The Rebuild Schedule

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DAY 1
Right after my final on 12/11/98, I backed my car into the garage and waited for it to cool down just enough so that it wouldn't burn me. I then took the hood off with the help of my parents (my guy friends still had finals in school). I got the small parts out of the engine bay like the air cleaner assembly, ignition coil, clutch slave cylinder hydraulic line, etc. When I took the left driveshaft out, I noticed that the outboard CV boot was split about 3/4 of the way around. I was surprised to find almost all of the CV joint grease still inside of the boot. But, I did find some grease that was thrown along the wheelwell. I ordered CV boot kits for both axles.

DAY 3
By the end of the weekend, I had all of the accessory parts keeping the engine attached to the car out of the engine bay except for the damn exhaust manifold. The bolts/nuts holding the manifold to the head were relatively easy to take off; the 3 bolts near the flex pipe weren't. No matter how much force I put on 'em, they wouldn't budge. And this was after I let them soak overnight with some "penetrating oil." (I'd suggest getting a can of this stuff at your local auto parts store just for those stubborn fasteners) So, I borrowed my uncle's air chisel (already borrowed his small 30-gallon air compressor) and chiseled the little buggers off. Problem solved! I finally got the exhaust manifold off so the engine and tranny could come out. We cleaned some of the small parts.

DAY 4
I borrowed an engine crane from my uncle's next-door neighbors who work on big rigs and tractors. (You'll notice the word "borrow" a lot) By afternoon, the engine/tranny was out of the car--we were having trouble with the rear engine/tranny mount because of the close quarters with the power steering assembly. We rolled the engine crane out of the garage and lowered the engine/tranny onto an old tire so I could start taking the tranny off. After the tranny was off, the clutch assembly (pressure plate and friction disc) were next. Then came the flywheel. I got 7 of the 8 bolts off with no problem, but the last one was frozen like it was the Ice Ages. I put so much force on the socket that the bolt head eventually rounded off. I had to be really careful not to scratch the flywheel, but out came the air chisel, again! It was starting to get dark, so we called it quits.

[ 4A-GE Halfway Out | Close-Up | 4A-GE on Driveway ]

DAY 5
I got the engine assembly mounted on the engine stand in the morning. I had to bring the larger tranny-engine mounting bolts to a hardware store to match the thread , BUT on a longer bolt that would fit the engine stand's mounting arms. By afternoon, the motor was stripped down, with the head following right after. I was surprised to find that the OEM head gasket wasn't fried, what with the relatively high mileage for a 10 year-old motor. After dinner, I stripped the head down to the valve lifters. I didn't want to take the valves off so that the machine shop knew the "story" of each valve. Did some more cleaning. Check out the pics to see how nasty the top of the pistons and valves were!!!

[ Before stripping | Deck and Exhaust Ports | Deck and Intake Ports | Deck and Chamber ]

Just as a side note, if this is your first time stripping motor, I'd suggest taking a few high quality, well-lit pics of the motor from different angles BEFORE you start tearing into it. I only remembered to take 2 close-up shots of the "front" side of the 4A-GE (timing belt side). And, when you take each component off piece-by-piece, put 'em in big zip lock bags or the equivalent along with their nuts/bolts. You won't need too many (maybe 10 at the most, if I remember correctly), but it'll help you keep track of ALL of the fasteners. What would be worse than installing your new, beloved motor into the engine bay, starting her up, then finding that you've left "a few" bolts out? I don't know about you, but I wouldn't be able to sleep at night. If I did, I'd have nightmares of my motor coming apart. DOH! Thankfully, I was able to keep track of all of the fasteners during the rebuild--not a single missing one!

DAY 6
I partially reassembled the block (crank, main bearing caps,and oil pan) so there wouldn't be so many parts to keep track of during transportation to the machine shop. I threw the block and head assemblies into the back of the Supra and hauled 'em down to a machine shop in Berkeley. (FYI: "Tito's Machine Shop" on San Pablo Ave.) I told them exactly what I wanted done and they told me that I'd get everything back after 3-4 days... Not bad, considering that they were inundated with previous orders, a kind of automotive "holiday rush" before Christmas, I guess. I started cleaning the parts when I got back home with concentrated Simple Green. Good stuff...

