Post 1FZ-FE Rebuild (2 Viewers)

[btslaser]

Yet another 1FZ-FE rebuild thread... hope there are a few things in here that may help someone down the road. First I want to say thanks to all of you who took time to answer my questions along the way and to those who have posted in the past. This forum is nothing short of incredible. What I accomplished would simply not have been possible without it. Thank you!

Background: I purchased a 1995 TLC this past Sept with a known head gasket issue. It ran fine, it would idle all day, but would overheat when driven. It was in fairly good shape, 214K miles, lockers, new leather front seats, A/C worked, etc. I got it for $3750 and it came with a spare head that previous owner was going to use to fix the issue. I was hoping to rebuild the head, put it back together and be on the road for around $5K. I bought it for my sons, was thinking we could do this job together and they would learn something.

Inspection: I first rented a block tester from O'Reilly and the fluid turned slightly green but it was honestly hard to tell. I then bought a leak-down pressure tester off Amazon and tested all the cylinders. Results were not good... the pressures were like 10-15 psi and you could hear air leaking out the exhaust and intake sides. This step was not necessary but convinced me I had some internal engine problems.

Head removed: My boys and I followed the FSM and removed the head on a Saturday. It wasn't too bad -some of the intake bolts were a challenge to find and break loose. Used lots of extensions from below. Once we got the head off the cylinder walls did not look good. I started this thread to discuss:

Cylinder Wall Question - Head Gasket Replacement

Decided to remove engine: After reading the responses I had a friend came over and take a look at it. He confirmed it was not good and that I really needed to hone/bore the cylinder walls. Turns out this was the right decision, they were scored badly and the piston skirts as well. This probably happened because the engine was overheated for some time and the aluminum pistons expanded more than the cast iron block and started rubbing. The piston sides are only about 0.001" from the cylinder wall, so it doesn't take much.

Engine removal: I decided to remove just the engine, not the transmission and xfer case. Hard to say if this was the right choice or not because I haven't done it both ways but don't regret the way I did it. The biggest issue is getting the engine to separate from the torque converter and getting engine bell around the transmission cooler line near the firewall. I pulled the engine using a friend's Harbor Freight puller - worked well.

Engine dis-assembly: Once the engine was out I started to take everything apart. It is much easier to work on things when it is out. I would be tempted to take the whole engine out if I ever had to do another head job.

Head work: I asked several local car repair shops where they took their engine work. I then went out one day and visited all of them and others I found online. It was eye opening... some were downright scary others had seemed to know what they were doing and had very impressive cars/engines in their shop. None I found had actually worked on a 1FZ-FE. I ended up choosing a place that was one of the most expensive and seemed experienced. I took both heads (one off the truck and the other given to me by the previous owner) their shop to be rebuilt and surfaced. I told them to pick which ever head looked best. I picked up the head a week later and asked how much they had to take off the surface. He said 0.030"... because it was warped. I said, "WHAT?". Long story short, he must not have bothered to check the head for straightness and didn't realize it until the last step. He said the cams turned fine and it would run fine. Well maybe for a few thousands miles... this did not sit well. When I took it apart later you could feel the cams wobble when placed on head without any valve springs in place. I had paid $500 for valve job, surface, valve adjustment and I supplied the valve seals. Turns out the other head was flat within 0.001". We worked out a deal where he would do the valve job and surface the other head for free. I was reluctant to do this but really didn't want to plunk down another $500. Either way I'm into another set of OEM valve seals at over $160. This also meant I would need to do the valve adjustment and reassemble everything myself. I purchased a valve spring tool that worked awesome from Amazon Amazon.com: Lisle 36050 Valve Keeper Remover and Installer Kit: Automotive

Lesson learned: It seems every one of these machine shops work to different tolerances and standards. It's difficult to figure this out without some help. A reputable high-end LandCruiser shop in the area would NOT give me a recommendation because they had so many issues with various machine shops. They said one time the work would be great, next awful. Best case would be to find someone who has worked on LC engines with proven success. Most of the places know Chevy and Ford engines well but a 24 valve 6-cylinder head is a new challenge. Later in my journey I called a friend who works on Porsche, Ferrari, and other exotics. He recommend the place I ended up using for the block work and they did a great job for me. I should have called him earlier. I also wish I had asked some BMW and Porsche places where they take their engine work... I think that may have resulted in a better outcome for my head.

