Anthony y El Burrito Blanco

a lot has changed in the time since the first picture lol

 

No pictures, but when doing an oil change I saw I had a steering rack leak on the passenger side so I put a rebuilt Amazon one in two weekends ago.

Planned an overnight with a buddy to Mojave and revisited a few places I have been over the years that are actually on here.

At 4:00 the night before I decided I’d put some leafs with an add a leaf I got from a member on here. By 9 they were on and finished packing around 11:00. Couldn’t sleep until 1:00. Woke up at 4:30 and got read to head to his house to pick him up. We got packed and hit the road by 6:30.



First stop was Morning Star Mine I had gone to in summer of ‘16 and it looked a little drier at the bottom but there was a mallard there.




My friend at the top of the mine and the burrito in background.

Next stop was Teutonia Peak which I was at last with my wife in 2020, in April - I had no idea a fire had went through there only 4 months after we were there and destroyed 1/4 of the Joshua tree forest. You can see a triangle of Joshua trees that were spared.



My friend and I went over to the south side of the peak to see our destination for the day/ night.



And ran into a young guy doing a tour of a bunch of places like Death Valley, Mojave, and some in Nevada / AZ. Nice shell on his ride.



We got to the super secret campsite I first located back in spring 2016. It was sprinkling on and off. Got to see a rainy sunset and a cool rainbow.




Woke up and went to try to recreate the hike I did 8 years ago.

We stopped around noon and had been hiking for 3 hours and my buddy’s hip was bugging him and decided to call it. I put on my fixed lens and messed around with some open aperture shots of my friend when an amazing hawk just appeared right above us and of course I had my camera back in my backpack with the fixed 50 still so by the time I got my camera out of my backpack the hawk had flew to three times the elevation. No telephoto :-/



Calling it early by an hour or so, I figured we could just go down another way that should have been shorter and take our time walking on the flat back to the campsite. Funnily our “shortcut” turned into a 3 hour traverse across the middle of the mountain. We got back just as the sun was setting around 4:00. Got to the main road, aired up, and left.




Went back to his house in Rowland Heights to drop him off and got home around 9.

 

Having BHG symptoms, rough start with white smoke, gurgling noises at the back of the engine. Temp gauge hasn't budged and runs smooth once it's started with normalish power according to the butt dyno, but I'm going to replace the HG before I drive it more. Compiling information:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9SQ91gO68w&ab_channel=pv2smurf

https://youtu.be/5HyS1A5lxsk

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/2tr-fe-head-gasket-water-pump-etc.830105/

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...over-leak-repair-on-a-rebuild-to-boot.759617/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyBwseqoeus&ab_channel=TheCarCareNut

This is the first time working on a timing chain, but from all the videos and threads I've watched, I feel pretty well prepared for the teardown and parts to order. I just don't have any step by step material with torque specs and a few questions like is the tensioner ok to be reused, are the lifters location specific, etc. Does anyone have a R&R for an 08 2.7 Tacoma?

Any help would be very very appreciated.

@Dm93 @TnShooter @Speedytech7

Thank you y'all.

 

I don't have any personal experience on one so I can't speak for any of it but going by what all needs to come off I think I'd be pulling the engine and putting it on a stand if I had to do one.
I'll DM you everything I can find in service info in a bit.

 

I think I have the information out of all data for one of these but I haven't done one personally. Done a lot of 2/3RZs. I'll pull up the step-by-step out of alldata for ya

 

You guys are awesome thank you so much!

 

DM in bound.

 

Here's the bulk of it, Removal, Installation, Specifications (including torque sequence separately explained), and a Major component exploded view

anything specific you need later on just let me know and I can grab it too

 

Do you have a PC?

 

Yes and a Mac if that matters. Thank you!

 

And... the results are in.

P302 is the only code it threw (tripped the code last Wednesday, the last day it drove).

Compression test and visual inspection were a little abnormal at least when thinking they'd be similar to this quick diag from SMA:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiwyPgrlbEM

Compression Test:

Cyl 1: 97
Cyl 2: 80
Cyl 3: 37
Cyl 4: 107 (oil in the cyl)

Cyl 1 showed coolant leaking in with cooling system under pressure



Cyl 2 had a giant puddle of coolant just sitting there already and didn't show any leakage like #1 during the coolant pressure test



Cyl 3 looked steam cleaned maybe, but had no sign of coolant dripping or pooling etc. during the coolant pressure test



Cyl 4 had a fat puddle of oil that came in when I removed the spark plug (theres a hose from the secondary air filter that seems to leak no matter what - I even replaced the hose with a new OEM so I'm guessing there's too much pressure in there from something? I think I also saw some vertical scoring on the walls of the cylinder - will have a clearer image with head off.



Spark plugs in order 1-4. When I removed them I at first thought Cyl 3 would have the leak (that's what SMA's results looked like on the leaky cylinder). But it turns out it was the one with the super low compression (and no coolant pool?).



I took more pics of the top of Cyl 3 the low contributing cyl.






Not sure if that last one indicates a crack between the valves - the camera (and camera operater) wasn't the best.