DAYS 7-9
Pretty much just cleaning ALL of the little bits and pieces. Wheeled out the Corolla just enough so that the engine bay could be degreased and cleaned on the driveway. Not much fun considering the weather outside was a bit cold; around 38°F usually. Plus, we used water from a garden hose to rinse the parts and engine bay after cleaning--that was cold, too. Brrr... At least the engine bay looked absolutely spotless!

[ Before... | After... ]

DAY 10
In the morning, I got a call from the machine shop telling me that all of the machine work was finished. But, I had a problem--the con rod bearings that I got were too small. Arrghhh! I should've double-checked the actual part #'s, but I didn't have access to a Federal-Mogul parts catalog. Lesson: when you order the parts for your 4A-GE, make sure you tell the person whom you're talking to the ACTUAL SIZE of the con rod big ends and the piston pin diameter, etc. Like most of you Toyota people know, the 4A-GE has some bottom end variations throughout the years. It's the same with the pistons. Make sure that you specify the pistons that use a 20mm wrist pin rather than the 18mm pin. Plus, the 20mm units are the full-floating type while the 18mm units are press-fit on the con rods and are of the semi-floating type. So, I had to wait while the machine shop ordered a new set of con rod bearings. Fortunately, they got a set right before they closed for the day. The machine shop's owner, Tito, waited a little after closing time so I could pick up the block and head. When I got home, I just unloaded them into the garage and quit for the day. More parts cleaning.

DAY 11
I got the block mounted on the engine stand, again. I checked the block and head for any imperfections from the machine work. The valves seated right in the middle of their faces, the cylinder bores had the correct cross-hatch hone angle for my Total Seal rings, etc. I was impressed with their work. I spent the next few hours measuring the clearances for the main/con rod bearings, piston rings, piston-to-bore, and run out for the crank. You really can't be impatient with this part of the assembly process--if something's out of clearance, it'd be best to find out about it now. Lesson: NEVER trust the machine shop, no matter how good their reputation is. Besides, once you've started up your brand-spankin' new motor and a bearing seizes, do you actually think that you can complain to the machine shop afterwards?! Ha, I doubt it. My work day was cut short since I was gonna go out with my friends for the night.

[ Bottom of Block | Deck | Crank | Piston/Rings ]

In the 1st pic, I didn't install the bearing in the 3rd main cradle. In the "Crank" pic, look for the holes on the counterweights that were drilled in order to balance the entire rotating assembly. In the "Piston/Rings" pic, you'll see the Total Seal rings--what makes them different from "regular" rings is the 2nd compression ring that's actually composed of 2 rings. It still has gaps, but they're placed at opposite ends so there's really no gap. At the right of the new piston assembly is one of the old, nasty-ass, carbon- and oil-covered pistons! Ewww...

DAY 13
I assembled the head so I could check the valve clearances. Not surprisingly, all of the exhaust valve clearances were WAY off; some of 'em had around .0015-.002" clearance! Only 3 of the 8 intake valves needed new shims. After working out which shims I needed for each "bad" valve, I tried to see if I could swap some of the shims around. That way, you won't have to spend more than you have to by getting shims from the dealer. You can always try to sweet talk your local dealer into giving you their used/old shims, but I had no luck whatsoever. Are you sitting down? Each shim lists for almost US$10. Yes, EACH! I must've spent close to US$80 even though I got them through my uncle who owns a garage (that's where I borrowed the air compressor and air tools). I had to wait 3 days for the dealer to get my shims. So, in the meantime, we cleaned more parts.

