other fluids to make sure there's no air gaps. I'll keep everyone posted....

the171

Been down a similar path myself, with a few motors in my truck, and a not so brilliant previous owner

I can definitely appreciate your willingness to see it through. Sounds like it might be there, with a couple tweaks. And it will be a rewarding truck to drive in the end. I like the attention to detail, and anti skimping.

If I can offer any input. I would offer oem, oem, oem. Oem everything pretty much works the best. Ive had terrific luck using oem pistons & rings, bored and gapped to factory specs. Previous attempts using aftermarket pistons were all failures for me. Speedy sleeves, a mess waiting to happen. New main seals alone work well even on grooved cranks. Also I can't praise the oem gasket kit enough. Installed properly, head gasket problems and vacuum leaks are not a problem with this kit. And no need for silicone or jb weld.

And, my personal take on timing chains. Dual row is overkill. The single chain (using the OSK factory kit) is plenty strong and will not break or stretch possibly ever. Its the timing tensioner that will eventually wear out. This problem applies to any 22r, dual row or single row.

I can go on too lol. Having used the LC header, its not bad. But its no oem either. OEM lasts way longer. It doesn't have the look but makes up for it in longevity and leak free operation.

One thing to consider, even though us yota guys love to turn wrenches. For the money you spent on this build, you could have bought a brand new 22re long block from toyota. Or at least a short block. By this point the truck would be worth more and wrenched on never. Good advice ya, well I haven't taken it either but, something to consider. Its tuff to beat engineers, and toyota manufacturing standards.

the171

and hey, wtf is this? was the manifold bored out using an auger? I can see vacuum leaks with this for sure.

joelsmithdesigns

hahaha....well that's a little front porch sitting with a Die Grinder and a 1/2" round double fluted bit. Because of the TB spacer, and it's internal "Venturi" swirl, I figured instead of boring out the throat of the upper plenum straight, I'd continue the twist down into it. Believe it or not, no vacuum leaks in that area although it does get a bit thin in places.

The picture below will make a little more sense with the TB spacer in place.

joelsmithdesigns

Keep in mind that this is the very first ever automotive engine I've really delved into. I rebuilt an old Honda Motorcycle engine many years ago, but hadn't ever taken on a task quite this big. Having said that, I try to approach most things in life by making sure they're done right, the first time, and as well as they can be. There used to be an appreciation for quality in work and craftsmanship by previous generations that I fear we, as a society, have been trading for speed of completion and low cost for many years. If I were renovating a house, digging a koi pond, building a piece of furniture, etc.....I would have at the very least tried to approach the project in the same manner, with the same research, thought, care, and aspirations of achieving quality as I did this build.....it's just how I like to do things and although it can take much longer than other ways, and usually will cost much more, the payoff of learned knowledge and the realization of completion usually makes it worth it.

(Sorry for getting so lofty and esoteric, I just finished reading "Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance" - a great read if you're interested)

I went with the most quality parts I could afford at the time. Some were OEM (like the gasket kit I paid through the nose for) and some were aftermarket, but none were bottom of the barrel cheapest parts I could find. In life I've learned to never skimp on Q-tips, toilet paper, and car parts....and it's worked out for me so far.

Originally I thought that just the head gasket and timing chain needed to be replaced, and wasn't planning on a full rebuild, so some of the parts I purchased were before I realized that I not only needed a full rebuild, the block I had was the incorrect year, and it was completely trashed and not even salvageable.

When initially researching this motor, the two main issues I saw that kept coming up were head gasket failure and Timing chain.

The HG on these Bi-metal motors usually fail because of poor quality head bolts, overheating, poor quality gaskets to begin with, and often even the use of the normal green glycol based antifreeze. To solve this issue I went overkill with OEM gaskets, the ARP head studs that were extremely expensive, but hopefully worth it, and used the more expensive pink antifreeze for bi-metal aluminum and steel engines.

For the Timing chain I noticed that Toyota's own designs in the earlier model motors had used a dual chain....and since LCE had a conversion kit available, I went with that. Obviously my plastic timing guides were shattered, so I decided to upgrade to the metal backed versions of those as well (also included in that kit) as I'd seen far too many motors in my research that had a hole worn through the timing cover right where the water pump is from these plastic guides giving way.


