1UZ into my Off-Road Long Travel Tacoma

[Smitherz]

Sorry for the delay.... been a busy week here. The 1uz block isn't that heavy at all! Lifting it a couple of feet isn't a problem. Now with the heads installed two people will definitely be needed. I basically took the block down to what you see there and just replaced the crank seals without going any further. I have no need to remove the crank and pistons as the stock ones are quite capable of handling the power. If I did go through the bottom end it would end up costing me $1,200+ so I'll keep that money in my pocket for now. Maybe save it away for a couple turbos. :scratchchin:

I actually used an pneumatic right angle die grinder thing with a mild steel brush so do 90% of the cleaning/shining. The Dremel gets to the places that it won't. I'm writing up an article for Lextreme on how I cleaned everything. After the the second engine block I'm pretty damn quick at it. As for my cost on all the head, valve and manifold work... it was mostly a favor to me from a good friend so what I paid was nothing near the actual cost of the labor involved. I remember swearing at how many valves there were when I was changing out valve seals... I couldn't imagine the pain of actually doing all that custom work to every single valve and valve port!! His shop is the first one I'm visiting with my V8 Tacoma to show my appreciation of his support. Thanks for the compliments and I'll keep the updates coming as I move along... even if it's ever so slow.

 

[TbirdMan]

Very nice. always nice to see someone take the time to really do it right. that way you avoid haveing to pull things out later to replace a bad seal/gasket/etc.

One suggestion. when you get the upper plenium coated, perhaps you could have them keep the "ribs" exposed, or do that yourself. i think the effect looks nice on the Viper valve covers.

 

[Smitherz]

I just want this engine to run perfect and be super dependable as I want to take it on some trips traveling, camping and whatnot. Yeah I agree with the shiny ribs look. I'm just deciding which method to use to remove the coating off the ribs. I've done this on other manifolds and it looks great.

I got manifolds back recently and I absolutely love them. Here are the pics!

 

[Big]

you could use a belt sander as it has a flat bottom .with a high grit paper or a orbital sander as that too has a flat bottom..i would use orbital as you could essentually polish the ribs if you use a fine enough paper..

 

[Smitherz]

Yep I'm just taking my time indeed. :sleepy: I'm relieved to have finished putting on the valve covers so now I don't have to worry about any contaminates or dust getting into the heads or camshaft area. Next I'll put on the timing belt and the other goodies that go along with that on the front of the engine.

 

[V8Datto]

I dunno about the rest of you guy's but I think that red looks dam sexy

Nice job

And Im not sure on using a sander on those rib's, Id try a test patch first, maybe somewhere underneath not visible once the engine goes back together

 

[Big]

Gawd dam it looks horny.... nice job man.I'm following this,as soon as my house is sold i'm gonna start mine also..jusat not sure weather to break down the motor to wut you have done tho..my moto if it aint broke then dun fix it..lol but on the other hand preventative mantaince is where i'm at too...gawd..wut to do..Smitherz roughly how long if you were to break down the engine without powder coating would you think it took you..I might just polish the m/f as a possed to powder coating as 4x4ing be ezier to clean..keep clean as well

 

[Smitherz]

Now that I've had plenty of practice I could break down a motor and have it completely clean in one day. Assembly time just depends on if you have all the parts you need. There are a couple parts that are plastic and are broken on most every motor that is removed and sold. So as long as those aren't broken and you have a complete gasket set you could have a rebuilt motor with new starter, water pump, a 2UZ pulley put together in 2 days no problem. The only thing is that you'll want to have your injectors cleaned and maybe some cylinder head cleaning which will take 1.5 weeks if you are on top of it. Finding some spare parts that were broken took me a little time but the custom head work is what killed my schedule but it was worth it.

Having room to work on your engine and labeling the parts as you take them off helps speed things up a lot also. I put different components and their bolts together in plastic bags and write on the bags. Label them like you aren't going to be putting it back together in a long time... because you might get carried away like I did.

 

[Big]

LOL...yeah was thinking of that..btw what exactly did they do to your heads apart from a port job..? acid dip to decarbon..?plane job reseat the valves etc..bottom end is pretty simple stuff really and getting the bits all cleaned too..curious as to why the 2UZ pully..? would be nice to have a breakdown of the stuff done to your heads..Cheers

 

[Smitherz]

After every single bit of residue and carbon was removed from the heads and the manifolds my guy removed a lot of material from both the intake and exhaust sides on top of removing some of the valve stem guide that protrudes into the passageways. He used a 5 angle cutter on the valve seats and took care of the valves accordingly. And of course you can see the chambers were reshaped. And last but not least all the intakes were ground to match the gaskets as well. What a ton of work =o This was above and beyond what I had expected. He put them on a flow bench and showed me the numbers and told me all about the improvements but I couldn't remember it all! I don't want to guess at the flow numbers he told me but if I ever remember to ask him for them I'll share the results. I would rather focus on dyno results. I can't wait. It makes me feel guilty for not doing anything to the bottom end but I just don't think I'll be needing to beef up the engine in that department as I won't be running it at full throttle in a race environment.

