My cylinder head overhaul + rings project: Part 1

[randini667]

Part 1: The Background...

The Oil Burner...
My prizm loves oil. It would drink some for breakfast, lunch, dinner. This problem started abruptly in 2006, and has progressed. Well, only about a month ago, my car threw a "Random Misfire" which became a "Cylinder 4 Misfire." Not to mention my car ran like ran, rough idle, hard starts, etc...

The Cylinder 4 Misfire...
Put it in the garage and tried the following with no change:

-Swapped coil 4 with coil 1.... cylinder4misfire.
-New plugs... cylinder4misfire.
-Swapped injector 4 with inject 1... cylinder4misfire.
-Seafoam treatment directly poured in cylinder 4... cylinder4misfire.
-Compressions test on Cylinder 4.... Bingo 0psi.

Wow that's bad. So my father says, "put your hand over the exhaust," and sure enough, a heavy constant air flow with cylinder 4 at TDC. We knew then I had a burnt exhaust valve. Cylinder 1 also had a slight valve leave, which I couldn't identify as exhaust or intake.

Pulling the Head...


Father and son...




We were able to leave the chain, alternator, pumps, and engine mounts on. I could still turn the crank safely with this setup.



Pulling the Pistons and Rod Bearings...

Cylinder walls were in great shape. No ridges on the wall. The original specs mic in at 3.112 and we mic'ed the walls at 3.110. Father says they must have used soft rings in these oil burners.

Managed to get all four rods/pistons out from underneath the car. #4 has a brace intruding in the way, however using the right tools and a little extra time, it was not a problem. (See pictures)







Oil ring ceased in the groove. Did not want to come out.





Oil rings... Carbon galore.







The New...
Sent the head into Napa to have the seats and valves ground. The pistons were just cleaned. Ordered up some new parts, complete list below.












Parts List...
Rod/Main Bearings $44.22 Domestic Gaskets
(1) Intake Valve $12.50 Toyota-dealer-parts.com
Nippon Rings $37.50 Ebay
12 point 12mm male tool $15.50 Local Auto Value
Valve Steam Seals $25.00 Local Auto Value (oops have 2 sets now)
Head work + pistons $114.50 Napa
(2) Valve Keepers (lost one) $3.52 Toyota-dealer-parts.com
Iridium Plugs $47.00 Local Auto Value
Head Gasket Set $49.52 Domestic Gaskets
Sea Foam $10.00 Local Auto Value

[B]Grand Total Thus Far: $359.26


The Work...


Setting up the grinding station to get the lifters within spec. Had to take off anywhere between .006-.010in. Kinda sucks that the solution to valve clearance is buying new caps.




Checking the cap clearance...


Finally get the new valve from rockauto... Wrong size So I took the parts into Napa and they measured the valve and said, "it's the right one in the catalog, but let me make one phone call to another vendor." After the phone call, this "other vendor" has 2 valve options listed. Should have done my research first.



Plastic gauging the crank...



Dressing the pistons, honing the walls...



Pistons back in and turning over by hand nicely after I fixed a cocked bearing, opps.



Reassemble head with the right valve this time!

[Bitter]

i may be crazy here but the 1zzfe heads do not have a traditional steel insert for a valve seat, i don't know if they can be cut.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/vid...ts.html?cat=27 this video hits it on the head, pun intended. if they're not done correctly then the head is trashed. theres not much there to begin with, only very very little can be cut off, you're taking the valve seat from very thin to very very thin.


also, i'd suggest using the 03+ pistons and rings. they were redesigned to better cope with sulfurous fuels than the earlier ones.

additionally! i'd suggest gasket matching the intake and exhaust on the head and manifolds, you're right there and its free to do. you gain a couple hp/tq for free and make the engine more efficient. potential for a couple more mpg.

[randini667]

Originally Posted by Bitter

i may be crazy here but the 1zzfe heads do not have a traditional steel insert for a valve seat, i don't know if they can be cut.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/vid...ts.html?cat=27 this video hits it on the head, pun intended. if they're not done correctly then the head is trashed. theres not much there to begin with, only very very little can be cut off, you're taking the valve seat from very thin to very very thin.

Yeah, I watched this same video before I brought head into the machine shop. They seem to know what they were doing, so I'm trusting them... Dear God I hope they did it right. Gentleman in the video says, "it's pretty much the same operation as what you would have with a regular vale seat," and he goes on to say you have to watch how deep you go, like you said.

It's possible they just polished the valve seats. I'll have to check up on this.

Originally Posted by Bitter

also, i'd suggest using the 03+ pistons and rings. they were redesigned to better cope with sulfurous fuels than the earlier ones.

I really don't have the money right now to do a bang up job, so I'm going to take the hit and just try to get some miles out of her. I do appreciate the tip though.

Originally Posted by Bitter

additionally! i'd suggest gasket matching the intake and exhaust on the head and manifolds, you're right there and its free to do. you gain a couple hp/tq for free and make the engine more efficient. potential for a couple more mpg.

Never heard of gasket matching, but just did a google on it. Great tip! I'll be thinking about that for sure.

[Bitter]

then you might consider enlarging the oil return holes slightly. iirc the 03+ pistons have larger return holes and maybe a different oil ring design/different sized oil ring.

[randini667]

Rock on. I will do that at the very least. Thx.

[CJCride]

Really Nice stuff Randy, Thanks.

[dorman68]

Great job!!. I hope my car will never need this repair

[hokie_sti]

Nice story/pics so far! I love build posts.

[dorman68]

Keep us posted to the end with pics.

[randini667]

Thanks for the support! Will be checking in with updates as they occur.

[randini667]

ADDED: Picture of burnt out valve.

[fishexpo101]

WOW! That is one cooked valve. Must of chipped or something (defective valve) to have that much damage. Could have hit the piston top, as these 1ZZ-FE are interference designs.

[Fergifruitchew]

my 1zzfe in my 98 corolla is a non zero tolerance, meaning valves will never touch the pistons. i already messed around on this engine alot, had it out of time completely and cranked it over many times, never touched or bent any valves.

[Bitter]

you may have just gotten lucky then, it can be out of time just right so that valves don't meet piston.

[Fergifruitchew]

what had happened was i had a crank sensor plate off a newer 1zzfe with vvti, i had no idea they were different, they are much different but anyhowi tried starting it but the sensor plate fire #1 spot was different so it was firing wrong so i thought i had the timing wrong so i constantly kept rotating the cams but nothing worked so i took my chain cover back off and then i realized the plate was wrong. so i cranked the engine over severeal times with the pistons and valves up/down out and in, all positions and still no damage.
the 3zfe 3.0L v6 is also a non zero tolerance, 80% of the engines that can be damaged by this are usually high compression ones and gm lol..