1zz rebuild

[Mr X]

This stuff may or may not have been posted before but extra info never hurts anybody!

*** update *** I'm currently adding to this post with and hopefully, I wont forget anything... I will also add some more pictures at a later date (taking more as I do other jobs on the car) ***


My engine has been running for 3 weeks now with no issues!   s:bounce: :bounce: s:bounce:  so I thought I'd upload a few pics to show people thinking about doing this that it Isn't that bad! I have been planning to do it for years as mine is a 2001 and I wanted to check the pistons (only burning about 1l per 2000 miles). The pulley coming off and the pistons bending all the valves kind-of forced me to do it!

I did NOT remove the block or crank (it was ok) I didn't even take any of the wheels off!  s:D s:D  just jacked the car up from the rear right point when I needed to work under the car.
 As I took parts off, it's important to get the head bolts, big end bolts, shells etc ALL back in the correct place and right way arround. I got some old card boxes with holes in and poked them all in making note of what side the front is (chain end). That way they didn't go rolling off. I also did this with the valves.

I've tried to keep images in order some things jump about as I took more today while cleaning my ICV fitting an induction kit   s:twisted: :twisted: s:twisted:  ...

If you're only fitting a new head gasket, I have read that you can (and this does seem correct) do it without removing the aux belt, water pump, engine mount, chain cover and chain. It is a bit risky as you need to align the marks and do NOT crank the engine and make sure the chain it tight at all times. That and don'd drop anything down the hole   s:wink: :wink: s:wink:  If you're popping out the pistons though you will need to remove it all as you'll need to crank the engine.

It's a good idea to get some sort of multi-tray box you can put masking tape on the front to keep all the bolts safe. Write on the masking tape what parts they're from. Remember, don't do this for the bearing cap bolts on the camshaft, head bolts and conrod bolts. These must be put back in the old place or it might not seal back up the way it was.

Recommended tools:
1x socket set + u-joint. An extra one is handy though!
1x ring spanner set.
1x 1/4" drive small torque wrench.
1x 1/2" drive large torque wrench (could probably make do with just a small one).
the crank pulley install/remove SST (or a welder).
Ring compressor if you're removing pistons.
600mm (24") FLEXIBLE CLAW PICK UP TOOL.
Gasket scraper.
Lots and lots of laytex gloves

ok, start off by removing the x brace (2 14mm bolts and 2 14mm nuts). Unplug your o2 sensors (I always do this first so I don't catch the cables).

disconnect your battery You might not think this is important but you'll wish you had if you earth something out (i've done this   s:roll: :roll: s:roll:  )

Remove the oil drain plug and drain the oil. Let it drip out while you work.

Remove all your intake components. The arrows show some off the earths and water pipes you'll need to remove later.


Remove the black carbon canister from the front of the engine (chain side). Just remove the 2 pipes from it and it then unclips and pulls off. Then you can remove the 2 10mm bolts and take off the bracket.

Remove the 2x 10mm nuts and 2x 10mm bolts from the black engine cover, unclip the 4 coil pack connectors, remove the 4x 10mm bolts on the 4 coil packs and the 2x  holding on the coil pack cables and

Remove the 4 packs and lift the cables up and to the side. Do this at the same time as some of the packs kind-of interlock with the cable runner...

Remove the surrounding 10mm bolts and 2x 10mm nuts that hold the engine lid on and remove the 2 pvc hoses that go to the throttle body. Then pull off the cam case lid. This can need a little wiggle because of the engine loom holders (where the 2 nuts are) but if you twist these round, it comes off a little easier.

Put the lid somewhere safe, you don't want to get any dirt on the inside of it. If you need a brake at any point, put the lid back on top of the engine with the black cover. If it then rains, you're sure water isn't getting into your engine.

Remove the 3 amigos *uh oh* and the 5 manifold bolts to take of the exhaust manifold.

