1st Gen Tacoma Resurrection

Got the oil pan off with the engine rotated over so the left bank is vertical. Pumped the bottom of the block/piston full of PB blaster and Seafoam Deep Creep and have been going out every few hours to rotate the engine over. Won't be able to do a compression test on the stand but I can do a leak down test and see if my numbers have improved from the 90psi/65psi.

I checked the exhaust valves on this cylinder too and they are a bit tight .012" and from reading the recommendation is .015" but that shouldn't be causing my low compression in this cylinder.

Piston marinating









Long day - can't figure out if I'm making progress or not :/



Lastly I did call up Yota1 today and they are still 6-7 mos out on engines. I kind of an instant gratification person - and can't see dropping the $5k and then waiting till May. The plan for now is to get this up and running as well as I can, in the truck with the 5 speed swap. Sort any issues out and then make a decision to pull a trigger on a new rebuilt motor. There are cheaper and quicker options. But it's really appealing that they are a known Toyota shop and use OEM parts as much as possible on the rebuild.

 

I wish you luck with the engine. This is a cool project - makes me wish I had the space to do something similar.

 

Has been a challenging project so far - oddly after soaking cylinder 3 from the bottom, taking off the intake manifold, etc and doing a leak down test I did have improved numbers on cylinder 3. All were down across the board but I believe that is just because the oil pan and intake are off and pressure that would be build up in the crankcase and other places where their is leakage isn't able to build up. That's my theory at least.

Same left bank I now have (all wet):
Using 95 PSI -
Cylinder PSI In / PSI Cylinder
1, 95, 26
3, 95, 42
5, 95, 34
2, 95, 62
4, 95, 33
6, 95, 37

So with the pan and intake off, cylinder soaked I actually have the best numbers in the problematic cylinder 3 and good cylinder 2. Can hear a ton of air coming out the intake valves now on all cylinders.
So my next step is to get the heads pulled off the donor motor and swap the heads off the blown engine. The left 1/3/5 cylinder head should be fine. The 2/4/6 head may have damage from the broken rod.

 

I did take advantage of the 50 degree weather today and got the blown engine pulled. Waiting on a second engine stand, head bolts and a head gasket (as well as a bunch of other parts) from Megazip.

Plan of attack is to the the passenger head off the donor motor, get the 82k mile head slapped on and then do a compression leak down test again. If things look good I'll continue with the water pump, timing belt, free plugs etc. I don't want to throw on any of the new parts until I can at least get better and more consistent compression leak down numbers.
Because I'm stubborn and don't like asking for help or working with others I got the hood pulled off and engine pulled solo. Did need the wife's help to put the hood back on though.

Blown engine is at least now in the garage where I can start pulling parts off of her to get the head off. More to come.......

 

Decided to do leak down test on the blown motor before I pull the intake manifold and heads. Discovered I didn't just lose one cylinder last August but two. Cylinder 5 and 6 no bueno.

On a positive note on the 4 cylinders we could test I got good numbers!

1, 100, 92
3, 100, 86
5, She gone!

2, 100, 84
4, 100, 86
6, She gone!

 

Been sick last few days but was able to get out and pull the right side head off in preparation of swapping the low mileage heads onto this long block. Nothing too exciting. but slow and steady progress....

 

Not too bad. Hope you're feeling better by now!

 

Cleaned up the block and top of the cylinders over the weekend. Was also able to start tearing off the best of the bits from the blown engine so I can swap the heads. Essentially tearing the donor engine down to the short block and swapping everything over minus the oil pan (which was damaged when the rod went)

 

Parts slowly coming in. Decided to go ahead and put an oil pump on her while we have it torn down. Funny that the Aisin parts are originally cast with Toyota on them, but have to have the Toyota part ground off when sold as Aisin brand vs Toyota OEM. Oil pump they didn't get it all ground off.

 

Finally found some time to get the second head off the 82k mile engine. I also pulled the crank and pistons. Turned out I had (3) inspection windows. Oil pan had a hole and there was a whole lot of action those last few revolutions!

 

WOW!

 

I can't remember if it was mentioned, but do you know the root cause of the carnage? Over-revving, insufficient oiling, too much nitrous??

 

I wish it was exciting - I believe it was caused by towing and an automatic transmission that kicked down from 3-2. I was towing a motorcycle trailer up a steep hill on the highway - doing about 55 mph. Trailer was empty but none the less a load on the truck. Was in slow lane, using cruise and used the accelerate on cruise to pass a slow moving semi truck. My truck shifted from OD to 3rd and then when it unfortunately shifted from 3rd to 2nd I heard what sounded like detonation.

Stopped to get fuel/eat and truck started up, ran fine, no noise or loss of power. Then again when I went to pass a slow moving vehicle and she kicked down from 4 to 3 that's when all hell broke lose.

82k miles on this motor. I believe momentum of the truck over revved the engine which weakened something. And then 80 miles later she let lose.

 

Got the donor down to a short block. Time to start slapping parts back on. Oil pump and water pump first. All OEM or OEM Aisin equivalent so far.

Running fasteners through parts washer and using the best/nicest looking of the hardware from the two blocks.

 

Keep up the good work!

 

And so it begins - the slow process of getting the short block put back together.

Aisin Water pump (w/ mostly ground off Toyota Logo on the casting)




And freeze plugs. I haven't done freeze plugs since probably 1988/1989 when dad I and rebuilt a 1965 Oldsmobile 425 high compression V8!

 

Heavy engine work is way over my head but I do enjoy watching the work and documentation.

 

I haven't dug this deep since I was a kid working with my dad. Much simpler then (1915 Ford and a 1965 Oldsmobile Starfire). But with a factory service manual, YouTube, tools and patience it hasn't been bad so far.

 

Haven't made as much progress as I'd like but am starting to get the block ready for paint finally. I also finally received my last shipment of Toyota OEM parts from Megazip out of Japan. Way cheaper than any US based online dealer but it took a month to receive. Not an issue as I'm not in a rush but SLOOW.

 

Wait... did a I miss that an MT swap was in your scope?