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Thread: Refreshing the engine (rebuild and aftermath)

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    Re: Refreshing the motor of my 87' van.

    That's weird, perhaps some of the lifters were not initially pumping up.........or perhaps they were pumped up too much??? Did you put them in dry or did you fill then with oil before installing?

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    Re: Refreshing the motor of my 87' van.

    Quote Originally Posted by timsrv View Post
    That's weird, perhaps some of the lifters were not initially pumping up.........or perhaps they were pumped up too much??? Did you put them in dry or did you fill then with oil before installing?
    I didn't do the rebuild, had an engine shop perform that bit. But 117 miles on it so far and no more issues yet.

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    Re: Refreshing the motor of my 87' van.

    Spoke too soon. The red "oil" light on the dash lights up after after driving for 15-20 mins and then goes off and on. I have both a low oil pressure and low oil light sensor on my van, but I only have a the one red oil light on the dash. So I am not 100% certain what it is in reference too. I ordered an oil pressure gauge and water temp gauge so I'll know for sure what is going on when that all comes in. Got inspection done today too and it started leaking coolant from around the intake. I cannot see where it is originating from but it comes through the little hole on the bottom of the intake and runs down from there (this was taken on the underside of the van):



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    Re: Refreshing the motor of my 87' van.

    There are the coolant bypass hoses on your throttle body, hopefully it's one of those.........because the only other place is the air valve between the intake manifold halves. If the hoses on your TB are okay, then you will likely need to remove the upper half of your intake manifold to access the air valve hose. Tim


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    Re: Refreshing the motor of my 87' van.

    That sort of looks like that "hose of death" thing...

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    Re: Refreshing the motor of my 87' van.

    Quote Originally Posted by Suzu View Post
    That sort of looks like that "hose of death" thing...
    Yeah, it takes the same hose here too. The hose in this location is fairly well sheltered and seems to hold up well. I've never had one of these leak (yet), but I always replace these when I have the manifold apart. I also use the Toyota hose and the factory spring clamps here. I used to think the factory spring clamps were junk, but experience has taught me otherwise (there's an advantage to OE clamps). As the hoses get hotter/softer and the metal expands/contracts, and the hoses slowly give way to the external/internal forces, the spring clamps self adjust (always exerting a slight tightening pressure on the hose). It's this constant pressure that makes them superior. The stainless screw clamps seal initially, but as things heat, cool, settle, and slowly degrade due to external & internal forces, they do not self adjust and this leads to leaks. Not a big deal to re-adjust them when there's access, but a very big deal when there's not.

    The down side to the stock spring clamps is you'll need to use the Toyota 8 mm ID heater hose. Standard 5/16" ID heater hose is identical (regarding ID), but the OD varies depending on what brand of hose you get. Since the spring clamps will only work correctly with a specific size & wall thickness, it just makes sense to stick with OE hose. Even though I happen to believe the Gates heater hose is better quality, the wall thickness prevents the spring clamps from working properly. You could probably get aftermarket spring clamps for the Gates hose, but why reinvent the wheel? Tim

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    Re: Refreshing the motor of my 87' van.

    A few of the OEM hoses are not available anymore unfortunately. I'm using silicon hose for most of what I couldn't get through Toyota.

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    Re: Refreshing the motor of my 87' van.

    That particular hose & the hose of death are not available in OE anymore, but Toyota does sell this same hose in bulk. The OE HOD actually did have a slight bend formed into it, but it was so slight, the bulk hose has absolutely no problem conforming. You can buy in pre-cut lengths, but I usually buy in 300 mm (about 1') and cut to size. It's Toyota part number 99556-10300 (the 300 on the end is length). And yes, being OE it's ridiculously expensive ($8.53, ~71¢ per inch), but it's worth it to me for the piece of mind...........especially in those hard to access areas.

    BTW, this hose is also available in 200 mm lengths (about 8") Toyota part number 99556-10200. Price works out about the same per inch, but I've found the 200 mm piece just slightly too short to make into 2 hoses of death. If you buy the 300 mm piece, you can get 2 HODs out of it (less waste). If you purchase from one of those on-line Toyota parts sites, you can save ~30% on price, but the shipping will usually make up the difference. Tim

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    Re: Refreshing the motor of my 87' van.

    Fixed the coolant leak awhile ago and forgot to update. It was the exact hose you pictured. There was a screw left in the intake manifold that was backed out just far enough to rub a pin hole in that hose. No idea why the screw was there but it was.

    I have also installed a coolant temp and oil pressure gauge. Shortly after warm up the van gets to 240* F and stays there. Which is about the position it is on my van's gauge (even though there's no temperature values marked). My guess is that that old radiator needs to be replaced. I hoped a good flush would have fixed it but, not this time. Oil pressure seems fine, around 20 psi idle and 60 - 40 psi while driving. But those darn lifters are still so noisy even after about 1000 miles on this new motor. They do quiet after 30 minutes of driving but that is just not acceptable for a rebuilt motor.

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    Re: Refreshing the motor of my 87' van.