[ Top of Head | Combustion Chamber ]

DAY 15
I picked up a Japan-surplus C52 transaxle through my uncle's garage. The importer had a really good warranty (6 months or 6000 miles from the date of purchase) compared to the other importers around the Bay Area (90 days, usually). I spent the morning cleaning up the tranny's exterior casing and replaced the input and output shaft seals. Then, I needed to clean and swap parts from the old tranny to the new tranny--reverse light switch, mounting bracket for the shifter control arms, driveshaft shield, engine/tranny mounts, and the late-design clutch slave cylinder. It was actually a warm, sunny day, so my sister and I decided to paint the valve covers "Super Red II," the paint color of the body--the stock valve covers were just bare metal with painted, raised letters. We then painted each letter a metallic gunmetal grey. This was just for looks, I know, but it sure looked nice! I spent the afternoon working on the driveshafts; stripping, cleaning and reassembling them with new grease and boots. It was a messy job, but it was nice knowing that the boots wouldn't leak for a long time.

DAY 16
I woke up at 9:30AM, had a light breakfast, and headed to the garage. Since I already measured the clearances for the bearings and rings, I just needed to arrange the rings onto the pistons as shown on the instrux. After that, I made sure that the cylinder bores were absolutely free of leftover honing slurry/oil, dust, and even lint. The rings needed a "totally dry" surface to seat, so I just lightly oiled the piston skirts. I got a call from the Toyota parts counter that my shims came in so I picked 'em up. I installed the shims into their respective valve and triple-checked the clearances, again. So far, so good--the clearances were right in the middle. By afternoon, the crank, main bearing caps, piston assemblies, con rod caps, and oil pump housing were in. I installed some "accessory" items such as the oil pump mounting flange onto the block. The ARP head studs were installed, too. I made sure that the deck surface was clean, then installed the head gasket. The head assembly was installed and torqued down right after. Then came the other bits and pieces. By the time I quit that night, the engine started to look like it did before it was torn down.

[ Bottom End | Almost-Complete Block | Assembled Block | Me Posing with the Block ]

[ Drivetrain-less Corolla | Drivetrain-less Corolla Being Consoled by Father and Son ]

NOTE: You can see the yet-to-be-mounted C52 transaxle on the left side of the pic on the ground. The input side of the C52 is facing the right side of the pic, with the "rear" side of it facing you.

DAY 18
Like I mentioned before, I forgot to install the rear oil seal retainer before the engine was mounted on the stand. By the time I realized that the retainer wouldn't slip past the mounting arms of the stand, it was too late--I had already reassembled most of the engine. Doh! Stupid me... Stupid me... So, the baffle plate and oil pan would have to wait until the retainer was installed. And the retainer wouldn't be able to be installed until the engine assembly was off of the stand and hanging from an engine crane. So, after borrowing a pick up truck and the engine crane, again, the engine assembly was wheeled out and left hanging on the crane. The baffle plate was installed, then the oil pump pickup, and finally, the oil pan. I used The Right Stuff as a gasket maker, as suggested by the 4A-GE guru, Stephen Gunter. The flywheel (mounted with new bolts and Loctite), clutch disc, then pressure plate were installed next. Then came the tranny. The tranny was a bit hard to line up to the engine because we didn't have the luxury of having a transmission jack that could be tilted and angled any way we liked. Still, after some elbow grease and cursing, we got the tranny installed. Next came the thermostat assembly that's mounted on the tranny itself. Lesson: Don't install thermostat housing until you have the tranny bolted up to the engine--you'll have to take it off again to reach the 2 top mounting bolts. It was getting cold outside, so we rolled everything back into the garage.

DAY 19
We rolled the Corolla out and prepped the engine bay for the engine/tranny installation. I checked out the engine wiring harness and found out that the wire going to the oil pressure sending unit was seriously frayed. So, I dealt with that. The harness was then installed onto the engine/tranny and its various sensors. We had some trouble getting the rear engine/tranny mount to clear the power steering assembly (AGAIN!), but finally got the whole thing back on its 5 mounts (you'd think that Toyota was mounting a high-power motor into the engine bay!). It was already around 8:00PM or so, but I had almost all of the major parts back into the engine bay. We rolled the Corolla back into the garage. The only things left to do were the driveshafts, fluids, connection of the wiring connectors on the center console/ECU, and the front wheels! Woo hoo!!!