At this point I'm thinking of tearing off the block tomorrow and taking it to be cleaned / pressure checked / lightly surfaced (or decked .010 to add a .030 head gasket ala @BassAckwards here:

Head gasket replacement parts/info:
- Toyota Coolant Compatible Seal Packing 08826-00100 - Where this is used
- Mahle .030" MLS gasket - (my stock gasket was .020" thick and I had the machine shop remove .010" so I could use this .030" gasket. Your replacement head gasket should account/add back for the material removed when having your cylinder head resurfaced)

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/2tr-fe-performance-thread.636292/#post-21902910

So far, this is what I'm thinking.

If the head is ok, and the cylinders look good enough, I'll reinstall the head.

If the head's is ok and the cylinders are tore up, I'll probably get that short block from Toyota and put the head on it.

If the head is not ok, I'll just install a new used engine and do the clutch / starter / radiator / hoses and use the head and old block if I need a core or donate it to someone who wants it on here for science.

Any ideas / questions / comments / thoughts?

Thanks @Dm93 @Speedytech7 @TnShooter

 

I guess the important question is,

Did the truck ever use any oil before this happened?
If so, and you replace the head/gasket, it will most likely use more oil.
If not, it will likely start using oil.

Why? I don't know. Science. I have a public education. So I can't explain it.
But it's been my experience.

I'd tear it a part and inspect the cylinders and have the head checked.
If either one is bad, or needs a lot of work (head), I'd go with a lower(ish) mile used engine.

NOTHING is cheap to rebuild on a Toyota. Not even the head.

 

Cyls look fine to me, that scoring at the top occurs at what some call the ring ridge, the space above the first compression ring. It's just carbon buildup and if a little chunk of it gets scored or whatever it isn't a problem. Oil probably came from a bad spark plug tube seal when you pulled the plug out, I wouldn't worry about that unless you scope the intake and exhaust runners and find it there too. I'd have that head cleaned and tested (decked), check the block with a known good straight edge for warp using the square/box method and slam it back together with some new seals.

 

Yeah my local cyl head shop is like $350 for a refresh on 4 banger heads with VVT.

 

Here you’d be waiting 6 weeks to 3 months. It’s getting hard to find a good machine shop. And when you do, they are booked.

 

Well, unusual things happened today. Picked up the head and received a phone call from the machinist who owns the shop. I've been going to his shop for other stuff for four years. Never really knew him other than smalltalk but super polite guy and 5 star Google Reviews for years.

He literally is never reopening his shop after today. I am not sure what his "big problem" was that he said he was having on the phone today, I can only assume political issues and I don't need to get into any more detail. I couldn't even pick up the head from him and he said to get it from a neighboring shop and pay them to pick it up. Seems likely I'll never be in communication with him again.

What he was able to tell me is he took .006" off of the head's mating surface and I think based on the note that was stuck in the head when I picked it up he may have lapped the valves? They were wet and he did say he at least replaced the valve stem seals on the phone.



Is .006" too much to where it will mess with timing codes when I put it back together? @Torspd @Dm93 @Speedytech7 @BassAckwards @TnShooter

This is what Google said:



And on TW

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...ylinder-head-2-7l.777264/page-2#post-27793363

I don't know which route to take - use an OEM HG? Get a .030 HG from Mahle like @BassAckwards (although he had .010" removed for his head to be in spec with the .030 Mahle)?

There's no way to measure the factory HG from my engine as it was at the machine shop and he said he didn't see it this morning on the phone, I asked him a couple times.

Pics of the work

That's what he charged me. I didn't ask to do anything other than pressure check and check flatness, and new valve stem seals, but I think he went and maybe did more. Valves were wet while everything else was dry?

Well, with all the stuff going on that can't be mentioned about on here in CA, there's one less. I was basically his last job before not returning to his business and I'm trying to figure out some stuff.

New factory short block $2300+tax $350 in the head (up until now)

@BassAckwards do you have any documentation stating that this would be a standard OEM HG thickness?

I'm just a little scared about the hydraulic lifters and if I miss anything on the new OEM short block (Part 11400-75381 in case there’s information on parts included in it somewhere online - dealer parts guy couldn’t find a parts breakdown for it on the phone from where I picked it up) I need to move over from my engine.

The lifters are all stiff and I hadn't had major issues with compression besides cyl 3 so I'm not sure if it's worth it to find something to insert into them and press the valve and let the oil out.

This is the video where a head is put on a factory short block which I have too. I've been referencing along with the FSM you guys helped me gather.

At 22:00 he installs piston oil jets. I'll have to open up my box with the short block to see if it comes with them. It's definitely got the counterbalance shaft / balance shaft timing assembly like the one in the video (I could see through the handle hole in the box). I don't think it would hurt to reuse mine if I clean them from my OG block.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDvHgneYmYw&t=1388s

 

Well that certainly sounds interesting. I wouldn't sweat six thou, I suspect there's greater variances than that in the heads when they're brand new.

I'll see if I can find info on the lifters

 

.006 is not a lot at all.
I seriously doubt it would be an issue.
Not unless you got really unlucky and had the chain and gears worn enough to add up to the threshold limit. (which I don't know the "number")

 

The .020” was a number I got from measuring my old OEM gasket. I’d throw a .030” mahle gasket on it and soldier on. Nothing to worry about imo

 

LC Engineering may also have some information on stock head thickness.

Otherwise, find an OEM gasket thickness, then go a little thicker to compensate.