so driving home last night not getting on it or anything after work i had my engine start to stumble for a sec, went away then came back with a loud ticking then shut off, found out its a pushrod knock of some sort or maybe something worse, but a decent knock, yay..., if this being the case if its pushrod what all would i have to get done to get my car back on the road and what all could of it damaged, i havnt tore it down yet but, just tryin to get a ball park of what kinda of $$$ and time im abot to get into on this.

for the question part if i pull the engine completly im gunna atleast put a cam in it if not rebuild teh whole thing, main question is if i rebuild it, new pistons, rings, valves etc what ever, i knwo theres a brake in time, but with a cam u have to it tuned right away but it requires dyno pulls, what do u do? do u just let it break in idling or get it semi tuned drive till it breaks in then full tune or what? thanks guys

 

Theres many opinions and theories on break in. I've read a ton about it and tried different things as I was formerly the assistant to the main Toyota engine builder in the largest Toyota dealership in my region. If I were you, I would get either an EFI live hookup or have your PC built by FROST or TSP before hand so you can plug and play, and just go ahead and break in the engine as you would if no cam was done if you are that concerned about tune... So long as the tune is close, you are not gonna kill your engine in those first 20min of fluctuating revs... On the other hand, you will likely not do any damage without a tune either as many people do cam installs and drive them on no tune for quite a while... Think of how many BRAND NEW vehicles are broken in improperly every day... I would venture to say most of them are not broken in like a race engine builder would advise lol...

Unless you are really leaned out for some crazy reason then you should be just fine. Just try and keep a load on it and fluctuate the idle fairly often with it above 1700 or so. Dont go crazy revving it either. You see alot of high perf engine builders basically going WOT on new builds within the first few runs, but I just dont see that as being good for the average joe building an engine that is for mostly normal use... I know of a guy who will practically let the engine heat to operating temp while under light load, adn once its there its basically a build up to WOT runs... He makes some crazy stuff, but I wouldnt want my street car done like that haha.

When building the yodas we always went by the "break it in like it will be driven" rule. If its a DD and not a racecar, it doesnt need to be broken in that way simply b/c the rings are not going to need to seat that hard immediately and typically wont be under that kind of stress for the majority of the time.

Just take her easy and keep the idle inconsistant and fairly smooth and you should be golden. IF you have the opportunity and setup to get it on its wheels first thing, then I would wait till it hits operating temp and then drive it up and down the road and go through the gears. Try and maintain a progressively increasing load on it for a while. This is how I'd do it if it were my car. Its how I did my formula M6 and my other personal car...

Cost is going to be how much you would like to spend, but I guarantee if you get new pistons and do a full rebuild using your rods and crank, you will be looking at at least a 1500 in parts considering you do the cam right and get good parts, and get upgraded pistons... TSP's cam kits are from 6-700$, and a good set of pistons will be the same, and then you have the gasket kit, etc etc... So the price is really what you want out of it.

I would account for at least 3 weeks as well if it were me(im quite limited on time to work at home now so it goes fairly slow) even if you have most of the parts from the get go... Im sure there are guys who can do these engines in a weekend, but I wouldnt count on it for the first time... Prepare for broken minor parts and tough situations when doing the whole job. Take your time, be thorough, and DO IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME!!! Oh, and if youre clutch is even close to being worn out i'd go ahead and knock her out. If you have the extra cash get a good one like the Textralia OZ700 or something so you dont have to worry about that new power killing a stocker soon...

Oh, and if you dont have an aftermarket intake, i'd go there as well if you can afford it just to save you the hassle...

Just my opinions here, and nothing more. Im not claiming expertise or anything, just a bit of experience with a lot of trial and error

There are many guys here who can give you much better approximations on costs and time as well. I was just estimating...

 

ight, and ya kinda was i was lookin for, imo what i was gunna do for break in is start it up let it idle till it warms up a bit or till the needle moves then do slow like 2k revs for a little let it get to operating temp, maybe drive around slow keeping under 2.5k rpm, then let cool for the night, then start up next day and drive normal keeping it under 3k rpms for like 200-300 miles or so, and ya ive had a lot of people that say if u do the cam install ur self trailer it to get tuned dont drive it its not worth it and all but again people do so, but ill talk to some people, and depending on what i find wrong with my engine, im probably doing TSP heads and cam with new valve train stuff if my bottom end is ok, or if bottom end is bad too and if i can just rebuild my engine completely with heads cam and 383 stroker kit, but ill see once i tear it down, have the next 3 days off so ill be busy lol

 

Let us know what u find out. And it can't hurt to be extra cautious. Just remember the idea is to keep an inconsistent load on the new engine. U have the right idea tho.

 

Let us know what u find out. And it can't hurt to be extra cautious. Just remember the idea is to keep an inconsistent load on the new engine. U have the right idea tho.