[ Engine in Bay | RH Close Up | LH Close Up | Tranny Case ]

DAY 20
I decided to install the driveshafts first, so that we could roll the Corolla out on its own wheels instead of using the floor jack. Note: the service manual clearly states that the wheel bearings may be damaged if they get loaded with the vehicle's weight without the driveshafts or SST support installed. Lesson: don't even try it! The Corolla was rolled out and we refilled the fluids and checked for any leaks. The wiring connectors were finally hooked up and WE WERE READY! I disconnected the fuel and ignition systems connectors, left the spark plugs out and cranked the motor until the oil pressure gauge showed some, errrr, pressure. It took about 5 cranks to get the gauge to move. I reinstalled the plugs, ignition cables and coil connector and tried to start her up for the first time. Crank, crank, crank... Nothing. Crank, crank, crank... Still nothing. I checked for spark and saw that it was a bit weak. Luckily, my uncle had a Corolla GT-S like mine at his shop. I borrowed the coil from it and tried again. She still wouldn't start. I shorted the "T, E1" terminals in the diagnosis box and got 2 fault codes. Both of 'em dealt with the ECU not getting a signal from the distributor. So, I checked the air gaps for the 2 hall sensors (#1TDC and each cylinder) and gapped them to specs. I reinstalled the dizzy but she still wouldn't start. Then, after a lot of cussing and pleading in my head, SHE STARTED! I checked for any leaks and found that the bigger coolant bypass hose was leaking coolant, but otherwise, no leaks. It was already dark, so we shut her down after 45 minutes of idling at 1600-1800 rpm and rolled her back into the garage. What troubles me is that the "electrical anomaly" pretty much solved itself. Normally, I'd be happy, but that just means that it'll bear its ugly head at some inopportune time; maybe when I'm in the middle of the Mojave Desert, for instance. Wouldn't that suck?..

DAY 21
I dropped by the Toyota dealership to pick up that big coolant bypass hose. Thankfully, they had 3 in stock. After replacing the hose, I started her up, again. Now this is what really started to suck... Whereas she ran perfectly the day before (she was running and idling smoother than any new car that I've been in recently), she began to develop a disconcerting smell from her exhaust fumes. At first, I thought the vapor was just normal condensation during warm up. But, I could see a faint blue-gray tint to it. CRAP!.. She was burning some oil. It even smelled like burnt oil. Just my luck... I let her warm up to normal temp to see if it'd go away, but it didn't. I shut her down then pulled the (still hot) plugs from each cylinder; wet, they were all wet! I've heard that Total Seal rings are a bitch to get to seal, but this was just too much for me! She couldn't have been leaking oil through the valve seals because I replaced all of them while the head was apart. The valve guide bushing's were checked and they were within STD spec. It wasn't the PCV system because I pinched the hose really quick while she was running, but there was still some smoke. So, the problem was most likely in the rings not seating on the walls like they should have. Arrgghhh! I was pissed, so I quit for the day and retreated into my room to think about what could've gone wrong.

DAY 22
After getting some ideas and help from the Toy-Mods List (they're a great bunch of people), I tried pouring some solvent through the spark plug hole and letting it sit for a while. Hopefully, the wet cylinders weren't that bad. After 2 hours, I started her up, again. A big cloud of smoke came out in the very beginning--it was from the dissolved oil sitting in the solvent. After the smoke cleared, the exhaust was starting to look clear! But, that only lasted for 20 seconds, at the most. It started to get a bit nasty, again. From the looks of it, I'd have to pull the pistons out and re-hone the cylinder bores really quick. Also, I'd have to replace the rings since they didn't seat right. It's just too bad that I have to tear the motor almost all the way down to get to the piston rings. I didn't have the time to do that since school was coming up all too quickly, so she's been sitting in the garage ever since. For now, I've been using the Supra as a daily driver. I miss the Corolla, though. The Supra's great and all, but I feel "more at home" in the GT-S. Plus, she weighs a good 700-800 lbs. LESS than the Supra. Believe me, you can feel it when you're taking some curves.

