Three Levels, and the Choice Is About Your Block — Not Your Budget

Every kit on this page rebuilds a 22R. What separates them is how far down you are going, and that is decided by what your block measures — not by what you would like to spend.

Re-Ring Kit — the cylinder walls are still good

The Re-Ring Kit for the 1985-1995 22R and 22RE is for an engine where the bores and the major hard parts are still within spec. It carries the gaskets, bearings and piston rings — the wear items — and deliberately leaves out pistons, the oil pump and the water pump. If your machinist tells you the block cleans up without a bore, this is the kit. If it does not, a re-ring will not save it and you want one of the master kits below.

Economy Master — a full rebuild

The Economy Master kits step up to a complete rebuild: Street Performer hypereutectic pistons, Hastings rings, main, rod and thrust bearings, a complete gasket kit, a timing chain kit and tensioner, and an oil pump.

By year: 1981-1982 22R, 1983-1984 22R, 1985-1995 22R/RE, and the 1985-1988 22RTE turbo.

Premium Master — the same rebuild with the known failure points upgraded

The Premium Master kits carry the same core — pistons, rings, main, rod and thrust bearings, complete gasket kit — and then add the four parts most likely to end a fresh rebuild early:

  • Timing chain kit with metal-backed guides rather than plastic. On the 85-95 engine this is the single most valuable upgrade in the box; see the timing section below for why.
  • A new water pump, so you are not reinstalling a 200,000-mile pump behind a fresh timing cover.
  • LCE Pro oil pump.
  • Freeze plugs, which are trivial to fit with the block on the stand and miserable to fit once it is in the truck.

By year: 1981 22R, 1982-1984 22R/RE, 1985-1995 22R/RE, and the 1985-1988 22RTE turbo.

We recommend running the Premium kits with our Crank Scraper, part 1013022.

Get the Year Right

The 22R changed enough between 1984 and 1985 that the kits are not interchangeable, and the 22RTE turbo engine takes its own kit again. Order by the year of the engine, not the year on the title — these trucks have been swapped for forty years and a 1990 Pickup with an 83 block is not unusual. If you are not sure what is in front of you, call or email us before you order; we would rather answer that question than process a return.

What a Kit Does Not Include

None of these kits contains a cylinder head. If yours is cracked, warped past a skim, or you simply want more out of the rebuild, our LCE cylinder heads run from the Street Performer through Stage 5 and are ported in-house.

And if the block itself is finished, rebuilding it is not always the cheapest route. Compare the kit price against a stroker long block or one of our complete 22R engines before you commit to the machine shop bill.

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