Head gasket wrap up (1 Viewer)

Flushed the cooling system today with a detergent flush to get any remaining bits of oil out of there, then filled with Toyota Red again. While flushing, I revved the engine quite a bit to encourage turbulence and the higher compression seems to have given the engine a bit of a different note. More snarly. Can't wait to drag race the 93 again to see if there's a power difference.

Anyhow, here's a pic of the new block heater someone asked for. Note that this is without the exhaust manifolds in the way, but this is the plug to use:




And here's a picture of the NAPA heat wrap on the wire next to the EGR pipe that sprouts from the back of the head. The metal wire ties didn't work out, so I'll see how long these last:



And here's a picture of the original head gasket I replaced with 140,000 miles on it. Should be able to see that the triangular metal piece around the water jacket is broken loose and there's a crack in it where the end of the raised portion is in the air and the other part is still glued down. The crack is at the 10:30 position if the cylinder sealing ring was a clock. I used lighting at an angle to accentuate as best I could. My digicam doesn't seem to do macro well:



Cleaned up the garage and put away the tools. Should get the head gasket DVD ready in time for Christmas viewing. Also, I believe the source of the grey sludge is the head gasket. note how there's lots of swelling of the gasket around every water hole. The gasket in these spots covers a water gallery that is much larger than the hole, and that's where the gasket swells and chunks of it fall off as little grains. Whatever the material is, it has a claylike greasy feel just like what I've been seeing on flushes every year since 1993. The lesson there is - don't let your coolant age as that's likely what deteriorates the gasket.


DougM

Doug,
If you want to create a thread showing how you did the Head Gasket, I'll add it to the FAQ. You should include milling the head and the impact on performance.

IdahoDoug said:

...I believe the source of the grey sludge is the head gasket. note how there's lots of swelling of the gasket around every water hole. The gasket in these spots covers a water gallery that is much larger than the hole, and that's where the gasket swells and chunks of it fall off as little grains...

Click to expand...

Doug, do you think that there is enough headgasket exposed to the water flow to account for what is visible in this picture from SleeOffRoad?

Head Gasket DVD.... can't wait!

Good job. I'm looking forward to the head gasket DVD. I may tackle my HG as PM sometime soon depending on how bad the DVD looks.

Rich,

Yes. Take note in the picture of the gasket how swollen the stuff in the circular water gallery at the 5 O'clock position is. This material swells many times its original size. That particular chunk started out the thickness of 5 sheets of paper and is now nearly a quarter inch thick there when viewed from the side. I'll see if I can get a picture - you'll be amazed. That must be a 10 to 1 expansion at least. Also, note that the oval hole spanning from 2 to 3 o'clock is empty because the entire chunk finally deteriorated and fell into the system to soak and further swell. In later stages, I'd imagine all of these chunks - some 40 or so - would do the same. About 3 of mine had.

So, an engine that's had its coolant neglected continuously will eventually lose all these chunks, and waterflow through the engine/head will be dramatically different than intended. Some areas will be cooler and others hotter than they should

As a side issue, when this happens, the water passing through the area slows down dramatically and will not pick up the same amount of heat as designed - creating hot or cold spots all over the head. For instance, that missing chunk at 2-3 may cause almost no flow through the other galleries around it at because the water simply went through the larger opening instead.

So, plenty of material there to be the sludge in that picture and whatever it is swells considerably. That picture from Slee indicates an engine where most or all of these galleries have blown out and the engine is no longer getting the proper pattern of coolant flow at all. I'd be curious what else they found on that engine.

My bro in law (brother of the 293,000 mile 80) is visiting us this week and we were looking at the gaskets. He is an automotive engineer and made the observation that just the missing water gallery material in mine would dramatically change the flow of coolant in my engine block. If more were all blown out, there could be some areas where the water is hardly moving at all and others where it's whizzing through.

A bit more info for all of you. You're looking at the bottom face of the head gasket that would be against the block. So the left side of the picture was the exhaust side. See how much more it is deteriorated? That's the role of heat in this process. The rearmost triangular sections were most likely once little circles as the new gasket has, but the heat back there from the EGR pipe caused these to blow out first. So you can see the damage progressing and changing the flow.

Interesting, no?

DougM

Doug you can also see where the carbon tracks are and that is another area of compression loss. I see a couple of spot on the rt side of the cylinder leaking to the coolant passages. Boy that gasket is not a pretty site. As for the radiator, That was a long time ago and it was one with a HG leak I did almost 3 years ago. Any how It should be lost better now. later robbie

Doug, it appears there is some moisture around the plug for the block heater. I"m assuming it's because you had just installed it before shooting the pic?

Curious, that thing works by plugging it into an electrical outlet, it heats the coolant which circulates through the motor so when you get in to crank the truck it's allready at operating temps?

You tryin' to jinx my block heater??!? Heh.

You got it on the function. I installed one of these factory Toyota block heaters on the 93 when we got it and Cdan was kind enough to track one down for the 97 though they've been out of production for years. I think he still has one left.

It won't get the coolant to operating temp, but on a zero degree day you'll have some heat as you back down the driveway, and full heat within a couple miles. Also starts quickly. If you decide to install one, be sure to ask me about the "Foolproof Way To Avoid Pulling Wall Sockets Out Of The Drywall" technique I use.

The moisture around the block heater is actually some special O-ring grease that comes with the block heater kit.

There's a 30 minute install method and a 3 minute install method. I used the 3 minute method on the 93 12 years ago and the 30 minute on this one. On the 3 minute method, you just take a punch and hammer the freeze plug into the block where it harmlessly falls to the bottom of the block. With more time on my hands this one got the freeze plug pulled out. With 150k on the 93, either system seems to work....

DougM

IdahoDoug said:

...be sure to ask me about the "Foolproof Way To Avoid Pulling Wall Sockets Out Of The Drywall" technique I use...

Click to expand...

Doug, here's the ticket http://www.kussmaul.com/091-55-20-120.html

Now THAT is tasty. Crank up the truck while holding coffee cup, watch cord zing across the room, listen to the yellow cap snap down to weather proof my truck's outlet while I drive off into swirling snow. Very tasty - thanks! Christmas present for Lucy and Bessie.

DougM

Even better, have a remote starter and watch all of this from the kitchen
Seriously, not living in the cold climate, I'm a bit of a dud when it comes to these things. So, the auto ejector is basically your 110 volt outlet on the wall? Your cable with the plug that's attached to the block heater simply plugs into this thing?

Pretty simple thing, eh? So simple that I just put one in the 60 and the 80 is soon to come as well. I can't believe I've lived so long without one. The auto-ejectors are nice, but not always 100% foolproof. I've seen a determined fireman demolish one while leaving the station. Still a pretty good option though short of driving to work with a 100ft extension cord dragging behind the truck.

Anyone know what the actual name of that heat wrap stuff is in the second picture above? I went to napa the other day to find something like that and the guy could not figure out what to look up in his little book. I need to wrap that same wire loom next to the intake manifold because mine has just about been burnt through.

WNL,

Those are actually NAPA branded spark plug wire heat wraps. It's a tube of the material with a metal ring in the end that goes over the spark plug. They came 2 to a pack and were blisterpacked on yellow cardboard if memory serves. I cut the ring end off, then slit it to wrap the wires.

DougM