Porting a 22RE head - worth it?

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KLF

KLF

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#1 son blew the headgasket in his '87 4Runner last week, so now it's in my garage all apart, waiting for parts from engnbldr. Kinda funny, he brought it over on Sunday to do a diagnostic leakdown test on it, just to be sure. Two of the plugs came out with all the threads from the head (Doh!!). When we pulled the #4 plug, you could easily see a puddle of coolant sitting on top of the piston. I was afraid to even start it again when I saw that.

Anyhoo... he has in his head that he wants to port & polish the head while it's off. We pulled the head with all the manifolds still attached, I was just hoping to swap the gasket and put it back together. It's too cold out there for this old man. I checked the bores and the decks are flat, I see no reason to make this any longer than it needs to be, besides I want my car back in my garage.

Is it worth trying to do at least a gasket match grind? I did talk him into replacing the timing chain since we have no history on this engine, ~275K on it now. But he's not replacing the cam (no $$ left), and he still has the stock exhaust.

The underside of the valve cover is really goobered up with oil-water mix, so I'm gonna drop the pan and clean it out too.
 
The head in my truck is ported and polished from 22reperformance, and I can tell a difference in the top end (also running .440 lift camshaft). I am running factory exhaust, and have been told that a header will really help the ported head open up nicely...
 
i would be more worried about the threads on the two plugs, helicoils are a cheap fix but how long will they last! sound to me like if it was my truck i would be looking for a new head then i would go from there. i would look for one with new valves but if i could not afford new exhaust including a header i would keep the valve size stock.
 
Chop Shop said:
The chain will make a bigger diff in performace
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How will a new timing chain make any difference in performance?

toy4xfun said:
i would be more worried about the threads on the two plugs, helicoils are a cheap fix but how long will they last!
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I'm not worried about the plug threads. I have the kit, 2 of my plugs have been Helicoil'd for over 50K miles. Very common fix. I'm gonna go ahead and do the other 2 while it's out. We'll do all 4 of his as well.

We are gonna lap the valves.

I do have my engnbldr RV cam sitting on the bench, I wasn't planning to put it back in my engine. Maybe I should stick it in his instead of his OEM one?
 
toy4xfun said:
i would be more worried about the threads on the two plugs, helicoils are a cheap fix but how long will they last! sound to me like if it was my truck i would be looking for a new head then i would go from there. i would look for one with new valves but if i could not afford new exhaust including a header i would keep the valve size stock.
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X2, but I see you mentioned $$$. Helicoil it for now...

KLF said:
How will a new timing chain make any difference in performance?
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Chains stretch over time so the timing gets out of whack.
KLF said:
I do have my engnbldr RV cam sitting on the bench, I wasn't planning to put it back in my engine. Maybe I should stick it in his instead of his OEM one?
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I'd say go for it, but do you really want to muck with the rockers, etc. out in the cold?
 
after buying a cheap head off ebay, and screwing up two engines, i know more about heads than i wanted to at this point. any how i have one that is pretty new that dropped the #1 exhaust valve down into the engine, setting in my garage, along with 4 others, one is off of a jasper engine, did you know the line bore the cam caps and install bearings. right now the head i have on it is the same head that was on the engine out of the 86 parts truck, i have a thread on here, about the half ass rebuild i did on it in 2009. i say that because i did nothing to the bottom end or valves.
 
Speaking of heads, I assume once you've shaved one, you can't do it again if it is not flat the second time it's off. I wonder if there is any way to tell if a head has been shaved/decked? I have a complete spare long block w/head, but I don't know it's history.

If we're gonna pull and lap all the valves anyway, I'll have to check the lash, so I might as well swap the cam. I'll Plastigage it, see how it feels, go from there.
 
Any performance gain that doesn't cost anthing but time is the best IMHO.
I lightly ported and port matched intake and exhaust on mine. I have been told from many racers that polishing the intake side can keep the fuel from atomizing as well as it could. Exhaust side can be as slick as possible. As far as noticable gains I can't say there has been a huge difference but any pump with less restriction will perform better.

Will I do it again? Absolutely.

One other widely over looked part is valve springs, if it is in the buget than replacing is never a bad idea.
 
If you are running the stock exhaust then port the intake side of the head and dont do to much on the exhaust side. A little amount to the exhaust side is all that is needed (We are looking for toque not high rpm raw horsepower with 4x4s). INSTALL the rv cam as well. You will see a good amount of torque with this procedure. If you are going to shave the head or planning on shaving the same head twice make sure you check for piston to valve clearance, and always install a new timing chain.
 
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