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]

then turn the cams half a revolution (there is a little dowel pin that goes into the cam gear that faces up when at TDC, just make that face down this time) and repeat the steps for the rest of the valves.

mark on the ledge of the valve cover which ones are in spec and which ones are out. also make sure to remember if the ones that are out of spec are too tight or too loose.

at that point you have to take the cams back out. any valves that are in spec, leave alone. to take out the shim, in the second picture you can see a little notch in the cap, just pry the shim out with a little screw driver. now measure it with a micrometer like this...

and put in a shim that bigger or smaller depending on your clearance measurement with the feeler gauge.

then put the cams back in and torque them down.


note: in case anyone didn't know, the intake cam is spring loaded so you have to put a bolt in the threaded hole before you remove the dependent cam otherwise it will spring out of alignment.

[97lestyousay]

driver. now measure it with a micrometer like this...

LOL thats not a micrometer, but a very nice set of dial calipers.( I have 2 pairs identical to that)
Very good write up. Please do mine now.

This post has been edited by 97lestyousay: Oct 10, 2007 - 7:10 PM