Using a 19mm socket (I think) and a looonnnggg breaker bar, tension up the aux belt tensioner and remove the belt. Then remove the 2 bolts holding on the tensioner and remove it. Remove the belt idler pulley using a ratchet and a ring spanner (14mm bolt and 13mm nut think).

re-insert the oil drain plug. Move a jack under the engine, put a piece of wood on the jack to spread the weight and up the jack so it's touching the bottom of the oil pan. Don't take the engines weight...

Remove the 3 bolts that hold the right engine mount to the chassis. 2 are in the engine bay, one is in the wheel arch. If you use the u-joint, you can take this out without removing the wheel. Check to make sure the jack is in contact with the engine and it locked so it wont go down, Then remove the 3 bolts holding the mount onto the engine. I removed these from the top of the engine. It can be a tad fiddly but IMO the best way at this stage. Then pull up and off the engine mount.

Remove the 3 bolts holding on the engine mount to the chain cover and remove it.

Now, some people would now use drain points etc do drain the coolant. TBH, i've done this bit 4 times and all ive done is put a big pan under the front side of the engine and taken off the water pump... yes, it splashes out everywhere! and I mean everywhere but I've also never had any problems with airlocks... so remove the 6 10mm bolts holding on the water pump and pop it out.

let it drip for a little while.... Make a cup of tea, have a banana or something...

Remove the 2 bolts holding on the alternator and with a wiggle, it should come off. kind of spin it round and out so you can get to the 2 connectors. One unplugs and the other is a bolt with a cap over it. Using a small flat head screwdriver, remove the cap (don't lose it) and un blot the wire.... put the bolt and cap back on and put the alternator somewhere safe.

Unplug the Oil control valve (top right side of the engine) remove the 10mm bolt holding it on, pull it out and put it some where safe.

This bit is a bit tricky.... using your power of touch, follow the 2 cables down at the end of the engine loom down the back of the engine and find the plugs for them. The plugs are attached to the oil dipstick tube holder. If you can't unplug the loom from them, remove the 10mm bolt tha hold the dipstick tube on to give you more wiggle room. This bolt is also tricky to find..... just follow the tube down, the tube has a flange on it stick out and the bolt goes downwards...  

unbolt the top engine earth and remove it.... it's a wire by the Oil control valve:


Now the coolant should have now finished dripping, move the pan to the front left side of the engine. using pliers, move the hose clamps that go into the ICV on the throttle body and pull off the hoses. Only a very small amount of coolant will remain. Rotate the throttle clockwise to open the throttle all the way and unhook the end of the cable. Unplug the ICV and TPS. Then remove the 2x12mm bolts abd 2x12mm nuts from the throttle body:


Slacken off the 10mm nut a little (left side) of the throttle cable and push it off:

Now you're free to remove the throttle body.

using a clean rag, plug the intake hole to stop anything falling inside.
 
Using a small flat head screwdriver, carefully insert it in-between the 2 metal holders and the plastic clips of the loom that runs over the top of the engine. With a wiggle, these should unclip and move the loom to the left side of the engine bay.


Now the loom is out of the way remove the 2 bolts that hold on the fuel raid and carefully pull the rail off with the plugs. Using a glass jar, angle the end of the fuel rail into the mouth of the jar and remove the end injector. Then remove the fist injector in the row and all the fuel should come out and into the jar. Remove the other injectors and put them in a sealed container. Then move the fuel rail out of the way.

Now you're ok to remove the pulley and chain cover...
Crank the engine round (if it's safe to do so) so the timing marks line up:


Using the SST (or home made tool) hold the crank pulley tight and use a ring spanner to remove the pulley bolt. If you have problems interlock 2 spanners together to get more leverage.

