1KZ-TE engine rebuild

[Trevor]

After giving Lil' Blue a dunking in the Essex floods last year (Essex Trip )and taking water into the engine, this thread will attempt to document the repair process. This will be the biggest job I've ever done having never worked on the bottom end of an engine before.

It all starts last year with me removing the head after having done compression checks HERE

Now the snow and cold weather has lessened it's grip, it's time to continue....

In order to be able to remove the sump I decided to approach from underneath rather than lift the engine.

First job is to split the lower ball joints, these were really easy with a screw type splitter. Note that you don't need to remove the brake caliper or move brake lines.

Next is to disconnect the the driveshafts from the front axle, there is no need to split CV joints. Instead you can pop the tripod joint housing out of the axle itself as there is enough movement in the suspension after splitting the lower ball joint. I had a buddy pull the driveshaft assembly slightly outward to expose a gap between the tripod joint housing and axle to allow me to slide a 3mm piece of metal bar into the gap. With a combination of levering and hammering on the bar, the spline shaft eases out after overcoming the resistance from the snap ring. If you have not already drained the diff oil out it will now leak so have a container ready to catch this.

You can now swing the whole assembly outward and tie it out of the way.

Use something to cover the spline ends to keep dust and dirt out.

Now you need to mark the front prop and undo, once done you can now remove the front axle, this is a bit of a pig. I removed the bolts from the carriers either side of axle at the front, 3 bolts on the N/S and 2 on the O/S.

You will see a hex bolt coming through to the underside of the front crossmember which is part of a rubber mounting bush, normally this will undo but the hex nut just kept spinning in the bush so to get round this problem you need to split this mounting from the axle case by removing 2 bolts above the crossmember. The bolt to drivers side (bolt at top "pointing" down) was removed by putting a 17mm spanner (open end) and the spanner pointing roughly forwards, then using a breaker bar pushed up into the engine bay I levered against the spanner. Shock force does not work here, it needed sustained levered force to get the bolt moving.

The other bolt on the passenger side and hidden just above the crossmember (bolt head at bottom "pointing" upwards), this needed me to go and buy a 17mm flexible head ratchet spanner. I had unbolted the axle from the side carriers and while my buddy tried to slip the ring spanner around the bolt head, I was on the floor at the front of the truck pushing the axle upwards with my feet to give enough space to get the spanner in (ok ok I could have used a jack).

The spanner faces the rear of the truck and again a levering action being done against the spanner with the breaker bar. The bolt would only move a couple of mm at a time due to the limited space the spanner was in and very little sideways movement available, so lever, reset spanner, lever again and so on. Finally it got going but as the bolt head moved downward we couldn't get the spanner off and as it was a ratchet head we couldn't tighten it back up again. This time the jack came out and I managed to move the axle just enough to get the spanner out, we then continued with the open end until the bolt was free.

I put a block of wood underneath the truck and after a bit of wiggling the axle dropped down.

Now all this is out of the way you can finally see the sump, this has a plastic and foam stoneguard which is attached to the sump case itself via 4 bolts, however on my truck the foam was so stuck to the sump that it could not be removed without it breaking into pieces plastic and all. You need to remove this to expose the sump bolts themselves.

Once you have removed all the bolts that you can see, you now need to remove the flywheel inspection panel at the rear of the sump, 4 bolts will allow you to take this off and hidden above are a couple more sump screws. My sump was well and truly held on by a good bead of sealant. Using a lump of wood on the front face of the sump, "encourage" it's release by hitting the wood with a hammer a few times to break the seal.

At this point you can't remove the sump as it will not clear the oil pickup pipework, so with the sump split from the engine, you have 2 x 10mm bolts and 2 x 10mm nuts to remove. in the photo you have 2 supporting legs at the left and right hand side of the picture which are held on with 1 x 10mm bolt, the oil pickup pipe union is near the middle of the picture and has the 2 x 10mm nuts. The first nut can be done with a standard 10mm spanner, however the second nut needs a 10mm aviation spanner (a long spanner) to be able to reach it.

Do not forgot to disconnect the oil level sensor connector...............I didn't and broke it.

Once these are undone you can remove the sump with the oil pickup pipework inside. I removed the pipework and then put the sump back on to stop dust getting into the bottom end of the engine.

Top tip.... tie the end of the spanner to your wrist as it's a t@*t to retrieve when you drop it into the sump.

Finally I have access to the bottom end

Part 2 will continue after I've had the pistons out etc.

 

[TonyP]

Good stuff Trev, not sure I would be brave enough to attempt that!

 

[PETE BELL]

IF you are in need of any parts just let me know

 

[Ben]

Nice to see you fixing it Trev.

You hoping to have it fixed in time for Lincomb?

 

[Chris Green90]

Make Sure you do a good job on her Trev cos you know I have got dibs if the time comes. lol

 

[Trevor]

@ Tony, not sure I'm that brave either, it's a bit scary but I figure it's just posh mecanno.

@ Pete, thanks, lets see what I find as I continue.

@ Ben, that's the plan although I might be cutting it fine, the deadline helps to focus the mind.

@ Chris, there might be a queue beginning to form, I think I'm up to 3 now who would like dibs lol.

 

[Chris Green90]

@ Chris, there might be a queue beginning to form, I think I'm up to 3 now who would like dibs lol.

Lol I hope you haven't forgotten your promise from Lincomb in Oct. Then again I can't blame you if you did, we were all pretty gone that weekend.