To adjust the valves I purchased new pucks for cases where the valves were more than 0.004" out of tolerance (only needed 3). For the others I built an attachment for my Tormek grinder.

This worked well, the wheel turns very slowly and is water cooled. I made the attachment on my milling machine. I was able to take off 0.001" at time with pretty good consistency and got all the valves adjusted in about 2 hours. The jig was pretty accurate but I would spin the valve while moving it in/out on the grinding wheel. If I hadn't used the Tormek I think a disk sander would have worked if you went slowly and were careful not to overheat the valve.

More to come.

 

[btslaser]

I bought a soda blaster attachment for my sand blaster from Harbor Freight. It was about $20 and the 50 lb bag of baking soda was $40. It was the best $60 I spent in a long time. It works very fast and cleans cast aluminum to look like new. I was careful to mask off machined surfaces as it will create a very fine texture that looks dull compared to a shiny machined surface. The best thing is that you can just hose it off when you are done and the residue and extra particles just dissolve. Here is the second head after I cleaned it.

I ended up using the soda blaster on the head, valve cover, large oil pan, oil intake, intake manifold halves, and other aluminum parts. It will strip paint off so I didn't use it on painted parts. Directing the nozzle into the intake manifold tubes cleaned them like new. It does create lots of white dust but if you do it outside a hose or a little rain and it's gone.

I painted the valve cover with VHR black wrinkle finish. I was hesitant to use wrinkle paint because of a bad experience I had like 30 years ago, but the VHR put those fears to rest. This stuff worked awesome! I followed the directions on the can, could not have been any happier. After it dried for several days I sanded the paint off the raised Toyota and 24 Valve letters with 320, 400, then 600 sand paper. Like it a lot.

 

[tomcat]

Nice work bud. Love the look on that rocker cover

 

[Romamerica]

Nice work... Mine is coming up next..

 

[btslaser]

Engine work: I had the engine block bored for 0.5mm oversized OEM pistons, surfaced, and the harmonic balancer/crank/flywheel dynamically balanced at the second machine shop recommended by my friend. They also cleaned the block but only used hot water/soap as they didn’t want to mess up the oil pump bushing. While I was in their shop I noticed how smooth and shiny their aluminum heads looked. My head was not that smooth from the first machine shop. I brought it in for him to look at and he recommended one pass to meet the Cometic RA spec. I went ahead and did that so the total was $880 for everything. More than I had expected but am ok paying for quality work.

Engine parts: I replaced all the crank and connecting rod bearings. I bought the OEM numbered bearings, followed the FSM with stamps on the parts, block, rods, and crank to figure what I needed. I was unable to purchase one #5 crank bearing... I tried several places, waited forever but finally was told that it was unavailable in North America. There is only 0.0001” difference between sizes, so I went with the next larger one, #4, should be fine. I purchased NPR rings to save a little money. I had read that they are the OEM supplier but I don’t think so… the markings were different than the OEM rings I removed and labeled in the FSM. No worries, NPR is a quality brand. I purchased Victor-Reinz valve seals for my second head, again to save a little money. It was only a little money, probably not worth it but should be fine as they are nice quality. Replaced both timing gears, the timing chain, and both timing chain guides with OEM parts. The gears were fine, should have saved the money. I purchased a new Aisin timing cover/oil pump from Amazon and an Aisin water pump from RockAuto. They are definitely the OEM parts as you can see where they ground off the raised TOYOTA letters. I probably didn’t need to spend for the timing cover but didn’t feel like cleaning the nasty old one and it came with a new oil pump, gasket, and screws. I messed up one of the knock sensors when I removed the engine. Went to buy a new one from Toyota and it was like $160. Wow… found a new Chinese one on Ebay for $25, I’m fine not using OEM for stuff like that. Purchased all new OEM front mounts motors, radiator hoses, several bypass hoses, distributor cap/rotor/wires/plugs (the distributor cap gasket does not come with the cap, needs to be ordered separately 19127-66020). I had my injectors cleaned at WitchHunter. Not much change in flow but you never know, figure it was worthwhile.

