always something
well things were going pretty well last night until i had a hiccup.
Going to try to document the build a little better and not just with abstract shots but potentially helpful ones.
Got back to the shop yesterday afternoon and got the new main cap bolts(special ordered and backordered from Toyota) in and torqued. didn't realize until way late that they were one-time bolts like the heads.
Got those and the rod caps torqued + the extra 90 degrees it asks for.
Up next would be the heads. So i slapped the new head gaskets on and pulled one of the heads out of the garbage bag its been living in and got to it.
Note: went with later 3.4L metal headgaskets to avoid the potential of failure that the early gaskets are known for.
Note: set the motor to TDC now because its easier than it will be later
The heads are assembled from the machine shop doing the valve job and its a little annoying to pull the cams in order to put the heads on when they look so fresh. Thanks Toyota for putting the head bolts below the cams :crazy:
don't mind the messy workspace, i have limited space in my friend's shop and it drives me crazy too.
Doing one head at a time for that reason.
When preparing to start torquing headbolts, i realized the new ones were a little weird. I'll add a photo here later, but the factory were a 12 point 13mm i think and that was too big for these. Tried a 12mm, no dice. 1/2" was the only thing that fit and i realized they were made in America, so makes some kind of sense. That's fine and i'm all for it, but the 1/2" wasn't exactly snug. Decided to start despite that, but i was worried that i'd have issues once the bolts got tighter. Told my buddy the shop owner and he mentioned the bolts won't strip easily and just to see how it goes. So i went for it and the torque sequence was going well until i got to round 3.
for anyone who hasn't done them, it goes:
-25 Ft lbs
-90 degrees
-90 degrees
Well i made it all the way through round 1 and 2.
Then 3 bolts into the 3rd round, the socket jumped. checked it, the bolt wasn't chewed up he said the try again, jumped again. The bolt held up just fine but the rounded edges were just jumping across because the socket didn't get enough bite. :redbrick::redbrick::redbrick:
So now i have a bolt that is like 45 degrees from being fully torqued and kind of stuck. tried a couple other sockets but no luck so far so i'm going to be searching for a 1/2" socket with better bite and if i can't find that, I'll be finding new head bolts and starting over.
Incase you're wondering, the head bolt company is DNJ. wish me luck on finding a better socket and not starting over with new bolts.
to be continued...