(this isn't my hand BTW   s:lol: :lol: s:lol:  )

Remove the bolt holding on the crank timing sensor and pull the sensor out of the chain cover. It's at the bottom of the engine near the front. Be careful... don't snap the bolt off like I did in the past:

 
You can now remove the timing chain tensioner by slowly removing the 2x10mm bolts (at the same time so it doesn't fly out) and then all the bolts that hold on the timing chain cover. 8x10mm bolts, 3x12mm bolts and 1 nut total.

now carefully pry the cover off using flat head screwdrivers. Try not to damage the contact faces.

Slide off the crank angle sensor plate.

Remove the chain slippers buy removing 1x bolt holding on the left slipper and 2x bolts holding on the right slipper:


Carefully remove the crankshaft timing sprocket being careful not to damage the key/crank. Used a flat head screwdriver if it's a but tough prying one side at at time so it comes off evenly.
remove and sore the key, sprocket and chain in a seal-able bag/tub.

From this point do NOT crank the engine or tun the camshafts!!!

Unplug the camshaft timing sensor, remove the 10mm nut holding it on and remove the sensor. Sore it in a safe place, these aren't cheap!

Working from the top down on the left hand side of engine bay, remove all the earths, coolant hoses (shouldn't have anything come out), disconnect the coolant temp sensor and unbolt the coolant bypass hose from the head.


Remove the 4 bolts along the top of the intake manifold and 1 down the back left side of the engine. push off the intake manifold and away from the head. Dispute this picture, all are easily accessible from the top.


Uniformly remove the intake bearing cap bolts. Looking at the number stamped on the caps, loosen cap E5 then 1 (12mm bolts near the chain) then E4 then E2 then E3. Continue to loosen in this order until you can remove the camshaft.
Now do the same for the intake manifold..... i5 then 1, i4, i2 and i3.... Then remove the intake camshaft.
keep these bolts in the the caps and put them some where they wont be knocked over. The same bolt needs to go back into the same hole!

Now flex at your proness! You're only 10 bigarse bolts away!


The manual says use a 10mm bi-hexagonal wrench (10 sides) to remove the bolts but I found that this was actually too small! So you could try a 12mm??
The only thing I had that fit was a 10mm Allen key wrench socket (an allen key head on a 1/2" socket) This only has 5 sides but they came off ok!
Again, uniformly remove the bolts in this order:


The bolts must go back in the same hole so using the side ripped off a cardboard box, insert them into it marking what side is the front.
Also, don't forget the washers. They are quite difficult to remove with needle nose pliers so I used one of these:


Now they're out you should be able to lift of the head with a bit of a wiggle!!   s:bounce: :bounce: s:bounce:  



Clean around the very top of the cylinders lightly with some scotchbrite to make sure you remove any carbon residue that might stop the pistons coming out.


You can now lower the engine and remove the jack. Don't worry, the engine should be ok with just the 3 mounts.
Jack up the rear right side of the car and support using an axle stand.

work around the bottom of the oil sump removing the 10mm bolts and 2x 10mm nuts that hold the pan on. Then using a razor blade and a gasket scraper as a wedge pry off the oil pan.

Be careful not to damage the surfaces or the gasket scraper.

Crank the engine round so 2 of the pistons are at the bottom. clean and mark the rods with a marker pen (don't you tipex, it comes off) and remove 2 of the bolts off one of the connecting rod big ends, keep the bolts in the correct holes and put it to one side. Now push the piston up with your fingers as far as you can. Crank then engine a little while under the car, watching to be sure you don't hit the con-rod with the crank. I found clockwise so the crank spins round towards the rear of the car gives more room to push it up. Rotate just a tad... imagine the bottom is 5 o'clock position when you unbolted it (remember the engine is slightly tilted). Rotate to the 6 o'clock, reach in and push the rod up. Then crank it to the 7 o'clock and again, reach in and push up with the tips of your fingers on the bolt holes.


Looking at the picture, push bottom of the rod away from straight down or u'll hit the bottom of the block. Give one last good push at a slight angle and it will pop out!