    240° F is way, way too hot.........especially for a new motor. I personally would never run one of these above 230°. I will run them up to 230° but only very occasionally (like climbing a hill or something) but only for short spurts. As a general rule, you want to keep it below 220°. There's a few good threads here that will help you sort out your cooling system issues. Here's a recent one with links to some other good ones. Tim

    http://www.toyotavantech.com/forum/s...erheating-duh)

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    Re: Refreshing the motor of my 87' van.

    After letting this thing sit for awhile I finally tore it open to see where that damn noise was coming from. Not to my surprise 3 lifters are really bad and one moves just barely. I am going to attempt to pull them without pulling the head but I'm afraid that may not happen.


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    Re: Refreshing the motor of my 87' van.

    They make a lifter puller tool that will go down inside there. If you pull the spark plugs and the spark plug tubes this helps immensely with access.

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    Re: Refreshing the motor of my 87' van.

    Lifters came out easy. I got 8 new Meller lifters from autozone and put them in today. The toyota van fsm said to soak them in diesel fuel before installation but I just primed them in a cup of oil before hand. Getting the rocker arms and push rods all in together was a real aggravation. I ended up zip-tieing the rocker arms together in pairs in order to keep everything aligned. Then I fired it up and... sounds just as bad as it did before, loud clattering, and it bogs down at idle. I have no idea where to go from here.


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    Re: Refreshing the motor of my 87' van.

    Have you checked actual cam lift? Maybe you have some flat lobes. I'm not positive of the oiling circuits on these but the fact that all the loose rockers are together would make me wonder if you spun a cam bearing.

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    Re: Refreshing the motor of my 87' van.

    Flat camshaft? Check travel with a dial indicator. Also, make sure the rocker shaft is right side up.

    http://www.toyotavantech.com/forum/s...roubleshooting

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    Re: Refreshing the motor of my 87' van.

    Quote Originally Posted by timsrv View Post
    Flat camshaft? Check travel with a dial indicator. Also, make sure the rocker shaft is right side up.

    http://www.toyotavantech.com/forum/s...roubleshooting

    Camshaft was replaced when the motor was rebuilt supposedly. Rocker shaft is correct, it was what I thought the problem was originally.

    Thanks for the recommendations though guys.

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    Re: Refreshing the motor of my 87' van.

    Quote Originally Posted by terrence View Post
    it was what I thought the problem was originally.

    Thanks for the recommendations though guys.

    So you were able to correct the problem? What was it?

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    Re: Refreshing the motor of my 87' van.

    Kinda, not really though. It was way out of time, fixed that. But there is still a lot of noise, my pops seems to think it's just old and that's how it sounds. Are 4ys normally noisy?

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    Re: Refreshing the motor of my 87' van.

    Noise like that is caused from excessive play in your valve train. These parts will wear very quickly if you don't correct it. Something has thrown off your valve geometry. If you're sure the cam is okay, you have good oil pressure, the correct parts were used, and assembly is correct, then it could have been a machining error. If it's a machining error this can be corrected by getting custom push rods.

    I haven't run into this issue in years, but way, way back in the old days, on some of the old-school engines (with non-adjustable valves) we could order push rods in different lengths as it was the only way to adjust valves. Some auto manufacturers used to offer them in different lengths too. If we had a noisy valve train, and a push rod was too short, we'd put a longer one in. I don't think Toyota ever offered this, but there are some specialty shops you can go and get these made. Here's one: http://www.pushrods.net/pushrods.html (I'm sure there's more). Of course before they could help you would need to take & record precise measurements so they would know the length to make them. Basically you position the cam so the lifter is on the base of the lobe, then measure the free travel between the rocker and the push-rod. Since you want the lifter to operate @ approx 1/2 of it's internal travel, you'd add .09" (full internal travel of our lifters is about .180"). Take the number you come up with (play + .09") then write "+.xxx" on a piece of tape and attach to the push rod. You should then write down the full desired length (push rod + play + .09") on a sheet of paper and make a note of which position in the engine it goes (this will be very important when installing the new custom push rods). Repeat this with the other 7 push rods. If you run into one with no free play you could skip it (probably okay), but I would rather get a complete custom set. Measuring is a little more complicated if there is no free play, but there are ways to do it. By the sound of that video, I'm guessing all your push rods are too short. Once you have all your numbers recorded, send you push-rods into the shop and they'll change the length or make you a new set.

    For more information about the 4y valve train, ready my blog: http://www.toyotavantech.com/forum/e...ebuild-part-13. Tim

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    Re: Refreshing the motor of my 87' van.

    I checked after letting the motor run a bit and the lifters seem to be doing their job.
    The rock arm assembly thing is on and in the correct position.
    Push arm's are straight, but no idea about correct length's.
    I have an oil pressure gauge hooked up and its reading anywhere between 40 and 60 psi.

    So let's assume that the cam the engine builder got was wrong or defective; how would I even go about checking that without pulling the motor? And by "free-play" do are you referring to when there is no tension on the push rod and it can be moved by hand or something?

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