Misfire on Cylinder 8 and Oil in Intake Pipe -Investigation and Engine Swap (4 Viewers)

[awesomeissquid]

Can I get some feedback on my parts cleaning process and any recommendations/changes. I am thinking on using the following process for anything not the main block:

1. Scrape off any old gasket material/use abrasive pads as needed.
2. Spray and wipe with brake cleaner/carb cleaner
3. Allow to dry
4. Wash with simply green and water
5. Blow dry with air compressor
6. Reassemble

My main concern was that I know brake cleaner can be harmful to seals/gaskets/rubbers so I was thinking the washing with simple green/water may be a good way to avoid that before I reassemble.

As for the main block I am a bit nervous on how to successfully clean that. was planning to scrape the head gasket surface, vacuum/blow out with air compressor, and then maybe flush the coolant passageways with distilled water and simply green. Any concerns with that or anything I should think of adding?

 

[abuck99]

This might be helpful-

Improper Engine Gasket Cleaning Methods Using Surface Conditioning Discs – TechLink

gm-techlink.com

 

[awesomeissquid]

This might be helpful-

Improper Engine Gasket Cleaning Methods Using Surface Conditioning Discs – TechLink

gm-techlink.com

Thanks for the link.

 

[awesomeissquid]

Went through and cleaned the two heads and all the valves today. Used a scraper on the head surface and a toothbrush/brass wire wheels & brushes on the rest.

Getting started

Halfway there

Interior all cleaned up

For the valves I got a 6” brass wheel for my bench grinder. I then chucked each valve in the drill and clean the ends. Followed the advice of this video on prepping for lapping incase anyone needs it in the future.

Cylinder Head 105 - Valve Job Basics

Pre cleaning

Post cleaning

Next step is to lap all the valves and temporarily reinstall to verify the leak down test results are improved. Depending on the results I will decide if I pull the pistons to replace the rings or not.

 

[awesomeissquid]

Late night update after I have been working endlessly to finish the engine rebuild and prep for install.

Valve lapping completed after way too much time. The OTC valve spring compression tool was great for removal/install and following @OTRAMM youtube video tips for the 80 series helped.

If you recall, before the lapping, the leak down test showed one cylinder with 40% loss and a few other cylinders with ~15%. Today, after installing the heads I reran the leak down test and all cylinders are coming in at 2.5% loss or better. I am overjoyed.

 

[awesomeissquid]

Alright, well it has been a while since I last posted in this thread so I thought I would provide some final updates. I am sure it will take a few posts to get all the details covered, but the short story of it is the engine swap was successfully completed and it runs like a dream. I have had more than one occasion that I am stopped at a light and I have to check if the engine is still running since it is so smooth and quiet.

So getting into the details of it....

Following the successful leak down test - post valve lapping I had to go back through and verify all the valve shims. This was tedious, but necessary. I started by reassembling everything in the same cylinders each piece had come from and taking new measurements. From there I started working out if I could play enough musical chairs to get everything within spec without needing new shims. Lucky me, this was not the case and I would need some additional shims. After a good nights rest I remembered I still had a second set of shims in the old engine that I could use as a first line of defense against being royally screwed. The problem was, I needed that engine to still be operational to get the truck to the shop where I would actually be doing the engine swap. So given that idea we decided to press forward to make further process with the rest of the engine rebuild.

Since the heads could not be officially sealed we decided to wrap them in plastic to prevent anything from falling in.

Once this was done, it was off with the oil pans, oil pump, and rear main plate. I was originally debating if I should replace these parts or just leave them, but I decided it would be silly to not put in new. Further into the engine, my dad was pushing for us to replace piston rings and crank bearings and to hone the cylinders and I was hesitant. For this we agreed that we would make the call once we saw how the lower end looked. After popping off the pans it was clear the lower end looked great (yay, less things to take apart).

Prior to cleaning the gasket surface was some prep to protect the lower end from any foreign debris. Coming from a background of hobby woodworking, I know that spending extra time on prep can save more time in the future.

While I installed the new oil pump, rear main plate and various seals/o-rings my dad worked on cleaning the pans. Its really amazing to think of how much time we spent on cleaning every piece before reassembly.

Of course, with installing the FIPG there was no time to take pictures, but here is one of me installing the pickup tube and baffle.

And the finished product on the lower end!

Flipping it back upright, and it was full steam ahead for installing the water pump and whatever timing components we could since the next morning we were bring everything to a DIY shop that had just opened in town where we would perform the remainder of the swap.

 

[ClassyJalopy]

God speed my man! Do it right, do it once!

 

[awesomeissquid]

In the rush of everything I didn't get any pictures, but the next morning was nuts. The fuel injectors that were sent out to be reconditioned arrived back and needed to be reinstalled in the old engine so the truck could be driven to the shop and all the parts and tools were loaded into the rental van to ferry between locations. It took way longer than I thought it would, but we got everything in place and started to pull the old engine. At the end of the first day the engine was still in the truck, but we wanted to at least get the shims so we would know if we had a viable option or if we needed to find some new ones. At this point we decided to pull the valve covers and cams in place to get all the shims. Since it was a Sunday night, the clock was ticking for me to measure and determine where we would stand.

Being a typical engineer, I made a spreadsheet to calculate all the different shim combinations and what parts I could possibly use to get everything working since I didn't know what would be available in short notice. At 7am I called my local dealer and was able to order enough shims to make it all come together.

While waiting for the final parts we got the original engine out and swapped over the remaining parts.

