22RE valve wear question - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

NatChilds · 02-21-2005, 09:02 PM

I have a rebuilt 22RE motor in my 1987 Seabreeze RV (on a Toyota truck chassis). In November I installed a new cam and rocker arms and got everything adjusted right. A little over 1500 miles later I checked the valves and found #1 exhaust noticeably tight and re-adjusted it. Now, 4700 miles further on I've just checked them again and #1 exhaust clearance was zero! I've re-adjusted it, but I'm worried because I can't see any benign reason for this. I am concerned that it could indicate that the valve is about to break (worst case)--and I'm a couple of thousand miles and two months away from home! Has any one else seen this kind of problem, and if so, what was the cause? Has anyone had a valve break?

A second, less pressing question: recently I've noticed that while in second gear at high RPMs maintaining speed up a hill it will suddenly feel like a gust of wind has hit (but it hasn't)--power drops off a little, and then comes back. It's getting more frequent recently. Feels like a sensor is intermittent and it's confusing the computer. Any idea which sensor would be most likely to cause this?

Thanks in advance for your help.

qsd-dan · 02-23-2005, 04:16 AM

The only thing I can think of is that you're "sucking" in a valve. This occurs when a particular cylinder is running too lean. Pull out the spark plug for #1 and examine it. If it has a white-ish look to it, then you know for shure it's running too lean. Start with that and post your results. We'll go from there.

NatChilds · 02-23-2005, 10:56 AM

Just pulled plugs from #1 and #2--#1 is very white on one side of the insulator, black down inside on the other and black around the outside. #2 is very white all around the insulator but black around the outside. This is quite different from when I last looked and looks much leaner, though the black is confusing and suggests the opposite. The color was quite good at last check but I can't remember just how far back that was. Any idea what would cause this? Nothing has been changed in the setup, so some sensor must be in trouble. It's now about 700 miles since that valve adjustment and it's again running with a lope which suggests that valve is already tight again--and I've about 400 miles to go before I'll be in one place for a while. I expect to do about half of that today, with fingers crossed!

Thanks for your response!

Nat.

NatChilds · 02-23-2005, 07:39 PM

I just looked back through my records--the plugs were replaced about 2500 miles on them. When I replaced them the old plugs had good color--not white, some brown. Roughly another 300 miles today on the engine--sounds about the same as last night: a noticeable lope at idle, otherwise running pretty well.

madtodaimax · 02-23-2005, 07:53 PM

so you got your lagging throttle fixed by changing spark plugs? i have the same problem.

NatChilds · 02-23-2005, 08:13 PM

No, Madtodaimax--the plug change was just because the old plugs were worn and no problem was solved by that. Is there another thread here concerning your lagging throttle problem?

madtodaimax · 02-23-2005, 08:16 PM

lol. yeah sorry. just posting different places, not trying to be annoying, but to find an answer. Ill probably just post about that once in a while. my last new thread about it was a while ago.

pcmentor · 02-26-2005, 06:52 AM

When I first started valve adjusment I didn't know the engine had to be either all hot or cold. Pete

NatChilds · 02-27-2005, 12:03 PM

Yes, Pete--all my valve adjustments have been made hot except the first one after doing head work.

alltrac165 · 03-01-2005, 11:29 PM

When you had your head rebuilt, did they replace the exhaust valves or regrind them? This could be a problem as the ex. valves tend to cup as they wear and regrinding them can cause the problem to accellerate. This would make them effectively sink in the seat further which would take up the lash and cause your problem. If the valves are new, then perhaps it's a seat problem?
As far as the bog problem, if it is fuel injected, then check your tps and throttle body. Could be they need cleaning. The O2 only works in cruise and idle, so we can rule that out for this particular problem, thought it should be replaced after around 60K miles anyway. An intermittent connection on other sensors, or a faulty sensor such as the engine temp sensor, air temp sensor, etc, may cause trouble, so check connections. Perhaps the injector connectors are dirty? Poor connections there could cause improper fueling and trouble intermittently.
Let us know what you find.