Finish removing the piston by pulling it out at the top of the engine. Once it's out, put the bottom of the big end back on so you don't lose the bearings or bolts.

Remove the other 3 pistons 1 at a time not forgetting to mark what piston goes into what cylinder!



Here is 1 of my 16 bent valves:


The cost of re-building the old head was going to be just as high as getting a second hand off ebay. I went for the second hander but it looks like it came out of complete oil burner! The valves were covered and pitted so i reseated them. 1 exhaust valve took me 45 min!


After a lot of cleaning with carb cleaner and scotchbrite:


Piston before cleaning:


I used more carb cleaner, scotchbrite and wd40 to clean them. Also, snapping a piece off an old compression ring and used that to clean out the groves:


I fitted new rings. Then I thought what the heck and brought this engine hone: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/140738160350?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649
I used the normal 5-30 engine oil to wet the stones and the bores and after a few tries, managed to keep the speed constant with nice 45deg scores, no more glaze:


Fitted the pistons. Make sure everything that spins or goes up-down is cleaned and well oiled while re-fitting!


All torqued up the big ends + 90deg (this changes depending on the bolts used) and mating faces cleaned and installed the oil pan.


Dropped the head on, installed the cams + intake and injectors. Make sure the plug holes are clean as I forgot to check and ended up taking the head back off to make sure  s:roll: :roll: s:roll:  Also, if you have to install the vvt-i actuator, it needs setting up correctly! Don't just put it on. This is normally done with compressed air see this: http://newcelica.org/forums/showthread.php?t=299052 Unfortunately, I just couldn't get it to unlock using air! What I did what took off the 4 bolts (5 sided   s:shock: :shock: s:shock:  used grips) unlocked it and then using the chain to hold it unlocked while I put it back together. Then while still unlocked, I installed it to the cam and re-locked it.  


They sent me the incorrect chain so I measured this one (that's only 6 months old anyway) and still within spec so I refitted it.


The chain cover is a bit tricky.... I laid out all the bolts in order as the liquid gasket stuff doesn't take long to go hard and it needs to be fitted quickly! Once it's on you need to install the water pump and then the engine mount. The 3 bolts for the mount also have some of this gasket stuff on it....


next I installed the water pipes, water temp sensor, earthing cables and the intake:


At this stage I left the car overnight to make sure the liquid gasket sets. Last time I had the chain cover off I didn't wait before filling it with coolant and ended up messing the gasket up!

The next morning I started filling it with coolant between stages... this gives it a good amount of time to get it around the system and the air to come out. I did change the thermostat but did NOT have to bleed out the front half of the car....

ok, back to the front side of the engine. I hooked up the oil pressure sensor, alternator and crank position sensor. Don't forget the 10mm bolt that holds the oil dipstick tube in place! I forgot about it and had to take the alternator back off after I had finished!


I filled it with oil now buy tipping it all over the head to make sure it was all covered. Make sure you don't tip any down the plug holes.

Then I put on the cam cover:


Exhaust on with new gaskets:


ok, serious bit now.....  I made my own "special service tool" for this part:


This is the part that came off causing the key to come out the chain sprocket and bent all my valves.
If you don't have a welder I would seriously suggest you buy the SST. You need it to hold the crank pulley tight while you bolt it up:


Note: I couldn't fit either of my torque wrenches onto the bolt as the wheel arch is in the way. I used a ring spanner plus another bigger ring spanner (interlocking them for leverage) to do it up REAL tight! I also added I splash of lock tight   s:wink: :wink: s:wink:  



Just the tensioner + belt and happy days!

Make sure you can crank it by hand (this should have been done after installing the chain) to make sure the timing is correct. Also before my first fire I disconnected the coil packs and cranked it on the starter motor. I waited until the oil pressure light was out then counted to 10. This makes sure the oil has gotten round to everything. Then I plugged back in the coils and started it up!

I used the car as normal for 20 miles to bed in the rings and changed the oil+filter. I then drove for 50 miles and changed the oil+filter. Then AGAIN after another 500 miles.

