Rebuilt Engine Won't Start (distributor was off)

[Kyle]

I was burning the midnight oil trying to get my newly rebuilt engine started for the first time. Anyone wanna give their thoughts while I sleep this one off?

Here's what I got instead of a glorious fire-up.


My initial (and uninformed) reaction is it seems like the valve timing is way off.

Maybe my (new) lifters just need more time to fill with oil before they start actuating? please?

I had my machinist do the reassembly of the internals instead of myself... I hope I don't come to regret it.

Are there any other procedures I should do before starting for the first time other than fill with oil, jump the fuel pump to prime, and crank?

[JPERL]

that sounds like mechanical timing is off. Maybe they did not install the timing chain correctly or the distributor is installed off 180 degrees ?

[Kyle]

I got it started!

______________________________________________
_____________________________________________
______________________________________

____ ____ ______ ________ _____
_______ _____________ _______ ___ ____ ___________________
_______ _____________ ____ _ _________ _______ _________ ___
_____________________ _______ _____________ ______ _________
_________________ _ ____________________ _________________ _______

Yeah, I had a hard time believing that it was just an ignition thing, but turns out I had the distributor way off. I just took it off and re-installed it. I always fret about stuff too early on.

Only now I have a coolant leak from an undertightened hose clamp inside the damn intake manifolds so I gotta take all that apart again before I can move forward!

[MyToy]

Fantastic Kyle:

Man that water leak seems to be common amongst rebuilts.

How long did it take you to rebuild the engine and when you did, did you remove from bottom or out the passengers door?

I am preparing myself over here. I may luck out but I want to be ready.

MT

[Burntboot]

It's only common when people use gear clamps.
If you use the proper spring clamp from Toyota, you won't be having those issues.

[Kyle]

It took me about 2 days to pull the engine out of the passenger door. I took the whole door off, but that might not have been necessary. I was a total dummy and didnt know about disconnecting my torque converter from the drive plate beforehand, so I just pulled the whole converter with my engine, which made it much harder to maneuver, but still do-able. Another day to strip it down to the "long block". There was about a 2-week turnaround time with my machinist (mostly just waiting on parts in the mail) and then it took me about 2-3 weeks to re-assemble the do-dads on the engine and put it all back in. That might sound like a long time, but it's all the little holdups you run into like "hmm actually, I wanna do rust control / paint that coolant pipe nipple before I reassemble this" or "I gotta run to the store to find one little crush washer" that take up so much time. If you pro-actively do a lot of this stuff beforehand while the block's in the shop, you could move through it a lot faster.

The Engine Tech re-build kit cost about 200 from rock auto,
I probably spent about 500 more in all sorts of other parts that I wanted to replace (new mounts, fuel system stuff, hoses, spark plugs, BVSV, thermostat, etc)
100 to get my injectors serviced by Dr Injector
and my machinist charged me 1200.

I lost my photos of pulling it, but here's the gratuitous dropping-it-in shot


Burntboot,
Yeah, I would have liked to except I replaced all the hose with bulk SAE stuff that has noticeably different OD than the metric stuff. There's no way I was gonna fork out 20 times the price for all those OEM bits of hose (did you see my post on DIY molding? )
The one beneficial thing about worm gear clamps is you can position all the screw heads in more accessable angles to reach with a long socket, which makes some servicing much easier. I can now replace both hoses of death only by removing my TB and EGR. I think it would be much harder to get a pair of pliers on spring clamps here and wiggle them off.

Anyway, the upper intake only took 3-4 hours to pop off and back on. So no biggie.

[MyToy]

Ok, thanks Kyle. This leads to another question about piston slap. If the slap BB brought up occurs due to piston and cylinders wearing then during rebuild how do you current the cylinder issue? On the Lycoming we just change out the jugs.

MT

[Kyle]

I'm no expert. I just assumed boring out my jugs .10 over with new oversize pistons / rings will give the top end a fresh start.

Be sure to have your jugs measured before you order your kit .10 over, unless you know lots of the van history. Who knows if some PO already bored it out once!

[MyToy]

OH! My bad, I did not now that one could order over size pistons for customized re-bored cylinders.

The van did go under some work about 100K ago with new rings and bearings. It was only due to the fact that the head gasket failed and while he had it open he did the rings. Not sure if he had it bored since he did not take the engine out but I did see where it can in fact be done when the engine is still in, unlikely though. I will write to him and find out.

OK, all good.

Now that you have successfully completed your rebuild, would you recommend your machinist to others that wanted to do the same?

Thanks
MT

[Burntboot]

MT - if the motor didn't come out, it didn't get bored so you should be good to go on .10 over, the only thing to consider is if the bores are heavily worn, then you might need to go to 2nd oversize. The real determining factor is how accessible parts are to you.
If you can get parts in 1-2 days, best to wait till the machinist tells you what he needs.
If parts are more like 1-2 weeks away, you may have to take a leap of faith.

But I wouldn't spend a dime on any parts, until you thoroughly diagnose the issue.
No point planning a rebuild if you don't have to go there.
BB