1994 1FZ-FE Head Gasket Replacement - My Experience (3 Viewers)

[40LandCruising]

I'll preface this with the fact that I am by no means any sort of expert or professional, I just thought I'd put out there my experience and try and include some helpful information such as part numbers.

I have a 1994 FZJ80, owned it back in high school, sold it, a buddy bought it, and I recently bought it back off him. There was a concerningly large amount of coolant vanishing from the radiator and an exhaust gas test in the coolant came back positive so I decided to do a head gasket on it.

Back in 2018 at 230K the HG went in what can only be described as a catastrophic failure. And nuked the whole engine. Had another engine swapped in with 190K miles and sold it. I was in college and didn't have the time, money, or place to fix it myself. Fast forward to now and unsurprisingly, as the 'new' engine hit about 236K, the HG went.

Got it prepped for the work by pressure washing the filthy engine, it leaked profusely and it gets wheeled hard so it needed it. And swapped on some 'aired down' rollers to get it in my garage.

 

[40LandCruising]

I began with the simple intention of doing the HG, and man mission creep set in.

To start I just pulled the cylinder head in the vehicle. I watched an OTTRAM video and used my eyes and it was pretty straight forward. Hardest part was getting to some lower intake bolts. Just chained a bunch of extensions together and zipped them off with the impact from the wheel well. The connectors that go to the transmission harness were also a bear. Was a lot easier once I removed the wheel and actually sat in the wheel well.

After removing the cylinder head and getting it to the machine shop, mission creep set in. I needed to do the rear main, so I needed to pull the transmission/tcase or the engine. So the solution? Pull both!

In retrospect I 100% would have just pulled the entire assembled drivetrain at once. Pulling it with the head off resulted in the engine hoist munching the timing chain guide, and so I ended up replacing the timing set. Also just felt like way more work.

I'm of the current thought that it's easiest to pull just the engine by itself. And leave the trans and tcase in place. The drivetrain is so dang long I about killed myself and my buddy trying to get it out and back in. I did some very questionable things. Like balancing the entire drivetrain on the front bumper and bear hugging the tcase in the engine bay while my
Buddy re rigged it to hang better.

 

[40LandCruising]

The biggest help to the removal would have been to remove the whole front of the 80 to start with. At the beginning I had the radiator out and that was it. While the engine was over top of it I removed the top of the core support, the AC condenser, grill, lower valence, headlights, etc.

Once it was out I said never again and went ahead and removed the front bumper as well for maximum space on re-entry. Also rolled it outside so I wouldn't get the engine hoist stuck on the garage door going back in.

 

[40LandCruising]

The biggest help to the removal would have been to remove the whole front of the 80 to start with. At the beginning I had the radiator out and that was it. While the engine was over top of it I removed the top of the core support, the AC condenser, grill, lower valence, headlights, etc.

Once it was out I said never again and went ahead and removed the front bumper as well for maximum space on re-entry. Also rolled it outside so I wouldn't get the engine hoist stuck on the garage door going back in.

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The ram on my engine hoist was also failing during this so it required constant pumping to stay up. I bought a new beefier ram to replace it prior to install.

 

[40LandCruising]

Now for the parts list, the main reason I wanted to post this.

I bought a complete Ishino Stone engine gasket kit on Parts geek. Ishino Stone is an OEM supplier for Toyota gaskets, at least of this era to the best of my knowledge. The parts were all very high quality and a large savings.

I ordered an assortment of Oem parts from Partsouq.

And I supplemented this with dealer purchases for all the stuff I forgot about or didn't know about.

And then a large Rock Auto order for the balance.

Ishino Stone Engine Gasket kit - W0133-2058370 I paid $179.20 shipped in March, its $228 + shipping now.
The gaskets included in this:
-Head gasket
-Valve Cover gasket
-rear main seal
-front main seal
-exhaust manifold gaskets
-intake manifold gasket
-intake plenum gaskets
-(3) coolant pipe O-rings
-dip stick tube o ring
-valve stem seals
-injector o rings
-injector spacer grommet things
-timing chain tensioner gasket
-throttle body gasket
-water pump gasket
-(2) small oil cooler gaskets
-large oil cooler housing gasket
-exhaust collector gaskets
-oil pickup tube gasket
-(6) spark plug tube seals
-EGR pipe to valve gasket
-PAIR pipe to exhaust manifold gaskets oil
-oil drain plug washer
-copper fuel line crush washers

Partsouq
-1578566010 Oil cooler gaskets (2) had an extra
-9091002111 Cylinder head bolts (14)
-1132866020 Square timing cover O ring
-9676124042 timing cover O ring
-9672124022 other timing cover o ring
-4434860170 PS reservoir to pump hose, surprisingly the cheapest I could find at the time
-OSK T020B timing kit

