Exhaust valve bucket fell out!!

Hey all,

I recently picked up a '98 2.7L taco that wouldn't start. I traced the issue down to the fuel pump, replaced it, then she fired right up.

Problem was, it was making an loud knock from the rear valve cover area. I decided to pull the cover off and check the clearances.

That's when I saw this. It's the rear most intake valve side. The shim somehow dislodged and was sitting below in head.

Any options on what to do from here? I guess the easy answer is to buy a remaned head, but is there anything else I could do? It passed a compression check with flying colors, so I think the bottom half is still good.

 

I should say, the shim fell out. Not the bucket.

 

High RPM's can do that. Did it ruin the cam? The bottom half needs to be changed. Id changed the shim to.

 

Put a bucket and shim in it and see what happens.

 

You can see the damage to the cam if you look closely. Im not sure if it's ruined, but it's definitely not good!

 

I can't seem to find the bucket. Can only find the shim.

 

Dealer doesnt have new buckets.
On phone so it's hard to see pic of cam that great. If it's scratched up you'll need to replace it

 

If memory serves, that is shim OVER bucket.

Time it, pull the cam, make sure the valve stem is not mushroomed, make sure the bucket is still round and moves in the head, get a new or good used cam, install and perform a valve check, replace shims as needed.

Shims pop out occasionally, usually to much clearance or valve float will cause this.
(Valve float is a result of an over rev.....usually)

 

It looks like the bucket is still there but the edges are all bent over.

 

It looks like the bucket came up too high for some reason. The edge of the cam was cutting into the edge of the bucket, but the bucket was rotating (which is normal), so you see nicks all around the edge of the bucket and damage to the edge of the cam. You'll have to pull the cam and inspect the bucket and valve stem. It's possible the bucket got bent for some reason so it was sitting too high, or there is some problem with the valve or valve seat causing the spring to pull it up higher than normal.

 

at this point anything you are doing to same $ is going to bite you in the rear... take the head off and swap it out. By the time you find a replacement bucket and cam and fiddle around with putting it all back together you could have a new head on it and be driving it around.

 

I'm inclined to agree with you. The one thing I want to try and see if a machine shop can rebuild the head for cheaper than a reman.

 

If you are like me... you have the time, the tools and the knowledge then it is possible to do it yourself, its just a cam and a bucket/shim and you can do it without taking the head off. If the mileage on the motor is anywhere near the 175k ish I would strongly consider a new head... the 4 cyl seems to start to crack around there. My 03 2.4 ran for a hundred thousand miles after the little cracks appeared... cold start misses maybe once a week.

 

It's only at 240k miles

The machine shop just quoted me $350 + parts. Remanufactured is the way to go, I think.

 

Shop will still need a bucket, cam and shim.

Slip on another head and see if a shop wants your old one.


OTOH: It CAN be PROBABLY fixed in place and MIGHT work but will take prayer and cussing. No particular order.

 

The motor in my 03 with a new head was worth more than the truck as a whole but I did not hesitate for one second to spend the money on her, maybe $3k put back in her, motor, suspension, new interior etc, She has 375k on the odo and she is a backup truck that I expect to get at least 2 more decades of life out of her.

 

Yeah. This one is pretty sweet. It's totally rust free, has power windows and locks, cruise control, and is the extended cab. I picked it up for 3k

The negatives are this head issue, the clutch probably needs replaced soon, and the driver seatbelt is stuck out and frayed badly. The paint is super faded on the hood, fender, and pass door.

So with everything fixed, besides the paint, I'll be in it about $3800. It's not ideal, but still pretty good. I suspect I could sell it for around 5k when it's all fixed up. People pay out the wazzoo around here for good tacos.

 

Green one. the red one is also a '98 3rzfe 5speed with 240k miles. Sill runs like a top. Will likely sell it if can get the green one running well.

 

putting money into her is a no brainer...

paint on my 98 is like that... I have yet to figure out how I going to fix that.

 

You're lucky it didn't bust that shim. Mine did on my '96 and of course I bought it not running and didn't find out till later. Shoved a piece of shim through the side of the head and screwed up both cams. It mainly did it because the valve stuck and hit piston...but still