Ok so to start off i know pretty much nothing about yota engines. A friend has an 85 ext cab w/ the 22RE, 4" lift and 33" xterrains. The engine was rebuilt about 3 years ago (he got this truck free from his uncle and put on the lift and tires). Recently, he blew the head gasket, and just this past week/weekend got a friend of ours who knows a thing or two about yotas (hes had 3-4) to help him pull the thing apart to replace the gasket. Well they got everything off and his truck is just sitting now waiting for enough time to get the gasket and change it. They also found that water and had made its way into the oil, which was looked pretty milky.

My friend w/ the truck isnt terribly mechanically inclined, but im trying to convince him he should go through a just replace a lot of parts on the engine as long as its apart. He has 2 other cars and enough $$ to spend (the kid never spends it on anything and his relatives just give him cars). I also suggested that as long as you're rebuilding, why not add a little performance to the setup. What would ya'll recommend as far as a rebuild kit? Stroker? Different cam (pretty mild and streetable but bigger than stock)? Head maybe? Header? Anything you could suggest, and maybe an approx price. Other than any necessary machine work we could assemble it w/ some help from my dad whose got quite a bit of experience in engine building


*EDIT* also, forgot to mention the thing needs a new wiring harness, at least under the hood, really bad. The thing is ghetto rigged almost to the point of not being safe, hence not driving it much yet. WHo makes a good wiring harness for this thing, we need to fix that before we can wheel it anywhere. thanks

Search, and http://www.engnbldr.com/

go for it not hard at all. especially if hes got the time.

edit: try painless for wiring.

i'm kinda thinking about going the painless route someday. my 25 year old wiring is looking kind of nasty lately. there's a lot of stuff that's been disabled or removed, basically the only wiring this thing would need is ignition, fuel pump, stereo and lights(interior, headlights, taillights etc)

maybe someday when the truck is actually built and i'm not sitting here web wheeling :flipoff2:

Since your that far might as well replace the timing chain guides. Talk to DOA racing and get the metal backed guides, they will last alot longer. Also, LC Engineering makes a nice replacement performance head (new not rebuilt) for around $1200. As far as the harness goes, good luck! If it's the stock efi harness the only way to get one is to buy one from the dealer($$$) or find one at a junk yard. I know because I just went through this on my 86'.

thanks guys, good info. If he were to do say a cam, a different intake (aircleaner basically), header and exhaust, would that be a worthwhile combo? I think for $1200 he would be a little turned off on the head idea, but ill definitely tell him about the timing chain. Any other problem areas we shouls look for? The valves are kindy gunky rusted looking but i didnt look close enough to see if it was rust. is that a problem? also, the manifold is sorta gunky inside as well, could we justify cleaning it out and polishing it up inside?

When you blow a head gasket you will almost always get oil in the coolant and coolant in the oil. I would not rebuild the motor now just because of that, especially if it was just rebuilt 3 years ago. That rebuild should have at least another 1/4 million miles left in it, so your friend would be wasting his money.

Chage the head gasket, replace the timing chain guides with steel units and call it good.

As far as hopping up the motor goes...well, my opinion is that the intake and exhaust upgrades you talk about wouldn't do you much good without the head upgrade. So IMHO that would be more wasted money.

And on the wiring issue, is a whole new harness really neccessary? Can't you guys repair the one that is there? I think repairing what is there would be as easy, and much cheaper...???