Cracked Head - Options Going Forward (1 Viewer)

[bsweaty]

Hey all,

Long time reader, first time posting. Thanks for taking the time to read through and weigh in.

Not too long again I purchased a 1992 Hilux Surf LN130 (2LTE) auto trans and am located in Idaho, US. It's overall in great shape. Low miles, body is solid, but obvious has sat, considering it is 30 years old and has 80k miles. I am fairly mechanically inclined and have been checking off minor problems with this thing as I've gone forward. It's been fun. Until today.

After climbing a hill, stopped. Bubbles in the overflow chamber. White smoke from just behind the motor. Likely a cracked head with how these motors go. Started to develop a slight knock on the way home, white smoke didn't stop. BUMMER.

Anyway, nothing I can do now. My options are:
1. New (improved) head, fix it the way it is. Roughly $2500 in parts. Maybe swap out the electronic injection pump for a mechanical one in the process.
2. Dump the 97hp 2LT-E motor and drop in the 135hp 1KZT-E motor AND upgrade the trans to a manual. $5k in parts.

Other options? Cummins R2.8 would be awesome, just incredibly expensive and would probably be a lot for the stock auto trans. 4BT would be amazing, not sure if it would fit / be too heavy for a hilux surf.

Any way, what would you do?


Cheers.

 

[mcmarshing]

If it were me, I would just get a new 2LTE head or 3L head. From what I recall in these forums is that from 1990-1994 were the model years with problematic heads, and the later years had fixed the "cooling pocket" for coolant that caused it to crack in the first place. Besides that, 3L head. On top of that, probably also dig around and see what exactly it takes to convert the electronic fuel injection to a mechanical boost compensated one ($2500 AUD or so). If it's just too time consuming to convert it to mechanical injection, I'd just roll with a new head, make sure you got good EGT/Boost/Coolant Temp gauges, and enjoy a refreshed 2LTE. That'll hopefully also put your truck back to being roadworthy in 1-2 months too and keep you overall happy.

I think staying as close to the original stuff as possible where the 2L/3L/5L + Hilux OEM manuals are of good help to you and a machinist for the sake of future repairs.

(Speaking from my current experience rebuilding a tired 3L on a Hilux)

 

[GTSSportCoupe]

I agree, just replace the cylinder head with the newer OEM part. Scrap the emissions, tune it up a bit and maybe pop in a new rad. Should be good for another decade or two.

 

[bsweaty]

@GTSSportCoupe @mcmarshing thanks for the feedback. I appreciate it. I already ripped the emissions off and started to tune it lightly. I was on the cusp of ordering boost / egt / water temp gauge when this happened.

I will say that even before the head cracked, the power on this thing isn't the greatest. I live in the mountains(6,000 feet), and routinely drive a pass around 8,500 feet. From what I have read, the ECU doesn't do well with more than 14-15psi boost. Currently 9 - 10. Do you have any tips for performance while / after I swap a new head in?

 

[GTSSportCoupe]

If you want a significant improvement in power, you need to intercool it and run ~17-20psi boost with the fuel turned up (spill valve). Yes, you do need to trick the ECU into not going into a fuel cut mode when the boost goes over 14psi. There are a few ways to do that.

But, intercooling etc does cost money. So you could repair the truck, sell it, and buy something with a more powerful motor instead. That is for you to decide.

In terms of power potential, my LJ78 weighs about 5000lb empty with me in it. It's auto. With my tuned 2LTE, I pass stock 22RE and 3VZE 4Runners easily on the highway hills, and am a bit faster than 5VZFE 4Runners. These 4Runners are at least 500lb less weight and more aerodynamic. So maybe that gives you a good idea of what your 2LTE could be.

 

[AirheadNut]

As expensive as a cylinder head is for a 2L-TE, it is still going to be a lot cheaper and way less work than any other option. Even with a decent intercooler setup and some other tuning you'll still be in it less than any decent engine swap, and it will be back on the road in a fraction of the time.

