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Thread: Any machine shop guys here? Engine rebuild happening.

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    Default Any machine shop guys here? Engine rebuild happening.



    Thought I'd check here and support the community before taking it to any old machine shop.

    I've got my old 22re out and torn down and need a good machine shop to do the block. Probably going with a new head unless someone can do the machine work cheaper.

    I've heard good things about a shop in Fort Collins, but heard they are 3-4 months behind now. I'm more than willing to go anywhere in the front range for quality work and good deal.

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    Default Re: Any machine shop guys here? Engine rebuild happening.



    If you don't find anyone, check out Area off 65th and Federal. They just did my 22re head.

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    Default Re: Any machine shop guys here? Engine rebuild happening.



    DoctorDuke previously posted:
    "Thought I'd check here and support the community before taking it to any old machine shop.

    I've got my old 22re out and torn down and need a good machine shop to do the block. Probably going with a new head unless someone can do the machine work cheaper.

    I've heard good things about a shop in Fort Collins, but heard they are 3-4 months behind now. I'm more than willing to go anywhere in the front range for quality work and good deal."

    Why not just a long block / Crate engine ??
    ___________
    In a never ending search for the proper mix of dirt & rock !

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    Default Re: Any machine shop guys here? Engine rebuild happening.



    Well...

    1. It's quite easy and a bit cheaper for these 22re motors.
    2. Many people argue the new ones are not nearly as reliable as the original blocks anyway.
    3. A lot of the major builders are doing quick and dirty new motors max bore, max crank, max bearings - and cheapest small parts.
    4. I'll get OEM or better parts for the odds and ends.
    5. I really enjoy building engines.
    6. It slightly annoys my wife.
    7. Bit of pride to drive a motor that you built your self.
    8. I'd probably do the machine work too if I had access to the right equipment.


    Now, I did think about going with some sort of engine swap and in that case a newish donor or crate motor would be the way to go in my opinion

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    Default Re: Any machine shop guys here? Engine rebuild happening.



    #5 AND #7
    Thats what I went to school for and I love it, But
    It is costly !!
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    Default Re: Any machine shop guys here? Engine rebuild happening.



    I rebuilt my 22re and it was definitely cheaper to build then buy a whole long block. Most of the places you get them from want a core and its just a pain in the butt. If you take it to a machinist then they can go over it and tell you what your options are. I think on mine I could have gotten away with just honing it, but I got it bored.

    I got a new casting "Street RV" cylinder head from Engnbldr (yes he spells it that way) and it does alright. Its bored out a bit and flows better. I also got the "crawler" cam the he sells. Most of the parts he sells are Rock Auto, which isn't the worst but you can get better for just a bit more money. I ended up getting all that stuff, and all told I think it was like $1300 or so plus my time (and some friends time too).

    I agree that its quite satisfying tearing down and reassembling an engine and I encourage you to do it.

    You may not want to come all the way down here, but the guys at Rising Sun had very good reviews for Gunn Automotive in Denver. I ended up going with Mount High Performance and they did a good job but when they cleaned it they left out two oil galley plugs that I didn't catch till the engine was complete and in the truck. Needless to say it was leaking oil and no pressure. Had to pull the tranny to get to the rear one and pull the timing cover off the front to get to the front one. I should have caught it, but I wish they had mentioned it too.

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    Default Re: Any machine shop guys here? Engine rebuild happening.



    Haku previously posted:
    "new casting "Street RV" cylinder head from Engnbldr"

    I'm Planning on going the same route with the Engnbldr head. I've heard a lot of good things about them and by the time you add up the new valve train bits and machining the head for some over-sized valves and such your right at his price anyway. I've had good luck with just getting old heads cleaned and squared up, but with what Engnbldr and LCE are doing and people are claiming why not? I think my last 22re head I did cost almost $300 with tax about 8 years ago and he's selling them for $450 shipped for the OC valves and only $350 stock with valve train.

    I've already have the motor out and torn down, so I might take the trip down to Gunn Auto and see what those guys can do since the local shop is about 4 months out and while I'm not in a hurry It would be nice to get this truck running a little sooner than that.

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    Default Re: Any machine shop guys here? Engine rebuild happening.