Note: If you have the block surfaced, you need to have the timing cover installed during the procedure because the head fits on top of the cover. I had read this before in another blog but totally forgot. Fortunately, I have a large CNC mill that was able to fix the problem. I wrapped up the engine in plastic, hoisted it onto the mill and carefully surfaced the timing cover to be flush with the block. Huge mistake and PITA but was back in business.

Note: When I started the project I only intended to replace the head gasket so I purchased the OEM valve job gasket kit. Once into the engine rebuild I needed to purchase the gasket for the lower half. Turns out it cheaper to do it this way. Go figure. Some Toyota parts are priced without reason. You can buy 2’ of vacuum hose for way less that buying the 1’ part.

Note: I used the parts diagrams on the Lagrange Toyota a lot. Most online places only have a few diagrams, they have a much more complete set. Parts Toyota - Shop for OEM Toyota Parts at Aftermarket Prices

Head gasket: My friend that works on Porsches/Ferraris highly recommended purchasing APR head bolt studs. Going that far led me to buying a Cometic head gasket. I read on mud somewhere that the OEM gasket was 0.052” thick (I confirmed this with my old one). The first machine shop said they took 0.010” off my head, the new machine shop had taken 0.005” off the block. I purchased a 0.066” thick Cometic gasket (0.052+0.010+0.005=0.067). I then had another 0.005" taken off the head to smooth it up for the Cometic so I'm a little under the OEM clearance which should be totally fine.

Engine assembly: Followed the FSM to the letter. Referred to pictures on mud a lot. Everything went smoothly.

Engine installation: I put as much of the engine together as possible before putting it back into the truck. It was a pleasure to work on the engine while it was on the stand. Below are few notes I jotted down after the install (transmission already in truck):

1) Leave off the lower radiator hose and bracket.

2) Leave off the engine mounts and brackets from the block. It makes it way easier to position the engine and you can’t raise the engine enough to get them in later anyway. I had to take the brackets back off the block in order to install the mounts.

3) When first lowering the engine the transmission cooler lines/exhaust pipes cause a bind. If you took off either it would probably slip in place easily but we ended up pushing the front of the engine to the passenger side and was able to lower past them.

4) When making the final alignment of the engine to the transmission, get one person underneath the truck to guide the process. You can see both sides and the bottom easily and then call out the person working the hoist to go up/down, right/left, tilt, etc.

5) Use calipers between the trans and engine housings on the sides and top/bottom to check if you are going in straight.

6) Lube up the bolt on the torque converter and the alignment pins.

7) Put the top two transmission-to-engine bolts in place before lowering the engine. You can reach these bolts from the engine compartment to start threading them in.

8) Tighten/torque engine-to-trans bolts BEFORE install motor mounts, exhaust manifold, etc. You can probably lower the engine a bit to get a little more clearance at the top. For some reason I thought it wouldn’t matter and put it off. It was a nightmare to find and tighten them once everything was installed. The top bolt on the passenger side I was able to get a 17mm closed end wrench on from the top and then tighten it one point at a time. We used one person on top of the engine to pull the wrench, one below to guide it on to the bolt. The top bolt on the driver’s side you can’t get your hand in there to even touch the bolt. I eventually found a small window from the top (looking over the brake reservoir) that I could actually see the bolt. I then used a cheap 5M USB Endoscope (about $10-20 from China) to snake up from below to figure out where the bolt was located. This camera works from like 1-3” focus and is difficult to position but before long I got lucky and was able to determine the exact location of bolt. I would check from above to see how close I was and if I was finally on the bolt. Through trial and error I was able to get a short 17mm socket with a 3/8” U-joint + extension to fit onto the bolt and then tighten it. Way, way harder than it needed to be.