 

[Trevor]

Not forgotten, hope your filling up the piggy bank.

 

[Chris Green90]

Ready when you are mate.

 

[Chris]

Well done Trevor. One thing though, no need to mark the prop. You only do that if you take the slip joint apart. This will alter the phasing of the prop. Outside of that you can take the prop on an off as many times as you like. It's the prop flanges that are phased to each other, not the companion flanges at the diff and transfer case ends. The prop has to bolt back on one of 4 ways at 90 degree intervals. It doesn't matter which.

Looking forward to seeing the finale and Lil Blue back on the road.

C

 

[Beau]

Good luck with the rebuild, what exactly are you planning on replacing/rebuilding?

I too was thinking of rebuilding a motor, but upgrading/modifying a few parts.

I would have generally thought it would easier removing the whole lot from the top, I've taken one out before in about 4/5 hours. The most difficult part was removing the exhaust end.

 

[sae70]

Praying for you to have some luck Trevor Would be great to see you at Lincomb Looking back at that days laning in Essex reminded me of just how much fun we had up to and including the drowning of Lil-Blue, what a crack. It also had me looking back at the photos of the weekend away we both had with Ben when he suffered that panel damage and again, what a crack. Both events now enshrined in history and to be spoken about around a camp fire for years to come. Pull your finger out m8 and get to Lincomb so we can all work together on creating that next epic event

 

[Justin_Elliott]

Don't envy you with this one... But i'm sure you'll do a good job at fixing it, besides what's the worst that can happen?

But would be good to see you and lil blue back at lincomb - so do you really have the time to be reading this??

 

[Trevor]

Part II

So onward we go, after a bit of confusion as to whether the big end bolts were Torx or not, turns out that a 12mm multifaced socket is what is required on a breaker bar to get these moving.

Once both bolts are removed the big end bearing cap and bottom shell come away, I pushed the piston up in the bore and removed the top shell. Remembering the orientation of each part, I then put them through the top of a cardboard box and marked up accordingly.

You can push the piston so far with your fingers but using a hammer handle from below it needs tapping out for the final bit.

Hey presto, we have a piston and conrod out.

All pistons removed from the block.

Trev's "which way round does everything go box"

And now a comparison of numbers 4, 3 and 2. 4 is at the top, 3 middle and 2 bottom. We can clearly see a bent conrod. Number 3 I think has a small bend too but it's hard to see in the photo.

So now I need to order parts and get everything put back together. I have one question which maybe someone can answer, cast into the big end cap is Number 8 for cylinder 4 and Number 10 for cylinder 3, do these numbers have any meaning as to which replacement conrod specs I need, or can I put 2 second hand conrods in without worrying about unbalancing the engine?

 

[Chris]

Wow, Trevor, they're MASSIVE. I never expected them to be so huge. I guess 3 litres divided by 4 = large. Well done, brave chap.

I can't answer the numbered cap question, you need a Frank or Jon type brain for that but I would have thought that any correct con rod with it's original matching cap would be OK. I wouldn't use a different con rod and cap on the same cylinder - if that is what you are asking.

Chris

 

[Rob]

Could be a description of the clearances left for the BEBs. Toyota sell various BEB sizes so if you swap the conrods I would check what size BEBs you need if you intend to use toyota bearings. You could use ACLs if they are available for this engine which are one size fits all. I do not know if the BEB size is also affected by the crank running face actual diameter so cant tell you how to tell what size bearings you would need. Whatever it means at least do as Chris says.

 

[Roger Fairclough]

Spurious numbers on conrod caps are usually references for the machine that did the machining. The rod must come with it's corresponding cap as they are machined together.

Second hand rods will be as balanced as your originals.

Roger

 

[Trevor]

Thanks chaps, makes a bit more sense to me now. Chris I think it might be some camera trickery that makes them look like I've pulled a metal baby from the truck, piston dia is only 96mm and piston depth only 80mm and I think my mate must have very small hands

I'm about to price up new rings and new shells, now do I go Toyo or Non Gen on these?

 

[Chris]

Well you price them first Trevor. Then you decide. I would want to go original on any part that I ever bought for a car - if they were the same price as copies. Some parts, I would go genuine despite the cost - like BEB stretch bolts. But rings? Long time since I have bought any of those. Shells, what did they come out like? Some people stick them in again. I am guessing (no, really) that the sizes of the big ends isn't the variable bit in the equation. In other words, the outside of the shells are the same. It's the grinding of the cranks that probably varies needing selectable thickness sets. On an 80 there does seem to be 4 (?) sizes but all the replacement ones are single sized. This could be Mr T just being ultra ultra precision. Whilst in bits though I would want to put all new kit in. No point doing half a job is there. I think I'd probably have gen rings and copy BEBs. Just go with a branded make.

Oh I don't know.

C

 

[Trevor]

The BEB's are from Toyo are very reasonably priced according to ToyoDIY so I think genuine is in order for those. A set of rings on the other hand is pretty eyewatering at 270 Euro and I do wonder if there are equally well made non gen for those.

I have a mate who works at my local independant garage and is as fussy as I am in terms of doing things right, he will certainly have a view which I'll listen to. For instance he suggests that the head gasket set doesn't need to be Toyo and has suggested an alternative make for that.

It's a tough one really, I don't want to throw a load of cheap naff parts back into it, that won't do at all but there is a balance to be had between equally serviceable items (and that must mean equally) against overinflated pricing from the dealer.

A bit more research is in order but I'll not spoil the ship for ha'penny of tar.