TB and HG photo timeline.

[PitbullRescuer]

Man after my own heart. I know you posted in my project thread, this write up is great.

Quick question, as I think you know, the top end of my motor was in the trunk when I bought my latest 4Runner. The heads were disassembled, cams out, cam bearing caps all over the place and the lifter buckets laying allover. I have no idea which lifter bucket went to which valve, which cam bearing cap went to which spot or even which cams were in which head.

I was going to send the heads out for hot tanking, valve job, new valve seals anyway.

How big of a deal is it going to be reassembling these not knowing what came from where? The cam bearing caps I thunk are marked so I can probably reference those. Not sure how to tell which cams were in which head and which lifter buckets were on which valves. Help....

 

[PitbullRescuer]

Man after my own heart. I know you posted in my project thread, this write up is great.

Quick question, as I think you know, the top end of my motor was in the trunk when I bought my latest 4Runner. The heads were disassembled, cams out, cam bearing caps all over the place and the lifter buckets laying allover. I have no idea which lifter bucket went to which valve, which cam bearing cap went to which spot or even which cams were in which head.

I was going to send the heads out for hot tanking, valve job, new valve seals anyway.

How big of a deal is it going to be reassembling these not knowing what came from where? The cam bearing caps I thunk are marked so I can probably reference those. Not sure how to tell which cams were in which head and which lifter buckets were on which valves. Help....

 

[Diagram14]

Sounds like a puzzle to me. I think the passenger side cames have double dot timing mark on the drive gears and the drivers side one single dot (I think there is a picture of that in the thread) as far as orientation goes Im not sure, the matching cams for each side might be identical. You'll have to compair them, or maybe there is some detail in the pictures that will help you to get sorted out.

If you are going to get the heads machined anyway maybe the machinist can polish the bearings and caps/races so you dont need to locate them exactly. I believe there are reference markings on the caps but I dont know if there is an actual factory system to facilitate relocating them or if its just a stamp for you to be able to take notes on disassembly.

I think all the lifters (buckets) are identical and just float on top of the valve so getting those back in their original location is probably of little importance. The real chore is going to be swapping your shims in one by one on reassembly, trying to get your valve clearance within spec. I dont envy you in doing that.

I dont know how much help I really am, just do my part to try and get things to work.

 

[PitbullRescuer]

That was a help, thanks. Yeah, after researching it last night (and quite a few beers) it looks like I'm just going to have to drop the buckets in and have plenty of shims on hand. The plus side is that I should have a very quiet valve train after adjusting all of them.

Quick question, where to buy shims? Should I just go to Toyota or are they more readily available?

 

[Diagram14]

I got mine from toyota but Im sure there are plenty of places to get them. They were on the pricey side for me so I wouldnt be buying a surplus for myself. You should be able to get measurments with the shims you have and create an exact shopping list. This is just one of those jobs where you really cant anticipate everything and get it all on one order.