Stock Rebuild for my 88

brutekiller787

New member
So, after many months of driving around maybe 100 miles a month due to excessive smoke from the exhaust, I decided i would finally rebuild the motor here in class. i have purchased a Master engine rebuild kit and today in class, we are starting the teardown.

Lots of pictures to come as my partner will be writing bolt locations on bags and taking pictures.

Stay tuned!
 

brutekiller787

New member
alright so we got down to the shortblock last night, went smoothly except for snapping 2 cam cap bolts off in the head :/. today we will be removing pistons and measuring things. stay tuned!















More to come...
 

brutekiller787

New member
Alright so no pictures last night, but i got the entire block and head stripped and into the hot tank for a few hours. tonight, we will be measuring the bores and rod journals as the rod bearings didn't look too great but we shall see when the mic's come out...
 

brutekiller787

New member
alright, so last night I honed the cylinders out and started reassembly. I got a little worried when i measured the cylinders they appeared to be about .005 under spec, but ALLDATA had the wrong, or more like too far rounded, spec, which was 3.39". not exactly correct. once i got the correct spec, it was all good, just a tiny bit out of round.

Anyway, block went into the hot tank again after honing, new pistons went in, and the bottem end is almost completely assembled. Head has not been touched yet, unfortunately. that will be tonight, i hope.

onto pics...









That's all for today. sorry for not getting pics during, greasy hands and all...
 

brutekiller787

New member
alright final update for the week as i don't have classes friday. things are coming together nicely. the two bolts i broke in the head have been removed, thanks to my next door neighbor that welded a washer and nut to the bolts and spun them out by hand. the head is mostly reassembled, cams are in and set to as close to TDC as i can get for now, as is the crank and all accessories. timing belt is kind of thrown on for now.

Monday i will be timing the motor, unfortunatly my kit did not come with a new tensioner :/ so i will have to recompress my "old" one that's been on for less than 1000 miles. oh well, good thing we have a vise. I think i am going to set my exhaust cam one tooth back to see if i can get some gains, worst case scenario is i have to retime it, which fills some of my required hours. then just throw intake and exhaust stuff on and put it back in the car, hopefully by tuesday night the engine will be in the car.

Just found out i have machining next session as well, so maybe i will be able to do something in there, who knows.

onto more pics...





 

88gt4DE

Active member
If you are using the TVIS , make sure the screws on the butterflys are tight or lock tight them in. Couple of mine just came out and ruined my rebuild with only 7k on it ... :x
 

88gt4DE

Active member
brutekiller787":3vd6c1hc said:
Yea IM Not EvenMessing With That ButTo Clean carbon


Make sure those little screws arent loose. You wouldnt think they could get past the valve but 2 did on mine. make sure they are tight and/or pean the end of them a little to make sure they dont come out down the road.
 

brutekiller787

New member
Alright so change of plans. Not only will the motor be done tonight, but we will be reattaching the transmission and hopefully putting it back in the car by tuesday night. Pics to come
 

brutekiller787

New member
gen 1 block with gen 2 head :) avoids HFH issues and i can put aftermarket cams in it.

Today, did exactly what i wanted to get done. motor is together and bolted to trans and attached to north/south subframe. tomorrow i am bringing the car into class and putting the engine in. hopefully i will be done by the end of class, which will definitely be a glorious exit driving the celica out. either way.

no pics tonight. expect a video of first start up.

I forgot the to put on the timing belt guide for the crank. how detrimental do you guys think it will be / is it worth it to pull the crank pulley off again to put it on.?
 

88gt4DE

Active member
Ahhhh , got it ... yeah did those when motor #1 went in and I think I'm gonna do them both again just because its out ...
 

brutekiller787

New member
yea i didn't really replace anything that was pricey, like my front axles on which both boots are torn on both. screw it it's just friction.

well no video like i promised because i was really tired and nobody had clean hands. however, we did have a successful install, motor was hanging by the side mounts by 8pm, completely mounted before 9:30 break, and electronics ran before class was over. a couple buddies stayed after class with me to help finish it up. and at 1:11 am she fired up "first try". i put first try in quotes because i tried to start it a couple times before that but various obvious things were not connected, like one prong of my starter relay, then my fuel return line. after that she started right up first try. i think i'm going to check my injector connectors and spark plug wires because it sounded like a lawnmower and popped a couple of times.

it ran and held an idle by itself, could my sh*t be switched?

next, my warning lights stayed on the whole time, could this be because i don't have a belt on the alt yet?

anyway, bringing the car back to my apt finally so i can work whenever i want, helps that i have a week off this coming week.

Huge shoutout to the students in my class at UNOH, and especially to Troy Thayer, the guy that not only helped my remove, rebuild, and install, but also let me store the car at his house while it was down. he was there every step of the way and i don't think i could have stayed sane through this without him. thanks buddy.
 

88gt4DE

Active member
Would def have lights on with a belt off ... Battery , brake and maybe check engine ... Congrats on getting her running !
 
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