I had no clue where this all would end up, and obviously could have done it much cheaper. There's a city motors here in town that would have charged me $900 to drop off my old block and pick up an assembly line style rebuilt motor. Heck, my office is 200 yards from the JDM here in Dallas, and could have easily gone through them as well. For what I spent in time, money, and utter exhaustion....I could have easily bought a new motor from the stealership, or even a pretty decent street motor from DOA or LCE. However, I wouldn't have the knowledge I learned in the process, or near the appreciation for what I've got now. Would I do everything the same if I had to do it over? Absolutely not, and hindsight is 20/20, but I feel like I made at the very least....the most well informed decision I could at the time, and so far, I'm fairly happy with the results. I've been driving it on and off to work and am getting pretty close to the 500 mile mark where I'll need to change out the break-in oil. We'll see how and where it goes from there, but I definitely have a lot more planned for her.

joelsmithdesigns

With the long weekend coming up, I'm hoping to be able to get some time in between spending time with family to work on the rig. More than likely I'm going to get that PS hose installed, and maybe drop the transmission to see what's going on with the clutch. I'm heading home to my parent's place and my local mechanic there is one of the few people on the planet I actually trust to know and understand what's going on....so I might take it by his shop just to get his take on things.

I've got the cardboard to mock up a front plate bumper and a rear plate bumper with a tire swing.....so that's the next planned addition and will probably get a separate write up. I've got a gob of Piaa lights, but the last big piece of the puzzle is figuring out what winch I want to go with and finding one for a decent price.

I bypassed the rear window tailgate switch the other day, and I'll try to do a quick write up on that when I have time.

I also have to put a new clutch in the '86 and try to get it up and running to sell and pay for some of the work I've done on the '89.

Yes, I still have an '87 turbo short block sitting on a stand in my living room that I'm not sure what to do with....but I'm thinking a similar year model truck might be a good option to pick up and re-build as well.

joelsmithdesigns

Didn't get much done on the truck last weekend over the holiday, but drove it 2 hours down to my folks place and back up....putting me over the 500 mile mark on the break in oil.

So, I went ahead and drained the break in oil and installed the remote dual filter and oil cooler. It's just a temporary spot until I can fab up a front bumper and skid plate, and didn't want to burn through 2 giant filters for the break in process.










Obviously it hangs down a bit too much at the moment, but should be alright once I actually fab up a bracket. I just mounted it where the tow hook went temporarily.

Got the new PS hose in this weekend and bled the system, so hopefully that should greatly help out the overall steering in the rig.

Before / with temporary short hose fix. - Apparently you need the 20+ inches of extra hose on the high pressure side for it to work correctly, so I ordered a new hose from Rock Auto and replaced my temporary patch job.





after the new hose was on....





I also had a crack in the rubber boot intake hose that hooks up to the throttle body. The mechanic's shop had tried to use some black tar and duct tape to fix it. I had re-done the duck tape, but still to no avail after the motor heated up several times. I didn't want to spend any $ on this air leak fix because I'm planning on swapping the battery and doing a snorkel or other type of cold air system (maybe the K&N Apollo?) later. So......after much thought, I went and grabbed some of my favorite "fix it stuff" "Shoe Goo". It's sold at Walmart and other stores for repairing the soles of shoes when they come off and waterproofing and other things. Basically it's a really thick rubber cement that sticks to damn near everything and stays flexible after it cures and is extremely durable - I'll put it up there with JB Weld, Gorilla Tape, and West System's 5 minute epoxy as far as essentials of fixing things goes. Got the crack fixed no problem, and should last long enough to get the battery swap done or possibly forever.




crack shown in yellow circle, but filled in with Shoe Goo




Great stuff, and super thick coated the outside of the intake tube with it just to be sure.....

joelsmithdesigns

Just found this going through some old pictures, and thought I'd toss a Selfie in here......



one of the many times I had the engine loaded up in the back of the truck......

paynemw

subscribed.

joelsmithdesigns

Been insanely busy at work lately and will be working all weekend.