6 Months Later...
Right after my last final on May 14, I started the re-rebuild! I decided to leave the block on its mounts inside of the engine bay, but I yanked off the head and dropped the oil pan/baffle plate. I also left the center crossmember installed because I didn't wanna have to bother with the rear mount--it was a major PITA to get to. By strategically removing some engine/tranny mounts in combination with jacking, I was able to remove the center mount, flywheel/bellhousing cover plate, and oil pan. Well, sort of on the oil pan--the gasket maker that I used 6 months ago worked so well that it wouldn't let up! I must've wasted at least 1 day trying to remove 'em without causing too much damage. I ended up shoving a small gooseneck crowbar in between the baffle plate and oil pan then using the compact scissor jack from the trunk to force the bugger off! I had to be more careful with the baffle plate, though; it got bent too easily. I had to hammer the oil pan and baffle plate back so they'd have flush mounting surfaces.

When I finally pulled the piston assemblies out, I noticed how oily the rings and cylinder bores were. It pissed me off seeing that. To this day, I can't figure out what could've caused it to get wet cylinders. I made sure that the pistons, rings, and bores were totally clean and oil-free. I got new Total Seal rings, cleaned out the bores and pistons, gapped the rings, installed 'em, then slapped 'em inside the bores. The whole process took about 1 week. I finally started her up, and immediately ran her at around 3000 rpm. She was coughing up some smoke, but that cleared up after 10 minutes. I ran her at 3000 rpm for an hour, just to make sure that the damn rings seated correctly! You know what else I found out? I need a new muffler--it got even more loud for some reason. It was nice to hear my exhaust after such a long time, but still, it was too loud. For the next few weeks, I drove her up and down California to gently break her in.

I was most concerned about the Grape Vine on the way down to LA--I always see so many cars (even new ones) that have pulled over due to overheating or other problems. The first time Floyd and I drove down to LA after the rebuild, he was the one at the helm for the Grape Vine. I would've preferred me to be in the driver's seat just so I can "feel out" how the motor was doing, but Floyd did fine. I kept an eye out for the temp and oil pressure gauges the entire way down and thankfully, they never wavered from their normal ranges--the temp gauge didn't even budge from its normal level that's below the half mark!


    So, kiddies, what've we learned from rebuilding motors ourselves???
  1. Take your planned budget (parts, machine work, labor, etc.) and double it!
  2. Take your planned alotted time for the project and--you guessed right--double it!
  3. If you're on the fence about replacing a small part that's been giving you trouble in the engine bay, inside the cabin on the firewall, misc. drivetrain bits, etc., don't hesitate when the engine's out! For one thing, you'll never have all of that free space to work with once the engine/tranny are out. Take me, for example, I didn't replace my clutch because it still felt "okay." Granted, I still got a good 20K miles outta it, but now I have to replace the mother and pull the axles and tranny. Yippee. =)
  4. If you're not sure what the hell you're doing, don't mess things up even more and assume that you can get by! Contact people who have actually experienced what you're going through and most of the time, they'll give you pointers.
  5. A factory service manual is worth 10 times its weight in gold--trust the people who helped design and service your car.
  6. Take still shots (a digital cam is handy at these times) throughout the tear-down process. It may sound time-consuming, but when you have extra parts "left over" from the assembly process, don't blame me!
  7. Don't get cheap-ass parts and expect them to last longer than OEM (or better) parts.
  8. Having access to an air compressor and air tools makes the job go a lot quicker.
  9. Having access to friends and able bodies also makes the job go a lot quicker. =)
  10. Liquid Wrench, sledge hammers, and crow bars... A mechanic's best friends!
  11. Don't have 1/2" and 3/8" torque wrenches? You'd better get some...
  12. Don't know how to use a torque wrench? You'd better learn...
  13. Above all, patience...


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