During the disassembly of the old engine I was really curious to see what damage had occurred on cylinder #8. I originally wanted to keep the piston as a souvenir, but we were running out of time, so we settled on just pulling the heads to get a look at it first hand. The head showed significant history of impacts and the piston was in-fact missing a large portion and also showing signs of impact....

Back on the truck, with all the extra space it of course made sense to throw in a new steering rack...

And here I was with the finish product before it was dropped in. Obviously I was pretty proud of myself.

Finally, after two full days it was finally time to drop the new assembly back in and connect it back up.

Unfortunately, after working for 21 hours straight we still have not finished all the last pieces so we had to get towed back home so my dad could make his flight.

 

[awesomeissquid]

After a few days of catching up on my missed sleep I got back to it in the driveway and double checked everything that had been done in the last few hours of push to make sure we didn't miss anything before attempting the first start. Of course, I still managed to miss tightening down the front fuel bypass pipe so at the first start attempt fuel shot everywhere. After some cleanup and letting everything air out, start number two occurred without a hitch. Since then I have put ~500 miles on the engine and replaced the oil once just to give it a flush. It is honestly my favorite thing to drive and the whole family is happy to be back in it. Here is to more adventures!

 

[2001LC]

Nice work and interesting thread.

Will you rebuild your bad engine, perhaps with all Toyota 5 thousand over piston and rings

I had originally hoped I had not topped up properly as well, but once the consumption continued I knew something was serious.

I actually did scope the cylinder in question back in 2020 when I bought the truck and replaced the spark plugs. I found broken timesert threads in the cylinder with impacts visible on the piston head and scoring on the cylinder wall: Thread - Tapered Seat Spark Plug Horror

Here are the views since the links in the thread are broken:

• Cylinder Wall Scratches
• Piston Head Impacts

Here is a view of the threads I found on top of the piston.

Image from original engine with assumed blown piston in cylinder #8

View attachment 2911183

Since then I have had put ~6k miles on the engine and never had any need to top up/add oil when I checked it before this trip. I guess the engine was on borrowed time already and something pushed it over the edge.

I will probably still run a compression and leak down test to confirm my assumptions and since it is a good learning opportunity. I will probably also still pull the head to look at it first hand and to confirm it is beyond repair. I am slightly anxious about finding a good replacement engine....

When you "later" in the thread "disclosed" . You'd already scoped cylinder 8, more than a year earlier and revealed a time-sert install prior to your ownership. It was very apparent what was cause of misfire and oil in air pipe.

Metal from time-sert install head on block, is all to common. It's a bad practice to often ending in a bad engine.

Although many just have low compression, after time-sert. Owner driving what seem like no issue. I know of others, that are getting worst. In that I'm watching compressing drop, with mileage in time-sert cylinder.

Spark plug blow out, and subsequent install of time-sert without removing head first. Is number two killer of the 2UZ-fe 4.7L Number 1 being overheating, due to coolant system improper service. Mostly heater tees failure, but not only coolant issue taking out engine.

It is why I put out the spark plug walking out alert. It is more of a killer than is recognized, and will be so more with age.

Ticking time bomb TICK TICK TICK: Spark plugs Alert Alert Alert!

TICK TICK TICK POP POP POP is a ticking time bomb, often mistaken as exhaust manifold crack or gasket leak leak. ALERT, ALERT, ALERT: Spark plugs are working themselves loose. "Walking Out" Then blowing out of head, taking their female threads of head with them! Very damaging! You think TICK...

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[awesomeissquid]

Nice work and interesting thread.

Will you rebuild your bad engine, perhaps with all Toyota 5 thousand over piston and rings



When you "later" in the thread "disclosed" . You'd already scoped cylinder 8, more than a year earlier and revealed a time-sert install prior to your ownership. It was very apparent what was cause of misfire and oil in air pipe.

Metal from time-sert install head on block, is all to common. It's a bad practice to often ending in a bad engine.
View attachment 3030262

Although many just have low compression, after time-sert. Owner driving what seem like no issue. I know of others, that are getting worst. In that I'm watching compressing drop, with mileage in time-sert cylinder.

Spark plug blow out, and subsequent install of time-sert without removing head first. Is number two killer of the 2UZ-fe 4.7L Number 1 being overheating, due to coolant system improper service. Mostly heater tees failure, but not only coolant issue taking out engine.

It is why I put out the spark plug walking out alert. It is more of a killer than is recognized, and will be so more with age.

Ticking time bomb TICK TICK TICK: Spark plugs Alert Alert Alert!

TICK TICK TICK POP POP POP is a ticking time bomb, often mistaken as exhaust manifold crack or gasket leak leak. ALERT, ALERT, ALERT: Spark plugs are working themselves loose. "Walking Out" Then blowing out of head, taking their female threads of head with them! Very damaging! You think TICK...

forum.ih8mud.com

Thanks! You were a big help and all your posts gave me that extra bit of confidence I needed to take this on in the first place.

I definitely thought about rebuilding the old engine, but in the end I rent an apartment and don't really have a place to store it/tear it apart for an extended amount of time. Also given some of the wear and tear it experienced trying to limp it home I had my doubts about its value. In the end I sent it off for scrap after pulling some of the more valuable and undamaged parts off it. I will list them in the classifieds in the near future.

You are definitely right about the previous issue I had found being the root cause of all this. At first I think I was trying to hope it could be something else and was still in shock by the whole thing.

 

[abuck99]

Huge accomplishment- with limited resources and borrowed work spaces on tight timelines, and now a 2UZFE jedi-

Thanks for documenting

 

[TheLCProject]

Very impressive on all accounts. I am glad you've got your truck back on the road and looking forward to meeting up again.