got justly diverted just when beginning a 95 4Rnr major O haul ( stocked for all bits but only had the crank in ) umm a few years back.

Now, Its happening. dammit. missed a couple years with this rig on stands but will have a garage fresh time capsoul when finished. With a major stereo besides.

up from ground motor heads new cams, bore slugs and balance, injextors plus eveyrthing organic on eng is fresh.

aussie going in front. 488s factory with 15s ??? I thought a G144 axle got me Big Wheels from Japan but the sticker said 225 somthing somthing 15. Is that normal? Buehler?

got a little story about setting up the aussie on another thread.

the contributions I feel I made are 1) set up the valve clearances with v.light Ace Hwdr springs on the bench of course, easy peasy.

The only adivce I would give to guys stuck doing valve clearance ON the truck is to use a rubber tipped air gun to pop the valve shims out of the bucket, instead of toyo;s advice to use a screw driver. Which sucks. Use air, it works great and scratches nothing. I believe those shims are supposed to rotate in the bucket, and the bucket is supposed to rotate in the bore to spread out wear. The valve stems on the old heads sure were good (not rocky) due to the well aligned opening forces ( ie , NOT a rocker working them back and forth) . This is my first bucket lifter motor, hence my sense of wonder and awe.


Going for upper end of the valve spec particularly vulnerable #6's exhaust, to avoid any blow by overheat. what the heck slightly open on 4 and 5 too. I'm maybe convinced to not fiber glass wrap the cross over but I'll for sure try some fin shields between the head and cross over using thin gauge al diamond plate on hand as radiation barriers. maybe post pictures if they look pretty.


felpro hd gasket has a single copper ring aroud one of the water passages back there on the leaky side. Wonder if that was their fix. A Japanese gsk set by name? Johnson maybe, yeah very japansy name, had an aluminum ring (strike that aluminum, probably stainless) more joined to the other passages. I prefer the look and feel of the fel pro gasket.

Expecting to skip the cork gskts in the oil pan in favor of Right Stuff. Man that oil pan is Uhh Glee. Looks like crazy dwarves with hammers and bent anvils shaped each one by hand. hate it as a motor part. as art maybe ok.

any comments , comrades or criticisms? call me, our lines ropin

Bigger tires (31's) typically got the 4.88 ratio, not bigger wheels.

G144 should be 4.88s. The tire size sticker is frequently wrong. Did you count teeth when you put in the locker?

yeah 11/94 door sticker said 225 75 15 , on 15x7JJ rims. Thats what on the the rig still.
Stickers never lie, DPOs ( dreaded previous owner) and ODFs (other durn fools) do sometimes.

Axle code g144 agrees with tooth count, 4.88 (4.875 to be anal about it) at least in front, have not spun the rear, no worries that its doesnt match up front.

I feel so tire old too, I have not bot inch tires in years, except for maybe bicycles.

a typical 225 75 15 is about 730 rotations per mile
a quick check on a 31 shows approx 680 rotations per mile.

Aussie warns that tires need to be within 3/8" circumference of each other per axle to avoid problems.
Jeezus I never saw that coming. I suppose its not a problem with modern stuff but I have really no idea.
Aussie suggests only buy tires IF the shop will promise a 3/8" circumference spec. I wonder how THAT will go over ?


Sort of surprised that Toyota would spread that far and wide on the installed tire choices. Lucky me huh?
Is the speedo drive gear easy to change if I want to know the Truth ?


Seems like this thing should really be a grunting tow dozer with those smaller tires,
or later of course pick up another inch of clearance with 31.

Good because I intended to dolly a little 944 behind it down to TJ Mexi for a paint job, then maybe try finding Cabo while I'm waiting for that paint to dry. Any one been down that way lately ?

I scored some new casting heads a few years back, loaded all the way to reground cam & used shims , seems like they were only about 200 each (!) if I recall. Scary cheap at the time but all looks well on them. We'll see if the seats fall out next month. I decided to buy new shims to go against the new cam, in part cos I wanted to do that loose set up on the EX valves, and once I needed 5 I just got them all, $7 or so from 1stparts.
Naturally that means I have a set of good shiny shims cheap if some one wants to play with gaps.

The castings sure look OK, not much visible porosity at all, I dont see country of origin on them, got to be chinese I suppose. I cleaned the cast flashing out of the ports and evened up the passages with using snap bore gage to estimate x-section, anything more would be a pure waste on this anemic motor.

I had some "Stone" brand gaskets from a ebay guy in Cali , supposed to be a decent Jap brand, which I was going to use but simply don't get a warm feeling about the head gaskets, I see nothing New Techy on them. Probably just graphite and Aluminum or stainless grommets around a few of the water passages, while the fire ring is coated with some dark stuff, probably stainless steel SS under there too.

I was impressed with a recent Fel Pro head gasket used on a Chrysler eng build (the latest generation w/ blue silicone rubber parts and beads on intakes etc) , so I got a set of those for this too .
Some kind of polymer layer or coating on the top surface of head gasket ... has a nice feel to it.

Plus one (ONE!) of the water passages near the Problem Point has a copper ring protecting it instead of the SS grommets rings on some / most of the other holes. Looks like normal UNcoated SS fire ring for the bores and some graphite on the bottom face. At least that copper bit shows Fel Pro / Fed Mogul is doing something, ANYTHING, about the water leaks on these.

question -
Any other preferences or experiences with head gaskets from you eng builder guys ? It gets kind of spendy to look at a lot of them, just wondering if any of you builders have a comment on HGs. Reinz ? Beck Arnley ? Fed Mog / Fel Pro?

Check out LC Engineering Home Page and ENGNBLDR.COM, ENGINE PARTS NETWORK for rebuild parts.

kid - interesting links thanks