However, I ordered a new disco yellow dipstick (the correct one), clutch fork bellow, and transmission front seal and gasket from www.22REPerfomance.com

from what I can tell, the trans is leaking oil into the bell-housing, and getting on the clutch, which is causing the slipping. Hopefully a new front seal with fix the issue and I'll be ready to knock out those plate bumpers and other interior stuff.







The last piece I'm missing before starting in on designing the plate bumpers is finding a good winch I can design around. I've been looking at the Warn 8274 for it's great reliability and speed, but that thing is the size of a small donkey and I'm worried about cooling issues with it up front. There's a guy with a 9K Powerplant for sale on the cheap locally, but I'll probably gravitate closer to a standard 8000# winch that I can relocate the solenoid pack to better integrate with the bumper and allow for my 7" Piaa lights.

won't have much time if any to work on the rig this weekend, and will be pretty swamped next, but I'll keep everyone posted. BTW, the shoe goo worked like a champ and my air leak is totally gone. New oil cooler and dual remote filter setup took 7.5 quarts of Royal Purple 10W 40 HPS and keeps things nice and cold and will probably to go 5-7000 miles before changes with the more than triple filter surface over stock.

Another something to note.....for the other motor I have sitting in my living room, I picked up a webber side draft intake setup with everything from linkage to the inline fuel pump needed for $250 (That setup normally costs $16-1800). It was too big of a steal to pass up and after a bunch of the headaches with the EFI on this rig, I'm figuring I'll try to set up the next motor for simplicity and power.....build it up over time on a budget with a lot of parts I already have. Then sit and wait till I see a craigslist ad for someone with a truck that just blew the motor or headgasket. (and hopefully by then have the '86 sold).

jbtvt

Why relocate the filter? Here's that intake hose -

joelsmithdesigns

Hi jbtvt, I relocated the filter to run dual 3001 (much bigger) oil filters and to be able to access them much easier. I also installed an oil cooler as well to keep the temp of the oil down much lower and help keep engine temps low too. Cleaner cooler oil will always help extend an engine's life.


Thanks, and that's the cheapest I've found that part. I didn't want to spend any cash on it though, as I'm probably about to swap the battery and intake side and try to fab up a hose that goes under the fender back to the cowl, so I won't be using the stock air intake.

You see all of these "fancy" kits people purchase now that are "cold air intake" kits. that's because cooler air is denser and burns better than hot air. as this was one of Toyota's firs't EFI models, they were under the assumption that running the air across the top of the radiator to warm it up would make it easier to burn and more efficient. Actually the opposite is true. Colder air is better. So one of the modifications a lot of people do to these engines is to move the battery to the other side of the motor and move the air intake to the battery side.....sometimes even building a box like the below picture. I'm planning on doing something similar, but am looking at different options like the K&N Apollo closed air system versus building one from scratch. This will all be plumbed with larger diameter tubing as my TB, intake, and even my MAF (AFM) are larger....so the stock diameter tube is now my choke point.





not my engine....just an example





not my engine....just an example

paynemw

so you can actually bolt the SUPRA/CRESSIDA AFM up to your stock airbox. You need to do a little massaging and mod up a better rubber gasket to close off the small gap on the top where the AFM meets up to the mating surface of the airbox. I messed with it myself last night to get ideas flowing. I think I'm going to slowly transition into a full SUPRA MAF swap/battery relo mod. First I'll work the box to receive the SUPRA AFM, then do the AFM gut swap... unless I can gather all of my parts and find about 10 hours to do it at once.

joelsmithdesigns

Hi Paynemw, My '89 was missing the stock air box already as the PO had swapped in an K&N filter.....so I'm not sure how easy the transition would be to have it bolt up directly. I'm guessing some "Massaging" will be required.

I snagged my larger AFM from a later model Cressedia (went to the junkyard because they had an 82 supra - the only one that is direct plug and play from what I've researched) and found the one that matched the internals of mine (Later 89-95 has a different shaped electrical circuit than the earlier models. The soldering and swapping out of the guts isn't overly difficult, but does require some patience and steady hands. I'd suggest having everything together at once, and maybe even a backup tested AFM just in case you foul something up....you don't want to have your ride turned into a block until you get it back up and running. it's also helpful if you grab the rubber gasket for the Supra/Cressidia when you grab the AFM.

I go over the swap in pretty decent detail earlier on.