When the cylinder head on my Prado went I briefly considered just replacing it instead of the engine swap I had been planning, but opted not to. The swap ended up costing about 3x more than a new head and took a couple of years of hobbyist/weekend type work. I am really happy with the results and enjoyed the project, but wouldn't recommend it to anyone unless they are interested in the project aspect of an engine swap at least as much as the finished product.

 

[mcmarshing]

@hlxsrf Some other performance tips that have helped me out (I’m in UT, and drive at 4-9k regularly) is having a 2.5” downpipe and exhaust with high flow cat. It dropped my EGT’s up highway grades from 900-1000* to 800* max while maintaining 11psi of boost. Any reputable shop should be able to make one.

 

[buggyboy7]

Hi Hlxsrf

I'm a bit late in this thread but it caught my eye as I too had a cracked 2LTE head in an LJ78 some years back. Have you decided and or fixed it yet?
I agree with the previous guys as to fixing the 2L. What I did was replaced the head with a aftermarket Australian one from ALLHEAD which seemed to be rock solid. I put a lot of hard (and hot miles on it after the fix and it held up fine. There was some other minor mods as well that this company recommended which I did as well.

Cheers K.

 

[bsweaty]

@buggyboy7 I haven’t done anything as of yet. I let the project sit and just got back at it this evening.

Before I drop $1300 on a head, I’d love to verify that it is in fact the head. Symptoms are:

Hard start, white smoke after.
Slight misfire most of the time.
Bubbling into expansion chamber under and load.
Light blow by, oil in intake.

So far I’ve replaced the turbo, injectors, fuel pump solenoid, glow plugs. EGR has been removed.!I’m can verify all went well.

With the low miles and that this truck came from Japan, head still seems most likely.

Thoughts? Thanks for any help.

 

[buggyboy7]

Hi again hlxsrf

Those are the symptoms of a cracked head. See my album " Out and about in the 78"
You will see photos of my 2L-TE head project.
Unfortunately it was a problematic engine but with some cooling improvement like larger rad, modified water pump, EGT and boost gage and a redesigned head it will live on.

Cheers.. K

 

[bsweaty]

Does anyone have experience with cruiserparts.com? Looks like they have a genuine head and are in the US. Thanks!

 

[Irish11]

Bad experience with CruiserParts

I hate to write a bad review of any provider who supports small communities. I especially dislike doing so for a small family business. This is long due to the drawn out nature of how I came to write a bad review of some folks who I think are probably decent folks. At least decent when they...

forum.ih8mud.com

Warning about Cruiserparts.net...they only give store credit for returned parts and have a 25% restocking fee

Hi everybody, I just learned the hard way that cruiserparts.net only gives store credit for returned parts. In my recent thread on solving a gauge fuse issue, I went through the whole process of tearing my truck apart and tracking down the short circuit to find that it was inside the A/C...

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I would avoid them like the plague.

 

[bsweaty]

Bad experience with CruiserParts

I hate to write a bad review of any provider who supports small communities. I especially dislike doing so for a small family business. This is long due to the drawn out nature of how I came to write a bad review of some folks who I think are probably decent folks. At least decent when they...

forum.ih8mud.com

Warning about Cruiserparts.net...they only give store credit for returned parts and have a 25% restocking fee

Hi everybody, I just learned the hard way that cruiserparts.net only gives store credit for returned parts. In my recent thread on solving a gauge fuse issue, I went through the whole process of tearing my truck apart and tracking down the short circuit to find that it was inside the A/C...

forum.ih8mud.com

I would avoid them like the plague.

Thanks for the heads up. They haven’t returned an email or call in the last week for me anyway. I’m actively looking.

 

[bsweaty]

So head is out. Crack between the valves on cylinder 4, and every single injector seat is badly cracked. Is there something specific that causes this?

 

[1MOA]

Well at least your suspicion is confirmed.
Look at your injectors and see if the base seal is good or bad with anything up the injector body. The revised D4D injectors have a new base seal that prevents the bad leaking your injector seats probably cracked from coolant leaking across them from the head crack and the temp difference cracked them.

