Stef's 7A-FE Rebuild, up and running since 12/16/07 Options

[hurley97]

So obviously my oil problem is only getting worse, I decided it's finally time to do something about it.

so I went and picked up Defgeph's old 7A...
177,000 miles and was begining to use some oil before he swapped and it sat in the garage for 2 years.
but since I was getting it for free from a friend I decided to pick it up and hope for the best...



so I picked it up Fri (8/24) and the next day it came with me to work (I work at a Toyota dealer) where they unloaded it into the brake lathe room and it stayed hidden for a while. this past Saturday (9/8) me and one of the techs began tearing it apart. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it is actually in incredibly good condition for its age...

I will be spending close to $500 in parts replacing every bearing, seal, gasket, etc that we can think of. What I need from you guys are your suggestions as to what I can do to make this motor a little stronger and better flowing. I'm keeping the stock pistons and considering bigger cams and having the head machined.

We work for about an hour each morning before customers start coming in. Between Sat, Mon, and Tues (today) we have everything pretty much apart (except for the valves since I haven't decided to send them to the machinist with the head or not yet). This is a huge learning process for me and happy to have the oppotunity to do it. I'll add more pics and info so maybe some of you can learn some things too.

This post has been edited by hurley97: Mar 6, 2008 - 9:09 PM

[hurley97]

sorry for the delay on the progress report... that CSP meet was kind of crazy...


now for putting the pistons in...
the rod bearings come in sets of 2 and both sides are the same


on the pistn rod itself there is a hole that matches up with the hole in the bearing, and just like the main bearings there is the little notch that matched up as well...


on the cap end there is not holes so you just use the little notch to place it in the right orientation...


then oil up both sides of the bearings


now if you remember from before the compression and oil control rings stick out a lot


so you need to use a ring compressor to push them in, the pistons need to be dunked in oil before this step...


now at this point you want to put in two pistons at a time (either 1 & 4 or 2 & 3) and you are going to want to push them all the way down so make sure the part of the crank the rod sits on is all the way down and straight. then we cleaned off the cylinder walls a little in case anything had gotten in there from it sitting for a while.

double check to make sure the right piston is going into the right cylinder using the stamped numbers on them...


so with the ring comrpessor still on the piston you place the rod end into the cylinder and use the end of a hammer or something to gently tap the piston down into place. once its out of the ring compressor you put that aside and finish tapping it down while you kind of guide the rod end onto the crankshaft


the caps are held on by stretch bolts that need to be torqued to 44 ft/lbs then tightened another 90 degrees. so once they are torqued you mark them so you know where to stop after doing the 90 degree turn...



the cast part of the oil pan is easy, put a crap load of FIPG on and tap it a little with a hammer so it sits properly.
there are a bunch of allen head bolts and some normal ones that go on the inside


put the little gear and the crank postion sensor back on...


and thats how it sits right now..

[Celiracer18]

double check to make sure the right piston is going into the right cylinder using the stamped numbers on them...

all 4 of my rods have a 2 on them. they are the stock rods too so its not like someone gave me all 4 #2 rods. Are you sure thats how you tell what rod goes in which cylinder?

[hurley97]

double check to make sure the right piston is going into the right cylinder using the stamped numbers on them...

all 4 of my rods have a 2 on them. they are the stock rods too so its not like someone gave me all 4 #2 rods. Are you sure thats how you tell what rod goes in which cylinder?

sorry, I thought I explained it before but I can't find it so I guess I didn't...

when you take the pistons out there will be a number already stamped on them, that lets you know the size of the piston. so on the block there is the set of 5 numbers that pair with the main bearings and on the opposite end a set of 4 numbers that tell the cylinder bore size. so a number 2 on the piston rod would go to a number 2 bore, I had three #2's and one #3. but unless you are getting new pistons you want to make sure the piston you take out of cylinder 1 goes back into cylinder 1, so as you take them out one by one you want to label them somehow, we stamped the number on the blank side (in a different orientation so we could tell the difference)

and yes, the 'M' is a match line