 

[Big]

Yeah same here.Shall we say the bottom end is...BULLET PROOF standard:squint: ..so really there is no need to do anything..also from what i have seen from other forums and pictures of these things..they ALL should i would imagine need de carboning:boggled: ...every head I've seen off is not that flash.**** everywhere..also considering that most engines have done around the 100k mark sort of make sence to do some spring cleaning..lol
Personally i'll probably just pull the heads get them planed and de carbon and a port job and valves reseated..bottom end i'll leave but then again.. a hone and new rings and bearings might not go amiss..depends on the budget i guess..lol.I'm after TORQUE baby so mine doesn't need to scream:hypnotized: .keep ya'll posted..

 

[Smitherz]

I'm tired of spending money on my engine and I know you will be to once you jump into the thing! :] I have a second engine so maybe someday I'll build that one for a turbo setup. But for now I'm saving money for steel tubing and heim joints which keep going up in price, yay.

 

[Big]

hehe i can understand that..lol..I'm having a big hard think about things atm and to be honest..i'm swaying towards a LS1..purely because it have more lower end torque ...BUT at a cost of 7k...+ installing etc etc..the lex is still looking good...so many ways to skin the cat it is hard to see all the trees through the forest..lol
I wish it was eazi..IE 2 types of trans and 3 types of Mota's..lol and 4 types of 4X4's zzzzz...hahaha..
Thinking of LS1 into a SWB patrol ..Safari..(manual)or the VH45DE into it but auto..seeing as there is not a big enough flywheel and clutch pack for the nissan..see thing is if i go for what i was gonna do...i'm gonna break shyt first run..lol so I have lost my direction..HELP ME....LOL

 

[cribbj]

Really nice work there Smitherz! Question on your valve covers - did you remove the plug well seals before you had the covers powder coated?

And if you removed them, did you replace them with new, or put the old ones back in?

I've driven my old seals out of one valve cover and have managed to mangle 1-2 of them. Hope I can buy replacements, or if not I'll need to buy a new valve cover...

 

[Smitherz]

Hey thanks Mr. cribbj. Yes I pulled out the PCV valve as well as all the plug seals. Part of the process of powder coating involves a lot of heat so they always want all the rubber stuff removed. Then they sandblast them so they would be ruined anyways. I picked up a gasket set for the engine and it came with the rubber seals. During this whole engine build I'm making sure every single seal and gasket is changed out. I don't want any chance of leakage or any surprises while I'm out on the road.

Those seals are very cheap. When you buy the valve cover seals they usually only come in a kit which includes the plug seals as well as new rubber washers for all the bolts. I highly recommend this as leaky valve covers dirty up an engine quickly. I think the kit was $20 or $25. I'm sold on the quality of Carquest parts so I recommend them. Just remember that you need to check the bolts that hold the covers on after you have run the engine for a while as they need to be torqued down again eventually. Just pull the metal tabs back and hammer them all out then toss em. Get a large socket and a big hammer to tap in the new ones. Then tap the tabs back. EZ stuff.

 

[cribbj]

Thanks for the info; I certainly admire your philosophy on cleanliness and I wish more engine builders would practice it.

At the end of the day, all the painstaking hours they spend porting the heads, balancing everything, checking clearances, etc. is for naught if the motor still looks like it came out of a junkyard after they reassemble it, because they're too lazy or too indifferent to clean it up right.

Who said "you only have one opportunity to make a first impression"?

 

[cebby]

Really nice work there Smitherz! Question on your valve covers - did you remove the plug well seals before you had the covers powder coated?

And if you removed them, did you replace them with new, or put the old ones back in?

I've driven my old seals out of one valve cover and have managed to mangle 1-2 of them. Hope I can buy replacements, or if not I'll need to buy a new valve cover...

Same problem here. Where did you get the plug well seals? Is OEM the only option?

 

[Smitherz]

I would recommend you call up Carquest for the valve cover set. If they don't have it then I would call Napa Auto Parts next. If these two places don't have what I'm looking for then I either use Ebay or the stealership. Heck, PM Mr. Lextreme himself and see if he has a set laying around.

I actually bought an engine gasket kit on Ebay for $100. It had everything including really crappy head gaskets lol =]. But I used most of the other gaskets as they looked great. I'm glad you like my work as I love making stuff look good. After I get the timing belt on I'll put up a couple more pics of the progress.

 

[cribbj]

Wish Carquest's online access to parts was better. Their website has the (SFA)^0.5 on it. NAPA isn't much better when you're searching for generic parts - they insist on knowing what year, model, style car the part is for.....

 

[cribbj]

Here's a screen shot of the most common gaskets for the 1UZ from NAPA