Topic: Annoying Orange, 20r Build for the 1980 Pickup

[H8PVMNT]

So now comes the number part, our chance to check that everything is all OK and machined to the correct size before we assemble to the best of our ability. Now is our one chance to compare what we have against specs in a manual . I am going to get kind of crazy on the photos here because I don't see a lot of engine write ups with a lot of detail and I think it will dissolve some of the mystery and fear on engine assembly for any engine newbs out there.  I am by no means an expert but it's just really not that hard to assemble a 22r providing you have a few tools. 

My son Caleb demonstrates checking cylinder bore size with the expander tool thingy and the micrometer.  And all is good and .020" oversized...

[H8PVMNT [OP]]

And now we wipe a bit of assembly lube in the bores and gently align the rings one at a time in the bores, then check that ring end gap is correct with a feller gauge.  It is correct.   

[redneckcustoms13]

What rings did you end going with

[H8PVMNT [OP]]

What rings did you end going with

They are Japan made Nippon brand from Evergreen.

[H8PVMNT [OP]]

Time to see if the shoelace and emery cloth polished crank is OK.  It miced out well but the plastigauge will show taper and irregularities better, not to mention oil clearance. I like to put just a tiny layer of lube on the mains but not much so as not to mess up the plastigauge.  Don't forget the thrust washers...

[H8PVMNT [OP]]

Make sure all the mains line up, I have pinched a bearing half in the cap before.  The caps have arrows facing forward and are numbers 1, 2, the center one is obvious and then 4, 5, with one being furthest front at the timing chain end of the engine.  I wasn't going to say this but a buddy had his caps loose in a box from the machine shop so the question arose.  I thread in the main cap bolts a ways to get a good alignment. Make sure to have clean threads and a bit of lube on the bolts. Then a gentle whack on the caps and torque to spec.  I bring them about half way there and then finish torque.

[H8PVMNT [OP]]

The crank looks great according to the plastiguage and oil clearance is spot on according to the 20r specs in the old Haynes manual.  Not very often you salvage a crank this nice that doesn't have to be turned down.  I have three loose cranks and the other two are tapered beyond usable.  This one was perfect.

[H8PVMNT [OP]]

After you check the plastigauge on all the mains then you have to the smashed substance off your journals and bearings.  I used my fingernail.  These DNJ bearings seem to have a nice hard surface that doesn't mar up but be careful.  One time I used OEM mains and the surface was way softer and scored easily with a fingernail.  So maybe some carb cleaner would be better to get the plastigauge off.

[H8PVMNT [OP]]

Then we get to lay the crank for real.  I like a liberal amount of engine assembly lube on the bearings and thrust washer surfaces.  One thing I realized did not do is check thrust (forward and aft movement) on the crank. You check that with a dial indicator. I may do it yet but the thrust surfaces on the crank and the thrust washers looked completely untouched to the point that I was able to re-use the old ones so I am not too concerned about it being out of whack.  This crank and block are out of a pickup I got for free that was in a fiery roll over years and years ago.  Must have had good maintenance and had low miles before it got too sideways.

Torque to spec once again and when you are done. You should be able to rotate the crank with a finger. If it's real tight you may have a slightly bent crank or something not right with your bearings. This one spins nice and makes it almost a full revolution on it's own with just a little push.

[H8PVMNT [OP]]

Caleb puts the Evergreen pistons, new pins and the perfect, lucky, salvaged low miles Celica rods together with just a smidge of pre-lube.  I did not balance the rods and pistons, mainly because I couldn't find my postal scale.  Probably better off since that's not really typical in a basic rebuild.  If your pistons rock around on the pin at all you should probably get wrist pin bushings and have your rods done.  We were really lucky to salvage a set of pristine rods.  Typically I find they have some play.

I should also say to make sure you line up the front of the piston and the front of the rod.  The piston has a little recess notch on the top indicating the front and the rod had pointy marks on the front face of the crank end of the rod indicating front.  I don't see how anybody would miss that bit if you've never done it before well you might.

Make sure the clips seat up in the groove...

[H8PVMNT [OP]]

The rings can now go on the pistons.  The tops of these rings have the numbers stamped on them, in this case .50mm oversized (.020").  You put them on according to your manual using piston ring pliers, with the gaps in a patter opposite each other as you do down and not on the direct front or sides of the pistons.

Then you can check the clearance between the groove and the rings.  These were perfect, no big surprise since they are new.

 

[THK Matt]

damn.

[H8PVMNT [OP]]

And then...  I always make sure to cut myself on the piston ring compressor once or twice.  Clean the piston ring compressor because it's been in a damp shed for a couple years, lube it up a bit with the pre-lube so the pistons slide out easy.  Then just set the pistons in the right direction with the little slot facing forward, and whack them in the cylinder with a wooden handle or whatever won't damage them.  You want to keep a bit of down pressure on the whole mess so the rings don't pop out before they get in the cylinder.  A bit of fresh oil and pre-lube on the cylinder wall helps keep things smooth.