    I hear ya. I would just say don't expect it to be a night and day difference with the performance stuff. It all helps, but its still a relatively low revving 4 cylinder small truck engine. In combo with a good set of headers and some other small mods it will definitely hold speed on the highway better, but its never going to be fast with spending LOTS of money on it and probably adding a turbo. Even then, there are better engines to start with. The 22re is a great engine and does fine, but it is never gonna win points for speed and power.

    The other thing I'll say is that I actually sort of regret getting the "crawler" cam. I feel like the 22re already has decent low end torque (for its size) and I personally would rather have the power at higher RPM's. I'm not 100% sure if its the cam, but compared to my 4runner, my truck seems to fall on its face around 4500rpm and doesn't want to rev at all. The 4runner with a stock cam and TG "Rock Ripper" headers (same idea as Thorley Tri-y headers) is fine to well above 5k rpm. Its really nice to have for getting up the passes in the mountains.

    Only read below if you are cool with "crazy dream" talk....

    I was very close to making the block a turbo block when I rebuilt mine in preparation for going with a boosted truck. The stock style cast turbo pistons are the same price but they were out of stock when I ordered my stuff. Lower compression so less power before adding the turbo, but you can push it a bit more once you do put the turbo on without worrying about blowing stuff up. GotPropane.com has a kit that you can install along with propane that I'm awfully tempted to get. He claims with the right engine build, he can get 350hp or more out of it when you crank up the boost. I believe it after seeing this video....



    Not every 22re can spin 42's while going up a steep incline like that. His engine has forged internals and some other mods though, but nothing crazy. in a thread on 22RTE-Trucks.com he said they dynoed a stock internals EFI engine witht their turbo propane kit with progressively higher levels of boost and with 26 pounds of boost were getting 350 when it blew up. With forged pistons it definitely would hold it I think. Kinda fun to get small block v8 power levels out of a small 4 cylinder (and yes....I realize its a completely different power band and feel).

    Ok...I'll stop blabbing now. Good luck with your build. Hopefully Gunn Auto will do you right if you go there.

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    Default Re: Any machine shop guys here? Engine rebuild happening.



    Haku previously posted:
    "The 22re is a great engine and does fine, but it is never gonna win points for speed and power.
    "

    Oh yeah, I hear you. I've gone through about a dozen of them now and just have a thing for them despite the low power.

    I guess I was looking at the engbldr rv street cam which would spread that torque out better than the crawler cam and since I want to drive this to the trails would be the way to go. I've actually never noticed a huge difference between stock and tri-y headers, and a decrease in performance with aftermarket non-thorley style headers. The stock headers are pretty open and compact - machining the surface flat and a good r value and putting 2" to the muffler and 2 1/4" out is about perfect in my opinion.

    I had a 22rte for short time, someone made an offer I couldn't refuse after a week or so owning it, and even in its worn out state it was a lot more power. It would have been nice to see what it could do with a tune and turbo rebuild.

    Since you brought it up... Crazy dream talk... I have a bit of 10year goal to build a car for the pikes peak international hill climb. ~ anyway I had been thinking an 80s celica gt/gts with a 22rte built up exactly as you described for around 300hp in such a light car would be a lot of fun. It only has to go for 13miles too I'm pretty serious about it actually, there are better options but between my attraction to the 22re and them being original in the old celicas and stupid horse power from a 4cyl and small car... sounds like fun.

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    Default Re: Any machine shop guys here? Engine rebuild happening.



    I actually was surprised how much of a difference the header made. I had a 2.25" exhaust made to go with it and it definitely holds speed up the hills better and seems to rev more freely. It actually makes the "Mostly Stock" 4runner kind of fun car to drive. My other blue crawler truck with 37's did allright, but it would majorly slow down for the big hills and driving it on the highway was no fun at all.

    Turbo's are cool and I will definitely add it to one or the other of my 22re rigs.

    A friend of mine does auto-cross with one of those Celica's and its a pretty peppy little car. I'm sure adding a turbo to it would be pretty badass, especially if you were gonna push it to the "only needs to last for 13 miles" kind of performance. Here is his rig...



    Good luck with your build man. I think you'll definitely save money doing the assembly yourself and as has been said its a really enjoyable and gratifying job to put an engine together.

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