 

[AussieHJCruza]

The pictures show cracked pre-combustion chambers which is very common and not the source of your issues. The crack between the valves isn't good.
Put a 3L style head on it and make sure the cooling system is up to scratch. Then read everything that @GTSSportCoupe has written on making the 2LTE reliable and getting a few more horses while you're at it.

If you can't source what you need, we can have a new aftermarket head fully assembled and ready to go in a few days inc cam, valves etc, all parts from reputable suppliers.

 

[GTSSportCoupe]

@hlxsrf
Note Toyota updated both the 3L and 2LTE/2LT-II cylinder head part numbers. Both of the early ones were prone to cracking, but both new OEM part numbers last much longer. Personally I went with the 2LTE specific one and have beat on it hard the last 10 years with no failure yet.

Pre-cups crack because they receive the most heat. This happens with all the IDI toyota diesels. As long as the cracks don't extend completely through the pre-cup it's ok. You'll get new ones with a new cylinder head in any case.

The cylinder head cracks from repeated heat cycling. The early heads had a little divit in the cooling passage that made the head thin between the valves. I think the engineers thought this would help cool the area, but in fact, there is just localized boiling and a vapor barrier there (with conventional water coolant). This allows the metal to super heat compared to rest of the head, and it eventually cracks and fails.

Although the new head is improved, there are lots of things you can do to improve the situation. Like run a 82C thermostat (used on later model 2LT-IIs through to 2002), remove the suffocating EGR system and throttle plates, add an intercooler, tune a bit, etc.

 

[bsweaty]

I got an OE Toyota updated 2lt-e head and had a local machine shop do the valve job. I got the head in a couple evenings ago. Good news is that the full time misfire and loads of white smoke are gone. But unfortunately still struggling with a few things.

While the head was out, I sent the injectors off to be checked out, they pop tested good and cleaned up great.

My truck still rough starts pretty bad. Still is losing prime. I have a slight misfire when it starts cold too. Once it warms up, it runs decent. However I’m getting a bunch of fault codes and I am in limp mode. I’m also hearing a pretty solid whine under throttle. Immediately goes away when off throttle. Gets worse with more power down.

Codes are 4, 8, 11, 12. Code 4 appears to be a poorly fixed coolant sensor, I can take care of that. 8 and 11 I havent dug into yet. 12 is the scary one. I ripped my timing cover off last night and verified the timing marks are as they should be, and they appear to be in the right spots.

Feeling pretty discouraged. Anyone ever had an injection pump fail on them? I should probably also compression test now too. Thanks for the help.

Some notes on things I’ve replaced to try and resolve this previously: fuel filter and priming pump, spillway valve, injectors, and the computer. EGR has beeen deleted. Upgraded the turbo. Throttle butterflies have been removed. All of these have done nothing to improve the issues at hand.

 

[bsweaty]

I got an OE Toyota updated 2lt-e head and had a local machine shop do the valve job. I got the head in a couple evenings ago. Good news is that the full time misfire and loads of white smoke are gone. But unfortunately still struggling with a few things.

While the head was out, I sent the injectors off to be checked out, they pop tested good and cleaned up great.

My truck still rough starts pretty bad. Still is losing prime. I have a slight misfire when it starts cold too. Once it warms up, it runs decent. However I’m getting a bunch of fault codes and I am in limp mode. I’m also hearing a pretty solid whine under throttle. Immediately goes away when off throttle. Gets worse with more power down.

Codes are 4, 8, 11, 12. Code 4 appears to be a poorly fixed coolant sensor, I can take care of that. 8 and 11 I havent dug into yet. 12 is the scary one. I ripped my timing cover off last night and verified the timing marks are as they should be, and they appear to be in the right spots.

Feeling pretty discouraged. Anyone ever had an injection pump fail on them? I should probably also compression test now too. Thanks for the help.

Some notes on things I’ve replaced to try and resolve this previously: fuel filter and priming pump, spillway valve, injectors, and the computer. EGR has beeen deleted. Upgraded the turbo. Throttle butterflies have been removed. All of these have done nothing to improve the issues at hand.

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Following up here, my issue did turn out to be my timing belt being out one tooth. I highly recommend rotating 2-4 revolutions after installing to verify position.