Head Gasket done - no start (2 Viewers)

[musthave]

I managed to get it separated. Three of the bolts are impossible to get when you can’t turn the crankshaft. Luckily I had the right wrench for a change.

 

[musthave]

So, tomorrow I will get it on the engine stand and take off the head. Once it's on the stand, I guess I flip it upside down and start looking at bottom end.

 

[450LX]

I have these pictures from when I did my headgasket about 2 years ago. I used a factory Toyota head gasket. The pictures are by the phh and you can see how the gasket shows some numbers and the way it is cut. Maybe just triple check to see if your gasket shows the same. I'm sure your gasket was installed correctly, but maybe its worth triple checking. Oh and I'm guessing you used a OEM gasket as well.

 

[musthave]

Alright, got the flywheel off. Got it on a stand. Got the cylinder head off. Not seeing anything terrible. Crankshaft still solid in place.

 

[Rookie2]

Still can’t turn the crank? Maybe put something under the front of the engine for support, and see if the crank will turn.

Everything look normal at the timing chain too?

 

[musthave]

Still can’t turn the crank? Maybe put something under the front of the engine for support, and see if the crank will turn.

Everything look normal at the timing chain too?

Everything looks normal so far. Crank is solid at 350 pounds of torque. It aint moving.

Next I’ll take off the timing chain cover. Easy at this point. See what I see.

 

[flintknapper]

Remove those knock sensors and put them someplace safe. Easy to damage them as exposed as they are now. Spendy part.

 

[Rookie2]

Am I thinking of this right, should all the piston pars be an equal distance down from the head surface, so if you had a bent rod, that piston would be off?

 

[BILT4ME]

Am I thinking of this right, should all the piston pars be an equal distance down from the head surface, so if you had a bent rod, that piston would be off?

No. Piston #'s 1 and 6, 2 and 5, 3 and 4 are on the same angle of the crankshaft so they travel together.


That being said, I went back and looked at the pics. Unless it's a horrible optical illusion, #1 and 6 should be at the same elevation and so should 2 and 5.

I think you may have a broken crank between 2 and 3.

 

[musthave]

No. Piston #'s 1 and 6, 2 and 5, 3 and 4 are on the same angle of the crankshaft so they travel together.


That being said, I went back and looked at the pics. Unless it's a horrible optical illusion, #1 and 6 should be at the same elevation and so should 2 and 5.

I think you may have a broken crank between 2 and 3.

I'll go measure the depth of each. Broken crank sounds bad. And expensive.

 

[musthave]

#1 = 1 3/4
#2 = 3 9/16
#3 = 9/16
#4 = 9/16
#5 = 3 9/16
#6 = 1 3/4

I think that's better news, or no?

 

[flintknapper]

I'll go measure the depth of each. Broken crank sounds bad. And expensive.

Only way I can fathom a broken crank would be a hydraulic'd cylinder. Engine starting to stumble....person 'revs' engine to revive it.

What has me stumped....is we still can't reconcile the coolant on top of the head and that fact that the engine only ran a few short seconds.

 

[flintknapper]

#1 = 1 3/4
#2 = 3 9/16
#3 = 9/16
#4 = 9/16
#5 = 3 9/16
#6 = 1 3/4

I think that's better news, or no?

Yes, encouraging.

 

[Rookie2]

No. Piston #'s 1 and 6, 2 and 5, 3 and 4 are on the same angle of the crankshaft 2 and 3.

Yeah, that’s what I was meaning. The piston pairs (not pars ) should be at the same depth.

 

[musthave]

Only way I can fathom a broken crank would be a hydraulic'd cylinder. Engine starting to stumble....person 'revs' engine to revive it.

What has me stumped....is we still can't reconcile the coolant on top of the head and that fact that the engine only ran a few short seconds.

I was almost hoping for a bad head gasket, or something that would at least put the "why" to rest.

The only thing I can think is that it came from the oil cooler. I replaced the big gasket, but I didn't replace the 2 small gaskets. Perhaps that is where the intrusion of antifreeze was. Back here: Head Gasket done - no start I mentioned that a few drips of antifreeze from forward two bolts. My only guess is that is where the antifreeze came from. OR, it's a cracked head and I don't know it yet.

While the vehicle ran for only maybe 4 seconds, I had an original crank-no start issue which likely caused coolant to begin to flow into the oil slowly over the course of 30+ cranks, and a few hours. Head or oil cooler, that's the question I guess at this point. I will drop off the head to the shop tomorrow morning and get their feedback. Meantime...

 

[BILT4ME]

#1 = 1 3/4
#2 = 3 9/16
#3 = 9/16
#4 = 9/16
#5 = 3 9/16
#6 = 1 3/4

I think that's better news, or no?

That's great news!

 

[Rookie2]

What has me stumped....is we still can't reconcile the coolant on top of the head and that fact that the engine only ran a few short seconds.

And the crankshaft not turning at this point is a head scratcher.

 

[jpoole]

This is the most interesting mystery I've followed in a while and I appreciate you posting here so that we can learn and develop theories on what the heck happened to your engine.

I don't think it's been posted as a theory yet so I'll ask if you think it's possible that loose hardware fell into the engine and jammed things up? Totally throwing a guess out there to try to get bragging rights if that's what it ends up being

I'm mostly just hoping this ends up being simple and cheap to fix once you get to the bottom of it. An optimistic viewpoint is that you've ruled out a lot of possible catastrophic failures already and the odds are increasing that it's something small and that most of your engine is good to go... I'll be tuning in for the outcome of course.

 

[chappysfj40]

I would be curious if something is in with the timing chaining bound up

 

[TomH]

What's this? Looks like the head gasket firing ring.