Swapping a Cylinder head - easy way?

Wild

Wild

Member +
As some may know the engine I bought to put into my paseo has a cracked head. :( I did not know this prior to installation as it is only a hairline crack. :(

I have a complete 5e-fe engine sitting here too.

I understand that the 5e and 4e heads are the same so I intend to use my 5e one.

Now I plan on buying the rebuild gasket set from Speedvision, including head gasket, and a whole shit load of other seals to do the job properly.

I need to know what else need to be done.... I'm talking valves, camshafts, timing belt etc.

Anyone fancy giving a few moments of their time to run though what exactly needs doing.

If I do get down to it myself, I'll have a friend (mercedes mechanic) to help me, but do I need any special tools or anything that I should know.

I wait with baited breath for your answers my friends! :p
 
Wild

Wild

Member +
Kinda a bump kinda not.....

I'm wondering about what special tools are neccessary to reove the head. I'm sure I read a post by someone saying they didn't have said specialist tools which got me worrying.

Anyone shed any light?
 
riko666

riko666

Member +
you need an angular torque wrench (i think that's the one?) for tightening the head bolts, otherwise standard fare tools I believe
 
H

Harvey

Member +
Its an long M9 multispline bit if i remember right.

Someone did have a link to a tool seller on the old site who sold the bit for about £6. Cant remember the shop name now though.

yeah you might as well get a cambelt kit for it if its been a while since it was done/unknown. Blueprint kit is around £50 i think, inc the belt and 2 idlers.

The head gasket set runs in around 150 retail i think, the actual head gasket is the cheap bit! About £30, its all the rest of seals that add up (valve stem seals espcially) So on top of the hg from speed vision it will be about £100 for the rest of the gaskets from toyota, plus about another £30 for the head bolts if you decide to change them.

Also bear in mind if you touch the valve seats (lap them in etc) you will need to reshim the valves. Needs doing when cold with a feeler guage, and can get costly if need a lot of shims (up to 16 @ about £6 each).

Also dont forget to tension the intake cam spring gear before removing the cam otherwise you will get funny noises and have to take the cam out again to sort it (like me lol)
 
Wild

Wild

Member +
Damn, this is turning into a reall ball ache. :(

The gasket set from speedvision includes all gaskets IIRC.

I've found an ebay seller who does the tool, 10£ delivered.

With regard to 'touching the valve seats' what does this mean? I need to swap the valves from my 4e-fte head to my 5e-fe head but wont be doing any performance work on them....

Cheers
 
H

Harvey

Member +
If you swap the valves over you WILL have to re reshim the valves.

How comes your putting the 4e valves in. are they different material?

What i mean with the valve seats is with time from the abuse of the combustion chamber! They get piited - especially the exhaust valves and seats. This means they will leak. So you have the valves and seats recut, and lap them in (painfully tedious procedure). This of course removes metal decrease the height of the top of the valve stem, meaning you will need thicker shims.

With luck as you have 2 heads to source shims from you might not have to buy many.

I raided my stock of mk1 mr2 bits and used a couple of 4age shims, re organised some of the others and only ended up having to buy 5 or 6, but you can never estimate prior to the work how many you will need!

ps, what you doing with the 5E short block remains when finished?
 
Wild

Wild

Member +
I'm getting rid of it.

Starting to think it would be a much better idea for me to buy a 4e head complete than to fanny about with all this other stuff. :(

I think the vales on the 4e-fte are sodium something or others. :(
 
riko666

riko666

Member +
I severely doubt they are - they're typically the reserve of expensive sports cars...why would they splash out on a Sporty Hatch?
 
Wild

Wild

Member +
Hm... interesting. Would I need to re-shim the vales if I'm replacing valve stem oil seals though?

My 5e-fe was using oil and I was told it was 'probably' due to these seals.
 
G

gaz_turbo1

Guest
thought that the 4efte head and 5efe head were different, thought that the gt head had better cams or something
 
Wild

Wild

Member +
Ya the cams are different, but they are interchangable.

AFAIK the bare head is identical.
 
H

Harvey

Member +
Well... Here we go, ill try and answer everything.

If you just changing the stem seals then no, you wont have to reshim the valve clearances.

But... I then saw your changing the cams..... Now i dont know the specifics of whether 5e cams are diff to 4efte cams, BUT, if they are and you put the 4efte cams in the 5e head - you WILL have to reshim as no cams are the same!

Even if you dont change the cams, and just do the seals its always advisable to do the clearances when yo get the chance as they all increase with engine wear.

If you are selling your 5efe bottom half mate then i am interested in it. Cheers

And as for sodium filled valves, you never know riko. Renault did for the R19/clio 1.8 16v engine (so presumably the williams 2.0 engine too) so if scum bag renault can afford to use sodium filled valves im sure toyota can ;)
 
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Wild

Wild

Member +
I think i'm going to wait untill a 4e-fte head complete with cams and valves comes up.

Cant be bothered with fannying about and my engine, its just sounds a bit odd, drives fine... :S

As for the bottom end, give me a pm with an offer on it... i'm not after much and am loctaed in south wales for your reference. ;)
 
H

Harvey

Member +
I can see what you mean mate, but just think, put in the effort now into doing the head right, ie recut the seats lapped in and new shims where needed, its gonna then be spot on.

I know it might cost a few quid, but id rather spend the cash getting it running it sweet, then spending £££ amount on a complete 4efte head you dont know the condition of..

Nice one mate, if i buy your bottom end i will be cylinder head searching myself! lol
 
H

hga05

Member +
Harvey said:
Its an long M9 multispline bit if i remember right.

Also dont forget to tension the intake cam spring gear before removing the cam otherwise you will get funny noises and have to take the cam out again to sort it (like me lol)
Click to expand...

What do you mean by this. Ive just put my engine back together and am yet to start it yet?
 
goldenvtr

goldenvtr

Member +
i took the head off mycar then though fukit and took the whole engine out for the trasnplant, i didnt facy putting it all back together lol
 
H

Harvey

Member +
I just looked for my 5efe book, and forgot its down the workshop where i keep my mr2, so i will have to try and get it sometime.

Basically the cam gear on the intake cam is split in 2, one is tensioned to take up slack between the intake and exhaust cam gear. If you just remove the intake cam without putting a service bolt through the cam gear you lose the tension and then set play in it, and funny noises under partial throttle!
 
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