6G Celicas Forums

looks good luke!

Hey everyone,

long time no update, but I've been busy with work and school so there's been little time to focus on the rebuild. Luckily the semester is out for winter break and I've had the chance to get some stuff done. As I've mentioned before I am focusing on the cylinder head until it is completely done before moving on to the bottom end. So with that in mind I've been busy cleaning, measuring, and ordering parts:


A quick before picture:


My first round of cleaning involved scrubbing the cylinder head with a tooth brush and simple green extreme before rinsing with a pressure washer


The real stubborn stuff required a brass brush and more simple green (brass doesn't scratch aluminum but is much more effective than tooth brush bristles).
This was an extremely tedious process but I'm really happy with the results.


I obviously couldn't reach everything with brushes and a power washer, so I went to Grainger supply and picked up 3 gallons of Simple green Boeing Cleaner and soaked the head. I was AMAZED at how awesome that stuff is. The hidden crud in the oil channels exploded off the head right before my eyes. In retrospect I probably could have just soaked the head from the beginning and avoided all that scrubbing. But oh well

http://industrial.simplegreen.com/ind_products_extreme.php





I also took the time to clean and spray the valve cover in VHT wrinkle paint. Painting with this stuff is no easy task since the slightest change in temperature will cause it to wrinkle in patches. I took a lot of time cleaning, sanding, and painting to avoid that problem. I think it came out pretty well.


Next step was to start measuring in preparation for machining.


Measuring turned out to be much harder than I expected simply because Toyota maintains specifications in the ten-thousandths range. This meant that I had to borrow a micrometer accurate to 4 significant figures and check all of my values. It was very time consuming.

Everything was within tolerance but the exhaust valve stems were only 2 ten-thousandths away from being worn out. This concerned me so I measured the center of the valve stems (which doesn't wear) and saw that the valves were on the small end of tolerance when brand new. Confused, I measured the valve guides with a bore gauge. The difference between the bore diameter and the valve stem gives you the oil clearance spec. In my case I was comfortably in the tight end for all the valves. So even though the valve stems are small the oil clearance is good, which is ultimately the important measurement.



I also went on to measure absolutely everything the FSM called for and thankfully the cylinder head is in fantastic shape; despite the lack of oil changes. In light of this information I've decided to get the following machining done:

head resurfacing: The head is not warped, but metal head gaskets experience shearing forces due to the difference in thermal expansion rates that comes with having a cast iron block and an aluminum head. Therefore a smooth surface is required to avoid failure.

http://www.aa1car.com/library/ar996.htm

Cam shaft polishing: There are some directional scratches on the cam journals which probably occurred during cold starts. They pass the fingernail test but any little scratch can disrupt the extremely thin oil film that separates the camshaft and the head. Therefore since I cant polish the head journals, I'm going to have a shop polish the cams with Emory cloth instead. This should increase the longevity of the head without affecting the oil clearance.

3 angle valve cut I spent a TON of time checking the valve seating and the exhaust valves have a little bit of pitting in them. I could just lap the exhaust valves by hand but I figured I might as well go big and get a 3 angle done on exhaust and a refresh on the intake. Go big or go home. The downside is that I'll have to replace all of the shims or shorten the valves since cutting makes them sit deeper in the head.


Finally I found one lifter that is going to need replacing, I think something went wrong during case hardening because it looks like the carbon diffused unevenly around the sides. Fortunately the lifter bore was unaffected by this so I can get away with just replacing the lifter.... for ~$20

Currently I'm in the process of selling extra stuff from the clip and saving money to buy the master rebuild kit, and pay for machining. The Toyota dealer near me is active with the Toyota scene so they gave me discounts on a lot of my rebuild parts. Its pretty awesome, but unfortunately a bunch of stuff has been discontinued and I'm gonna have to dig around to buy stuff like the oil and coolant pumps.

anyway, here's my humble progress thus far. I wish I had some more interesting stuff to post, but I want to take my time and be thorough with this.

This post has been edited by enderswift: Jan 14, 2013 - 7:11 PM

Wow... That's thorough. I used Simple Green to clean my engine bag last week. Totally worth the money!

i can't wait till spring!

Do you think some of us will make it to another level car show in late july? I went last year and was the only celica there except for 2 1st gens.

