Topic: oh crap!

[kyle_22r]

well, it seems that i've hit a MAJOR snag in my engine swap progress.  tonight i went outside to unbolt the flexplate and torque converter from my '82 22R(from a celica) and got the torque converter off fine, but those flexplate bolts are a royal pain!  can't even get them loose with my shadetree impact wrench(socket + bfh).  to make things worse, i can turn the flexplate by hand without huffing and puffing.  i can feel some resistance on the compression strokes but should it turn this easily?  i take it my rings are shot?

if so, i think i'm going to wait a while and rebuild this motor with some better parts(aluminum rockers, crawler cam, maybe bore it over a bit?) and possibly trade my L50 that was going to go in up for an L52HD.  just gotta save my money since it's nearly 2 months worth of pay for me

how difficult is a rebuild on one of these engines for a first timer like me?  i'm really mechanically inclined, but i've just never rebuilt an engine before

[WHITE_TRASH]

Its EASY to rebuild an import engine.  They are really easy on a first timer, dont be affraid of anything.

[kyle_22r [OP]]

thanks for the reassurance     while pulling apart the 20R i have sitting in the back yard, it seemed like it'd go together pretty easily

[BigMike]

Hey dude, so your engine is from an Auto donor vehicle, right? Well how does the valve train look? I got to hand select my current MR2 engine down in LA at a Japan engine importer, and I chose an engine from an auto. The engine (4A-GE) is low mileage and high compression (10.5:1) unlike our sorry US engines (9.1:1)... My thinking was Hey, it's from an auto so it must not have been raced as much, cant dump any clutch, also the auto absorbs all change in throttle and you don't downshift from 5th reaching to 1st gear at 7k rpm in an auto, so I thought it was just plus plus plus by choosing an auto engine.. Boy was I wrong.

When I got back home, I pulled the oil covers. Brown nasty sludgy oil caked all over. It was like oil rust, it was baked on. Obviously this engine had spent alot of hours just purring away in hot stop and go traffic and the people didnt change the oil much. And when I got it running, it pukes out blue smoke on decel = high vacuum = pulling oil past the rings and into the cylinders and out the tail pipe. Damn that sucks. The engine runs great, compression check is good, but the oil rings are shot..

Anyways, I think the only good thing about an auto engine is that the thrust bearings on the crank should have less wear on them. Otherwise I think it's a toss up. Next time I'm at an engine shop, I'm gonna bring some tools to remove the valve covers while I am there. If they won't let me, then I can always go some where else..

Anyways, back to your topic, you know my 3RZ that I just swapped into my '81 felt terrible when I was checking the clutch and flywheel. I actually couldn't get the pressure plate bolts back on because the flywheel would turn super easily. I was thinking, dang what's up? It's a huge 4banger (2.7) and it's got mad compression 9.5:1 for a truck engine, and since I didnt know the history on the engine I thought it was all wasted and worn out.. But nope, it runs great and has a very strong slow down in gear while coasting, so I know it's a big engine with big compression, coasts and stops much faster than Marlin's worn out 22MAR engine with more weight on board.

So I wouldn't worry about it AT ALL. Just get the thing going and it should work out for ya. If you want, run a compression test... and sometimes engines can have sloppy compression during cranking (below 500rpm) but once you get pressures in the cylinders and higher rpms, alot changes-

BigMike

[kyle_22r [OP]]

the plugs looked like they'd been run super rich though so i think it might have been burning oil.  that flexplate turned like i was turning a steering wheel.  i remember swapping a fresh(er) 20R in my friends truck, i could barely turn the flywheel!

my valvetrain looked awesome when i pulled the valve cover off.  no sludge or anything, i could actually see the aluminum shine under the coat of oil

i still think i'm gonna pull her apart though.  my truck's still running on it's original 20R for now(315,000 miles) so i figure i don't have anything to lose by rebuilding this mill and having a good working engine.  it'll also give me a chance to put a better cam and aluminum rockers in.  i need something to do in the dreary winter up here

[BigMike]

Sounds good, keep us posted

[SEAN_at_TLT]

...you know my 3RZ that I just swapped into my '81 felt terrible when I was checking the clutch and flywheel. I actually couldn't get the pressure plate bolts back on because the flywheel would turn super easily. I was thinking, dang what's up? It's a huge 4banger (2.7) and it's got mad compression 9.5:1 for a truck engine, and since I didnt know the history on the engine I thought it was all wasted and worn out.. But nope, it runs great and has a very strong slow down in gear while coasting, so I know it's a big engine with big compression, coasts and stops much faster than Marlin's worn out 22MAR engine with more weight on board...
BigMike

Good choice on the 3RZ Mike!

What '81 did you put it in, a truck or Celica???

[BigMike]

Sorry Kyle for the hijack

Good choice on the 3RZ Mike!

What '81 did you put it in, a truck or Celica???

Man where have you been? 

http://board.marlincrawler.com/index.php?topic=4401.0