1zz Rebuild – It's Super Effective

RIA · 2020-03-20T20:42:18Z

Eventually going to update this thread with pics but just wanted to share, i.e. gloat, that my spyder is no longer drinking oil like a trucker on a big gulp haha. I was bouncing around a few ideas for a while on what I wanted to do, whether that be a 2zz swap, 1zz swap, or a rebuild, taking into account my future vision of the car. However, what eventually got me to rebuild my 1zz was one thing, TIME. I had a big trip to Florida coming up, about 2700 miles round trip, and I wasn't confident the MR2 would survive without an intervention. I was going through over a quart every 300 miles at this point, more if highway. When I drove to Chicago previously, I found it very difficult to trend the oil burning rate. Anyways, with my trip approaching and no quality engine sourced, I decided a rebuild was the way to go! One hickup, I live in an apartment with no garage and I didn't have an engine hoist to lift the car as I dropped the engine. So, I went ahead and did it in the car with some advice from Bashman on *****chat and a nice youtube video What I did: Pistons: cleaned ring landings and oil return holes, added 2 new downwards graded holes to each piston, enlarged all holes. Decarboned by boiling in water. Head: Lapped Valves, Changed valve stem seals, cleaned off carbon Short Block: Dingleberry (Ball) Honed the cylinder to provide a nice 30-45 degree cross hatch at 400 grit. This is effectively a plateau hone. Checked tolerances on connecting rod bearings, changed out bearings with fresh ones and made sure everything was in spec. Was going to shim them all to get them on the low end of the tolerances but the new set had them all comfortably mid range with the exact same tolerance. Yay for even wear. Tolerances are lower on the spectrum than what they were and one of the bearings had bad marring from where it caught a particulate so there was that too. Changed a bunch of gaskets. New NPR piston rings. For the break in I followed the break in procedure outlined by that motoman dude and used 10w30 conventional supertech from walmart. Changed oil and filter 20 and 200 miles in. Then drove ~2700 miles on my trip to Florida. About to change to penzoil platinum 5w30. Other than oil burned during the first few hundred while the rings were seating, I haven't burned any oil. The level on the dipstick had been stable for the last 2500 or so miles. And, really, significant burning only occurred during the first 200 miles, mostly first 20. Also, while before my oil would be black within 50 miles of a change, 2700 miles from my last change, my oil still looks brand new, just a little darker. I guess the real test will be to see if any of the penzoil platinum gets burned since it's thinner. The hardest part of doing this in the car was identifying where everything was and the tight spaces. Luckily all my wrenches are low profile or I would have had a big issue. Also, I couldn't get the ECT Sensor off with my 19mm deep socket becaust it turns out my deep socket is only 19mm for the first 3/4 of an inch and then changes internal diameter. All the ones at advanced were the same so I got a 19mm ratcheting wrench that I will never use again lol. I left the intake manifold and alternator in the bay, detached, while pulling the cylinder head. There were a bunch of crusty hoses but hot water got them off fine. Also, putting the head back on without messing up the rtv on the timing cover was difficult. Pretty sure I strained a muscle below my shoulder blade. Now feeling better 2 weeks later haha. Also, when I first pulled the pistons I was very confused because the landings all looked very clean. However, after I pulled the rings, each one was filled solid with crud behind the rings and the oil return holes were partially occluded. Random Coolant Fill Pic:

Page 2 / 2 Prev

Last Post

RSS

RIA

(@ria)

Estimable Member

@dev

Penzoil ~~Ultra~~ Platinum 5w30 is what I’ve been running for a while, even before my rebuild. I like it. Apparently it burns clean too. Where I live, sometimes it gets below or close to 0 in the winter and ive never had cold start issues with it so it got my approval.

ReplyQuote

Topic starter Posted : 01/04/2020 4:29 pm

dev_r6@hotmail.com

(@dev)

Just a member. Moderator

Good stuff. Im actually going to use the new Penzoil 0W-40 SRT oil for my 2ZZ oil change. Its overkill I know but it has more of that newer tri-nuclear moly that was co-developed by Exxon and Shell. Its what is in Toyota synthetic oil and has shown ultra low wear numbers. Toyota formulations traditionally used higher amounts of moly as they believe that additive does well in reduction of wear for their engines. I was previously using Euro Castrol which has done very well for many years.

ReplyQuote

Posted : 01/04/2020 4:48 pm

Page 2 / 2 Prev

Latest Post: FCTuner – A Modern Apexi PowerFC Tuning Software Our newest member: iwashock Recent Posts Unread Posts Tags

Forum Icons: Forum contains no unread posts Forum contains unread posts

Topic Icons: Not Replied Replied Active Hot Sticky Unapproved Solved Private Closed

1zz Rebuild – It's Super Effective

Media & Contact

Cart0

Cart0