This post has been edited by Stambo: Dec 29, 2011 - 7:36 PM

I'd be down for a car show. Not sure if the swap will be done by then though

Hello everyone,

I decided to refurbish the fuel rail and fuel injectors last night and figured I'd post the results:


First the fuel rail was disassembled and all the components were cleaned in a variety of simple green products. In my opinion one of the more satisfying aspects of this rebuild is making something look new again. That was definitely the case here, I wish I had taken a before shot to show the contrast..


Next all of the hoses were replaced with fuel injection and vac lines.

Finally I turned my attention to the fuel injectors. Normally you would just send them out to get cleaned but I was inspired to try cleaning them on my own after watching a youtube video showing a way to cycle them with carb cleaner and a battery. In my case I had to be careful because the st205 uses low impedance injectors, which means a large current will cause damage to their solenoids. In fact the gt4 harness has a resistor pack built in to step down the voltage to avoid exactly this problem. Unfortunately there was no way for me to tell what voltage these injectors actually operate at since my resistor pack was not labeled. Therefore I had to start small and wire AA batteries in parallel until i got a response from the injectors. Eventually I switched over to a single D cell battery and got the injectors to actuate. From there it was a matter of connecting the injectors to a can of carb cleaner and cycling them until I was certain they were clean. I had to flow the cleaner backwards since these are side-feed injectors and my options to connect them were limited; still I should get the benefit of flushed screens that way. I recorded a small video demonstrating the process. Its crude, but effective.

http://s74.photobucket.com/albums/i277/sub...nt=MVI_1188.mp4

I still need to purchase new injector o-rings and perhaps a new fpr before the fuel rail is complete. But that's gonna have to wait until some more funds come in. Anyway, next week I should have the cylinder head completely finished at which point I'll be taking the block apart.

This post has been edited by enderswift: Jan 3, 2012 - 12:46 AM

nice video man! I'll have to try that sometime when i have my intake manifold off.

Quick update:

cylinder head has returned from the machine shop and I put it together for a final check of the journal tolerances and the valve lash:


All ready for one last round of measuring




Head was decked


Camshafts were polished, including the tips of the cam lobes.

This is only a mock up assembly since I still need to install a set of new valve seals and a new lifter. When they arrive it'll just be a 20 min affair to pop them in. I just came back from Toyota and purchased a new cap and rotor and my rebuild kit is on the way. I also ordered a set of Denso plugs and wires from work and they should be there in 2 weeks. All told I spent a lot of money today. But I'm not done. Next I'm gonna order so ARP headstuds. Broke again woooo! Well I think its safe to say that the cylinder head rebuild is nearly complete. Soon it's gonna be all about the bottom end for the next few months

This post has been edited by enderswift: Dec 23, 2012 - 12:44 PM

Lots of nice work!

I'm digging the picture of the Lotus on the wall. Inspiration!

WOW! This makes me look lazy. Did you say you were goin to convert it back to AWD?

yes. I plan to convert the e154f to fwd for the 2nd phase of my swap. Later I plan to reinstall the center differential and weld in the rear subframe. My reasoning is that although I can weld, I can't weld well enough to do a quality job quite yet. Plus I still have to buy my own welder and gear. So instead of buying an e153 with a possibly worn out viscous LSD, I'd much rather convert the e154f to fwd with a helical diff. That way I can replace worn bearing and synchros and end up with a really strong LSD trans. I have the fsm on the e154f, it's really not as difficult as one would think.

This post has been edited by enderswift: Sep 10, 2014 - 7:29 AM

why didnt you upgrade to 1ZZ-FE buckets?

shimless buckets would be nice, but the benefit doesn't really justify the cost. Shim under bucket can already rev high with little risk of spitting a shim so the ~25 grams saved per bucket wasn't really worth it to me. I think the money can be better spent on balancing the crankshaft and connecting rods instead.

This post has been edited by enderswift: Jan 8, 2012 - 5:51 PM

So if this is going to be done by the next Midwest Meet, we will need to see how many people we can cram in your car and YOU WILL take us for a ride.

Sure, but I already know the answer. It's 7 lol. Whether or not we come back alive is another matter haha



It's one of my favorite cars, and I like the whole design philosophy of doing a lot with very little.

Quick update:


Current state of cylinder head.




Got some parts in. Rest should be in this week

now you making my motor look bad

I absolutely love those plugs. They compliment the 5S's well.

Really?
I have them in my 5s an it seem to run better before them

Any chance of an update?