9) Tighten the crank bolt BEFORE putting in the fan, radiator, etc. I totally forgot about this and was able to do it from below but again made it way harder.

 

[btslaser]

Attached is a spreadsheet with the total costs for my project. Roughly $4000 for the truck, $5000 for the rebuild. OEM parts and supplies add up quickly. This includes about $400 of wasted money when I had to do the second head. The Cometic head gasket/ARP bolts/head resurface totaled up to $580. Nice insurance but pricey.

 

[btslaser]

Engine prep and startup: After installing the engine I filled all the fluids up. I used Royal Purple Break-in oil that I stumbled across at O'Reilly. 8 qts @ $10 a qt was pricey but it's probably good stuff. The second engine machine shop I went to used Joe Gibbs products which looked nice and I considered but was super expensive. I used green antifreeze because that's what was in there when I bought it and after reading all the threads on mud about differences decided it would be fine. Tipping the scale was being able to purchase the green anywhere if out on the trail or a trip. After everything was ready to go I checked over everything twice and three times. I've done some crazy projects in my life but was super nervous... all the time and money into this project there was no room for failure. Before starting it for first time, I removed all the plugs, the coil wire, and the EFI fuses/relay. I cranked the engine in 15 second bursts for about 2 minutes in total until I saw the oil pressure gauge move up to about 1/4. I reassembled everything, crossed my fingers and cranked it over. It started right up in about 10 seconds. There was a very loud screeching noise coming from the engine, I shut it down - my heart sank. Didn't sound like a belt or anything, more like it was coming from the engine. Before going to bed that night I started it again, took a video of the noise, posted it to mud. In less than 10 minutes there were several responses that indicated it may be the starter rubbing against the flywheel. Next morning I removed the starter, checked it over, and re-installed it. That was it! Noise was gone. For more details check out the thread: Loud scary whine after complete engine rebuild

When I was driving the truck around the noise would happen every so often. Usually accelerating out of sharp turns. I took the starter out again and checked things over. I put a dial indicator on the flywheel and it had about 0.015" runout. The starter is an aftermarket Bosch unit so it's possible the retract dimension is slightly different than the OEM. I later saw an OEM starter at a local junk yard and the distance the gear stuck out seemed similar but the geometry of the gear was different. Nevertheless, I didn't want to fool with it anymore so I built a 0.050" shim to space out the starter. Since it has been installed I haven't had a problem. Below is the picture making the shim on my mill. You could just cut something out with tin snips and a drill, it doesn't need to be accurate.

 

[btslaser]

Here are some of the excellent threads on mud that helped me immensely:

1FZFE overhaul
Black Project 80 Engine Build Thread
1FZ-FE Rebuild full overhaul - picture heavy
I'm at my absolute wits end- truck still overheating despite best efforts

It's a lot of work to document and write up the process while you are doing it; these guys are amazing. Thank you!

I consider myself very handy but had never removed and rebuilt an engine before. There are a lots of connectors and hoses on this engine and I was wondering what I had got myself into when I was removing it. However, after reading the FSM + mud threads and a little help from my friends, was able to pull it off. By the time I was putting it all back together I knew what every part was for and it seemed almost simple. If you are considering a rebuild I encourage you to read up and go for it! It's been a very rewarding journey.

 

[NLXTACY]

Glad my suffering can help someone

 

[btslaser]

Glad my suffering can help someone

Your thread must have won some sort of mud equivalent to an Academy Award. Truth be told, after my startup hurdle, my attention turned to engine temperature with thoughts of your thread in the back of my mind. Thanks again for your contributions!

 

[NLXTACY]

I think most were anticipating Darwin Award

 

[btslaser]

Ha!

 

[70Cruza]

Nice write up!!! Thanks for sharing! Subb'd