I like to rotate the crank so the journal is down on the piston I am working on.  You can put rubber tube on the rod studs but I would rather not have the studs get anywhere near the rod journal until I can guide it into place with my hand.  After you get the piston in past the rings you can just push the piston down with one hand and guide the rod safely to the journal with the other hand. After the first two pistons you can rotate the crank so the next two journals are down.  Then no scratches on the crank  .

[H8PVMNT [OP]]

Now we have an assembled bottom end.  I had about 6 hours into checking and assembly.  I took my time and I was working in the kitchen but I think that is fair for a typical home mechanic.

Also bought some engine assembly lube for $7.95 and plastigauge for $2.00.

New total labor time:  19 hours

New total cash money: $448.42

Dig those cool 20r flat tops...

[H8PVMNT [OP]]

Time to hit the head!

Before anyone goes nuts on me I would like to say I did not do much, really very little and I also stayed quite conservative...   

And pre-emptively no I do not have a flow bench, experience with a flow bench, no access to a dyno, or any idea of what I am doing.   

I like to do a gasket match.  You take the gasket and lay in on with a couple of studs or bolts so it lines up where it will be. Mark it with a sharpy and then carefully dremel leaving just a bit of your mark.  Then you would do the same with the intake manifold but leave just a bit more so you go from a smaller hole to a slightly bigger hole with the direction of flow so as to not have an obstructions for the air flow to bounce off of.

After that I try to blend in a little ways into the intake port from the gasket matched area.  I used a micrometer this time and found the largest port after cleaning casting buggers a bit and then brought the other three up to the same size about 3/8-1/2" deep in the port. This way the intake ports are made a consistent size where I can effectively measure them.

Other than that all I did was to remove obvious buggers in the casting and the nasty sharp step from where they machine into the valve seat area that was on 2 out of the 4 ports.  DON'T NICK THE VALVE SEATS!! There were a couple 1/4" nodules of aluminum in there just hanging out.  I used some rather rough sander wheels, maybe 60-80 grit on the dremel tool, medium RPM being careful not to really change the shape or size of the ports much.  The 20r head is all ready an improvement on the 22r head, I have experienced that.  Part of the secret sauce there is supposedly the velocity, so the last thing I want is to open it up a bunch and loose that velocity.  I could probably have done more, but without a flow bench and all that I stayed very conservative, mainly focusing on removing casting flaws that clearly weren't meant to be there and not trying to re-engineer the ports.

On the exhaust side all I did was drill out the air injection tubes and clean obvious burs.  I did shave maybe a 32nd inch off a little swell that appears to be a water passage where the casting somewhat necks down the exhaust port. Didn't want to get crazy there and ruin the head.  The rest of the exhaust port is machined out perfectly round for the last inch and a half or so of the port on the early heads, so there was nothing to improve there.  The headers at typically all ready matched up with the exhaust gaskets.  If you use a stock manifold you can usually open them up a bit, smaller hole to bigger hole just like the intake side.

Spent about 3 hours on this. Most of the time spent changing sander wheels.

New time total:  22 hours

I did not include a lot of photos because this is a very personal decision and probably not necessary to the typical rebuild...

[H8PVMNT [OP]]

Valve guides!  Valve guides get sloppy after hundreds of thousands of miles and help you burn oil. Your 22r is an engine not a shop heater   . You can have a machine shop replace them or knurl them (kind of a band-aid fix), but as it turns out they are pretty easy to remove and replace.  We detailed removing them earlier, now we get to put the new ones in.

These aren't the fancy bronze guides, just standard powdered metal guides like the factory, but they were only $1.67 each!  DNJ made in Taiwan.

Check out the sweet Lewis Hein valve guide installation tool. I dub thee Excalibur! 

Get the round snap rings off your old guides (really hard and painful)  put them on the new guides (easy). Then chill your guides to make them smaller. Then you just put a bit of light lube on the guide and the driver, insert the guide in the clean hole, insert the driver and hit it with the air hammer until they bottom out on the snap ring.  It took me all of about 5 minutes to install new, tight valve guides.

Best part is with the layer of copper on the driving surface of the tool, I didn't even have to ream out the valve guides. The valves had a nice slip fit with no play.

All said and done I spent about 1/2 hour on valve guides and messing with the snap rings, etc.

New labor time:  22.5 Hours

[H8PVMNT [OP]]

Lapping valves...

