After a long wait for various reasons-- it's done!!! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

I fired up the engine on Sunday night/Monday morning about 12:30, and proceeded to break the cam in for about 20 minutes in my nice quiet neighborhood-- I didn't care-- I wanted to get this thing done! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/butwiggle.gif" alt="" />

Here's what I ended up doing: I did take the head to the machine shop-- had it cleaned, pressure tested, valves and valves seats ground, and then resurfaced. It was so pretty I took pictures of it! I'll post those later-- they are at work and I am not. I was REALLY pleased with the work the machine shop did.

I got all my parts in from EB last week-- which included the 270/.430 cam, head bolts, rocker arm set, and head gasket set. I also got my fuel injectors back from Rich at Cruzin Performance, and I highly recommend his services. He has a great way of doing business, and all my injectors came back to me within 1% of each other and ready to install.

So, I started the re-assmebly Friday night. I still had one issue to deal with, and that was tearing down the rocker arm assembly and installing the new rocker arm set. Unfortunately, everything was binding as I took it apart, and didn't slide "nicely" apart like the manual said it should. Long story short, my brute force broke several of the cast iron mounts for the rocker shafts. I was very distraught at the thought (hey that rhymes!) of having to wait for new mounts and shafts to be ordered, because of course, when I called around Saturday morning, no one had them in stock (which I knew would be the case-- honestly-- who would be stupid enough to break something like this <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />). But oh how happy I was when I found a salvage yard 5 minutes from my house that possibly had some Toyota trucks. I went there in the rain, and all the trucks' engines were gone. I was about to leave when I decided to look around again, and found an 84 Celica that was 22RE equipped. The engine had not been touched, so I yanked the rocker arm assembly off (again, in the rain), and paid my $20 for it and was on my way. I consider that to be one of the best things that has happened to me this year so far. I was so relieved to be back on track. And lemme tell ya, the motor on this Celica was super clean. WAAAAAAY cleaner than mine was underneath the valve cover. I wanted to take the whole engine with me. And the rocker arm assembly from that was disassembled in about 2 minutes. Everything slid apart very "nicely".

So, I took the rest of Valentines Day off to spend with my wife, and got back to it on Sunday. When I fired the truck up, I let it warm up, and then proceed to set the timing, but it was right where it needed to be!! I was really shocked that I didn't have to move the distributor in the least. So, I proceeded to break in the cam at about 2000-2100 rpm for 20 minutes, and double checked everything, and then drove her on down the road to get gas, because I was almost out! On a side not, I replaced the radiator cap again-- this time with an ND unit from the Toyota dealer, and it is working fine. I wonder if the Stant cap is crap? I've had two that don't seem to work. But thank the good Lord, if that cap hadn't been working, I could be a lot further down the road with a cracked head or worse. It's what clued me into this whole high pressure problem/ hose bursting saga and being able to see all those telltale bubbles coming up through the radiator.

I'm on day 2 of driving it, and all seems to be well. I had the idle jump up and down on me at a light when I left work today, but after it warmed up fully it was fine. I have my idel rpm set at about 1000 right now, but I may have to bring it down just a touch. How long until I need to retorque those head bolts-- 500 miles? I can't remember. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> I'm just happy to have a running truck again.

Thanks to all you guys and gal for the help. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" /> I'll have to say what my impressions of the new cam are once I really lay into it. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/pfft.gif" alt="" />