It's now done 750 and running better than ever! No loss of water or oil!   s:bounce: :bounce: s:bounce:    s:bounce: :bounce: s:bounce:   *touch wood*

[finchy]

Well done, great write up! Much appreciated.

How many miles had your engine done? Mines on 85k, its as sweet as a nut, bought it a month so, you may have seen my newbie thread? It's been very well looked after, I've serviced it and de-catted it, covered 800 miles and zero oil usage.

[Mr X]

Thanks and you're welcome...
It was on 84805 miles! so quite close to your 85k haha I've had it since 45k. It's always used the same amount of oil and i've always changed it every 3k. Good to hear your's is running well.... hopefully it will remain like that!

I forgot to mention I fitted a new oil pump and checked the valve clearances. That one is a must if you've re-seated the valves as it changes the height of the valve and how deep the seat is. Thankfully, they didn't need adjustment after. I guess what i took off the valves I also took off the head  s:) s:)

[StuC]

Good write up and pics. Would be good to use this as a basis for a 'How to'.

[Mr X]

Good write up and pics. Would be good to use this as a basis for a 'How to'.

Thanks! What I might do is add to it.... I have more pictures that I didn't upload and 1 or 2 steps missing. If people are thinking about doing this they really need the workshop manual. It includes all the torque settings and specs for the chain etc so a complete "how to" would be unnecessary but use this as an additional guide....The images in the manual are often never the best!

 Also, I don't want to step on the toes of people like Mattperformance that do an amazing job for the members on here.

[spit]

Nice write up.

I don't believe there's a need to worry about treading on toes. It would be helpful to those who want to give it a go for themselves, and if they're close enough to doing it with a little extra guidance then its something the Club should encourage. An understanding of stuff like this can only benefit '2 ownership in the longer term, and If folk don't fancy taking the plunge for themselves, they won't - guide or no guide   s:D s:D  .

What would be handy (and something I completely forgot to record when I did it  s:oops: :oops: s:oops:  ) is a supplementary write-up on the dismantling phase which gets you to the point of head/piston/rod removal with the engine in situ. Yes its fiddly - and a full drop is arguably quicker - but for those without the facilities its good to know how much is doable with the engine/box/subframe and loom left in place.

[mrzwei]

Have to agree with this, one day these will be classics (I doubt I'll be here   s:lol: :lol: s:lol:  ) and we owe it to future owners to record our expertise. This stuff will be worth its weight in gold so record it in a structured way now. The forum founders did a great job in this respect so the momentum should be kept up.

[Mr X]

Thank guys, Im on it now in that case....

Nice write up.
What would be handy (and something I completely forgot to record when I did it  s:oops: :oops: s:oops:  ) is a supplementary write-up on the dismantling phase which gets you to the point of head/piston/rod removal with the engine in situ. Yes its fiddly - and a full drop is arguably quicker - but for those without the facilities its good to know how much is doable with the engine/box/subframe and loom left in place.

*Nods* It really does depend in your situation. I have all the tools twice but I don't have a garage, just a shed and the drive. There isn't enough room for an engine stand to rebuild it on. I think to sum up...

Both ways take the same amount of time.

1. Drop the engine. This is covered on here *sum up* x-member off, wheels off, put it's arse on the floor, remove mounts, cables etc jack up the car and move the engine & box complete.
engine rebuild stage a bit easier but you need the space to disassemble/re-assemble the engine on an engine stand.

2. Strip it out with block in situ. If you don't have an engine stand and you know (or at lest think) your crank and block is ok, this is the one to do. The rebuild phase is only a little but more tricky (mainly when putting the chain cover back on) but it's less faffing about with x-members and taking wheels off etc.

[Mr X]

well, that's a lot of writing!!!! I will add some pictures to help soon hopefully!

[ilovejapcrap]

Did you have head skimmed ?