I really lucked out and ended up with low miles head off a Celica derby car.  The valve seats are in really nice shape with crisp lines and no pitting or weird wear like I have seen on other heads.  The valves stems were pretty hammered though so I used some new standard issue DNJ valves (made in Taiwan).  It is nice to make sure your valves sit nice and even in the seats and have plenty of contact where they touch the seats when they close.

You just put a bit of light lube on the valve stem, a bit of abrasive valve lapping compound on the valve and then insert the valve in the guide.  Then you work the valve back and forth with a valve lapping tool (looks kind of like a suction cup from a dart gun on a stick).  I marked my valve seats with a black marker first but you cold see the contact area really well anyway after lapping.  I worked the valves back for about 4-5 minutes each.  All had nice even contact and plenty of it.

I spent maybe 2 hours on handling and lapping the valves.

New time is at 24.5 hours

[H8PVMNT [OP]]

I put on the new valve stem seals from DNJ (made in China) and then put on the nice new 22re performance 75 lb valve springs I got in trade earlier this year.  Make sure you get the jaws of the valve spring compressor on there good so your valve springs don't become bullets.  Dab a bit of pre-lube on the ends of the valves so the valve spring keeper bits stay in place while you unload the valve springs...

Spent about an hour on this.

New time is at 25.5 hours

[H8PVMNT [OP]]

And that's what I did this weekend .

[Lewis Hein]

Earlier, you were at 19 hours.

By my calculations, your weekend was 6.5 hours long.

[H8PVMNT [OP]]

Earlier, you were at 19 hours.

By my calculations, your weekend was 6.5 hours long.

Well I did some other stuff too .

[H8PVMNT [OP]]

Did inventory on rocker sets today.  On set from an '83, aluminum, rockers in OK shape but the rocker shafts are really dug into.  2 sets from 1980 20r with steel rockers, one of which is really nasty and one set in good shape but so varnished up I can't get it apart without drilling out the screws.

I started trying to hone the aluminum set but found that the bulkier aluminum rocker body does not allow a full pass on the stone so you can't really resurface the faces on a stone like I did with the steel rockers before.  When I get home I'll drill the good steel ones apart and see how the shafts and all that are.

[Lewis Hein]

Carb cleaner ought to dissolve the varnish, right? I personally would try carb cleaner soak  then mild heat after the flammables have evaporated to see if I could break stuff loose without drilling.

But I have zero experience getting varnished-together parts apart again.

[THK Matt]

Did inventory on rocker sets today.  On set from an '83, aluminum, rockers in OK shape but the rocker shafts are really dug into.  2 sets from 1980 20r with steel rockers, one of which is really nasty and one set in good shape but so varnished up I can't get it apart without drilling out the screws.

I started trying to hone the aluminum set but found that the bulkier aluminum rocker body does not allow a full pass on the stone so you can't really resurface the faces on a stone like I did with the steel rockers before.  When I get home I'll drill the good steel ones apart and see how the shafts and all that are.

Could you use the screws from a good set and put them on the varnished rockers after you cut old screws out and clean them up?

[H8PVMNT [OP]]

Got the screws out of the varnished set this morning.  Let them sit with penetrating oil but they were still stuck good.  I went ahead and drilled the heads off, then made tiny pilot holes in the remaining shank, then drilled in with a 1/8" bit with no lube so it would stick and push the threaded stub down through the threads into the rocker shaft. 

Measured the aluminum rocker bores and they are not great at all.  Kind of oval shaped.  I will see how the varnished set look today.  They are from that low miles Celica engine so I am hopeful.

And yes, I saved the good screws from the nasty set.  Pulled the best looking adjusters out of another set and cleaned them up on the stone.  Might be able to put together a usable set from these three ...

[DAWGTOY]

those screws can be a pain to get out. i have had luck using a impact driver
(the kind you hit with a hammer) on a hard surface and had success.
(always using a #3 bit)

and always use oem rockers. i have had several aftermarket ones come apart
and ruin the cam.  the hardened  flat part that rides on the cam comes loose and if it
does sometimes it'll spit out--other times it just sits in there beating it's self apart. 

your build looks good--keep it up.

[helipilot77]

I’m checking my stock of parts. I think I might have some more rocker arms for you. If I find some I’ll send them to you.

[H8PVMNT [OP]]

I’m checking my stock of parts. I think I might have some more rocker arms for you. If I find some I’ll send them to you.

Sweet thanks!

[H8PVMNT [OP]]

I measured the steel rockers from the Celica and they are not out of round or hogged out.  Surfaces look decent.  I like the steel rockers because they run quiet but it might be nice to use aluminum on this engine with the fun cam and more RPMs   .

The aluminum rockers are a full ounce lighter than the steel.

[helipilot77]

Yep. I’ve got a set of steel rockers. Coming your way.