22RE head options?

[Shifty]

Hi guys

I have an RT142 with a few k's on the clock, and a spare 22RE. I wouldn't mind rebuilding this second engine while the car is on the road.

The engine would be left atmo to begin with, but while it's being rebuilt I'd like to set it up for a future turbo swap. As far as I know the engines are typically Toyota-tough but that the cylinder heads sark for performance applications.

As the engine is so naturally torquey, a turbocharged output of 180rwhp would be more than sufficient for a road car. Worked out off a 15% driveline loss that's ~210hp at the flywheel, which is under 90hp/litre (engine is ~2350cc). A well-sorted atmo engine is around this figure... so is the 22RE cylinder head so terribly bad that a forced induction application couldn't make those figures?

I am sure a lot of people will suggest an engine conversion, but half of the people who will suggest it have never done one and the other half have either forgotten how much they really cost or think of money differently than I!

[o_man_ra23]

Mate, the 22RE can be ported very heavily, and O/S valves are a must. Good quality head studs are also a must. If your looking at turbo seriously, maybe look at opening up the combustion chambers(drop pressure, and create closer to a hemispherical chamber) and cc'ing them while your at it (a $4 medical syringe and a level will do this). Also look at camshaft designs while your at it, as this will save the heartache of pulling the head off to change the cam when you turbo. This motor is a popular one in the US of Aiiii!!, so check out some of the yank sites, or talk to some of the yanks on here (i know there is at least one who is nuts on 22RE's).

Good luck with the conversion, and remember to do it properly the first time.

Cheers, Owen

[ra65]

At the moment I am doing a fair bit of work on my head. I got all the stuff to rebuild the engine from www.engnbldr.com and at the same time got one of his cams, o/s stainless valves, dual valve springs and am doing the porting myself.

I get the head back tomorrow so I can port it so I will take some photos if you want. I think the is some pictures of my intake porting in the members rides section of my car.

Head over to celica-gts.com as there is heaps of stuff on turbos etc for 22re's.

[MWP]

I know a lot of guys in the US put 20R heads on 22Rs as they flow better and have a smaller combustion chamber.

I wonder if the 21R would be even better as it was the 2L version that we got (the US didnt get the 21R).

For more info on the 20R head hybrid see the forums here... lots of info:
http://www.classic-celica.com/

[Norbie]

No, the 21R head is nothing like the 20R, it's pretty crap from what I've heard.

[o_man_ra23]

Agreed Norbie, the 21R head is the biggest pile of aluminium poo to make its way into a celica. Its even worse than the crappy 18RC head (at least the 18RC cast iron head dont suffer warpage, and has a hemi-ish combustion chamber)

dont bother looking for a 20R head here in aus, they are like rocking horse shit. Stick with the 22RE head, and if you wanna do a reasonable turbo, decompress it. If you want low down torque from a low boost turbo, leave the stock compression, maybe a thick head gasket tho.

Cheers, Owen

[1200det]

A brand new 22R cylinder head on EBAY

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Toyota-22R-Ne...QQcmdZViewItem

[o_man_ra23]

Unless you have bad corrosion, cracking or warping issues with your existing head, I would say that a new one is not worth it. Unless of course the new one comes ported with O/S valve seats etc... but this one doesnt. You would need to pay the cash to get it, then port it, open up the valves, etc etc, which would add up to no warranty on the head. Might as well clean up the one you got. cost about $220 plus the cost of opening up the valves etc, which you would do if you were going to do it right anyway. If you wanted a nice clean easy stock replacement, then the new item with new valves (need to be seated too at about $70) would be good, but still not worth it unless the aforementioned problems existed IMHO.

Cheers, Owen

[Earlyrolla]

Something that might come in handy for your rebuild is that the G54B Mitsubishi Starion (1984 to 1989 in the US) pistons can be used in the 22RE. The pistons have a bigger dish than the 22RE pistons allowing you to use the closed chamber head for turbocharging.

http://www.geocities.com/motorcity/l...elicapage4.htm

I plan to use a set of these pistons and machine a whisker off them to bring them back to the same compression height as the 22RE pistons.

Having spent most of last Sunday attacking a 22RE head I am pretty amazed at how much meat can be taken out the ports safely. (Obviously in a methodical manner!)