speedkar9

I have finally taken an engine apart to see what’s inside and how it works. I can officially call myself a “car guy” now haha!

I made a video documenting the tear down and explanation:





Here’s a few photos of the process.

The engine is the 1ZZ-FE with VVT from my 2001 Toyota Corolla:





Valve covers pulled:



Timing cover pulled:



Camshaft removed:



Headbolts are double hex, 10mm, but you can use a regular hex to break them free. They’re on there tight!


Long headbolts


Flipped over, with the oil pan off, you can see the oil pickup tube and the crankcase



Block with head removed. Carbon buildup on pistons, but the cylinder walls look fine



Underside of the head. You can see this engine has 4 valves per cylinder with the spark plug in the center.



Oil pump runs off the crankshaft:



Crank case removed:



All aluminum crankshaft. Five points in between are the main bearings. Holes are drilled into the connecting rod bearings to those main bearings so it can be lubricated with oil.



Piston has 3 rings – two compression, and one oil ring.



Timing chain cover has a hydraulic tensioner



Just for fun I “tried” cutting the engine block in half.



But I gave up after I got this small chunk out of it.



The crankshaft sounded hollow, so I tried cutting it and it cut pretty easy.



Its actually aluminum. I thought it would be steel or some kind of iron, but that would make it even heavier than it already is.



And that’s all the parts on a Corolla engine…pretty simple isn’t it?



This was just a tear down for a fun learning experience. I don’t have plans to put this thing back together.

Toys4RJill

Really interesting. Thanks for sharing.

How long did it take you?

mmarshall

Congratulations. Probably a good experience for you.

Reminds me of a model I built as a kid, back in the early 1960s,...from a company named Renwal (models and model-building were very popular with kids back then). It was battery-operated, where a small electric motor spun the flywheel, the parts inside the engine moved as in a real one, and small light-bulbs simulated the spark-plug firing in the cylinders.

mmarshall

I assume that is an aluminum block (as most gas-engine blocks are nowadays), not cast-iron.

riredale

I did stuff like this many years ago as a lad and the trick was to put it all back together and not have parts left over.

One item: I cannot conceive of a crank made of aluminum. I think of aluminum as far too soft and flexy to fill that role.

speedkar9

It was an amazing learning experience!

Thanks guys for the correction. I perceived the crankshaft was made of aluminum because of the hollow sound the counter weights had when I tapped them, as well as how easy it was to cut with my angle grinder.
Because it sparked when I cut it, I can now conclude it is some kind of steel.

Well in my case this is just for the learning experience, so I don't have to deal with the hassle of putting things back together.

Och

iTrader: (3)

Aluminum never burns/sparks when cutting with abrasive wheel. This is certainly a ferrous alloy.

Johnhav430

Nice, all kidding aside I doubt I'll ever do that, I suppose it's a time thing and bucket list thing, but I do find what you did fascinating. I was thinking look at that chain on the 4 banger, why did Toyota use a belt on the V8 3UZ? Anyway I'll probably get as far as valve covers, but doubt I would remove a head.....wife's cousin says he'll install a lift at his house, that would really open up some doors....

Johnhav430

That is serious business for doctors, not leaving instruments behind when they perform surgery etc.....

It's annoying when something happens upon putting things back. When I was finishing the ABS pump job on my BMW, I broke the air quality sensor and was thinking of all things, it was going to end up perfectly....went online and saw they were like $60....no thank you, crazy glued it back along with a sliver of duct tape. I had already removed that thing once before doing the plugs without incident, so it was very annoying...

FastFord

Guess you need to change your signature to... 2001 Toyota Corolla (pieces) lol