Im starting to take most of the parts of my engine off so a mechanic friend can get to head gasket faster, he is out of town and I have few questions. whats the right way to relieve fuel pressure on my fuel injected engine ? Do I need to drain oil ? Does radiator have to be removed ? I have basic toyota truck manual on repairs but these questions are not clear to me. Does truck need to be raised in front to work on it ? Thank you for all that respond to this !!

 

you shouldn't have to disconnect the fuel rail when doing the head gasket (i never did). Yes eventually drain the oil, remove the radiator, It will be easier when or if the truck is on jack stands just incase you need to remove the oil pan. By the way your motor should be a 22re not a 22r as the E designates the EFI or fuel injection and makes a difference when answering a motor question. 22r's are carb'd motors.
honestly though i would rather do the disassembly all when i was there so when reassembling a motor you know how it went back together. Might want to ask your buddy if he's cool with you taking apart a motor when he's not there only to have him figure out the puzzle the rest of the way. Not to knock you abilities but might make it harder than what it is going in half way.
If you do feel the need to relieve the fuel pressure start the motor and let it run with the fuel pump fuse pulled it will eventually run out of gas thus relieving the fuel pressure. But really just either crack the fuel rail banjo fitting at the rail or at the fuel filter and clean up the mess as it will be minimal. And replace the fuel filter while you're at it.

 

just did one a few weeks ago. if it is a 22RE, removing items like the radiator, fan, cold air intake assembly will be a nice start.

as for relieving the pressure, if its been off for a few days, the pressure should have already gone down to nothing... crack the banjo bolt to the fuel rail and just have a few rags handy to soak up the residual fuel that will leak out. once all that is out of the way, you will want to use a wratchet and 19mm socket to turn the motor over by hand to the TDC mark on the crank shaft pulley. this will make the job go by much easier when it comes time to line things back up.

the upper intake manifold will need to come off first, then the lower intake assembly. it is not necessary but this makes the job go by much easier. pull the exhaust manifold too. if you have a model with the vac lines and switches attached to a mounting plate on top of the valve cover, you can undo the 3 bolts holding it on and disconnect the lines and plugs from it. set it aside. if you have no more confident knowledge beyond moving into the head itself..... stop here. the next few steps will require you to know how to undo the hedbolts in sequence, camshaft bolt, cam gear and setting the chain aside.

one thing i will highly recomend at this point, since you are pretty much there, i would also replace the timing chain set if it has not been done recently. its not much more work removing the timing cover. if you do, i would replace the guides with the steel backed ones available from engnbldr.com guaranteed you will never need to replace them since the guides never break (unlike the plastic ones).

if you do this, then the 2 main concerns over these 22R/E motors will be out of the way and make for an extended service life for your motor.

 

Thank you so much, advice was very helpful !!!

 

SD Yota are you some kind of expert?