Rock Auto
- Denso 3119 copper spark plugs
-NGK 4413 Blue spark plug wires
-Rein PSH0328 PS high pressure hose
-Standard Motor Products S2330 injector connector, should've ordered all 6, mine were all broken. Just replaced the one that had been replaced before poorly
-Wix 33563 Fuel filter

Dealer **I saved a lot of money by buying parts through the parts website versus at the parts counter, every dealer is different but Those with a corporate controlled parts website don't set pricing and Toyota ran some great sales when I needed stuff. But definitely would've been cheaper on Partsouq if I knew

-15188-66020 Oil pump O-Ring
-15183-66020 Oil pump cover screw (stripped one)
-16119-66020 thermostat housing to timing cover metal gasket
-90301-73004 large orange Power steering pump to block O-Ring
-11193-50010 Spark Plug tube gaskets X 6 (Turns out I have a later model VC or engine entirely and it takes the small seals that match a 2UZ)
-90430-27001 Oil level sensor O-Ring gasket
-90099-14118 Distributor O-Ring

 

[40LandCruising]

In the end it all worked out. I got the cylinder head last Friday. Engine was in the vehicle Sunday. Was actively working in the driveway until after 11PM 5 nights in a row but I got it together. Even with working AC, in time for a buddies bachelor party at Windrock I left for on Friday. Good thing too because people kept breaking and I had to play minivan.

Found a destroyed AC idler bearing. Sourced one local same day from a bearing distributor. It's Chinese but I bought a spare lol.

Discovered my radiator profusely leaks, likely from removing the caked on grease and mud that plugged it up. @Trollhole saved the day with a minorly freight damaged one he had at the shop.

I replaced my AC drier and condenser in the midst of all this and charged it and the AC worked great for the first Time in years. Unfortunately in all this I forgot to order new V belts and mine were trashed. And couldn't find any in stock local, so I reused the old and hoped for the best. The AC belt removed itself at some point Saturday and I lost AC, but just glad it wasn't one of the other belts. I have new belts on order now.

 

[40LandCruising]

Also had to splice in a 2 wire connector to the NSS harness. Discovered 2 corroded pins. One was completely missing. Explains the random no start issues I'd had, and hey now my shift indicator on the dash works again and it'll actually hold gears when in L or 2 again! And reverse lights!

 

[40LandCruising]

Chased some issues on startup, no spark initially, turns out I left the ECU unplugged laying in the floor...

Had a hellacious exhaust leak, turns out I'd managed to get the wrong 2 nuts stuck on one of the exhaust collector studs and while they were stuck, the pipe was now. Got that sorted and no more leak.

Still doesn't run 100%, was enough for this trip, but need to fine tune some things. Going to start by timing it. Right now I just guessed on the timing.

I also deleted the PAIR, EGR, and the entire vacuum octopus under the intake manifold. So could be related to some of that. Although I haven't been able to find any vacuum leaks with brake clean so far.

 

[Broski]

Subed

 

[Fj80oregon]

Nice work!!!

 

[devo]

Dang!

 

[Dindu Nuffin]

This is wild that you post this because I brought home my ex- Cruiser tonight. Same deal- I sold it to a friend in 2018 and bought it back from him. It too needs a head gasket that I'll be doing myself.

 

[40LandCruising]

There were a lot of times I thought the whole timeline was out the window, but it worked out.

The machinist I took it to is the dad of a good buddy of mine and does great work. After looking at the valves and the valve seats he told me he could try and lap them in but it really needed a valve grind. He did a valve grind and adjusted the valves. Only issue is he didn't have enough shims in the correct thicknesses. These engines don't use any standard Toyota valve shim sizes, they are only shared with an Isuzu 3.0 diesel. So he ended up face grinding shims to get the correct thicknesses. He said it took forever but it worked out and I got the head in time. Way better than waiting a week for shims online

The NSS wires also caused a brief panic. I really didn't want to cut the harness but given the timeline it made the most sense. It was much easier to repair out of the vehicle than in it. I used a 2 pin Toyota connector out of a Toyota camper harness I've had for years that has become my scavenging harness. Would've rathered a newer connector but it was the best I had at the time.

I replaced all the trans cooler and PS pump hose. Just used parts store 3/8" transmission oil cooler hose. It's a snug fit but it goes on. A little Vaseline and some heat gun action help a lot. Also added a derale PS cooler.

I did discover that some 5/8" heater hose I had laying around made a great hose protector sleeve for the 3/8 trans cooler lines. I had 3 different brands of hose, as I kept buying not enough, and some fit better in the 5/8" hose than others. In a couple spots where I forgot to add it I slit the heater hose and stuck it over the 3/8" hose and ziptied it in place.

I also replaced all of the heater hoses on the back of the engine. Used 1/2" and 5/8" heater hose from the parts store. The molded hose coming out of the heater control valve had been replaced somewhat recently and it's the easiest to get to so I left it. And I did buy one molded 90° hose for the passenger side heater core lines. Took the opportunity to flush my heater core as well. Got all sorts of funk out of it.

 

[alia176]

I'm of the current thought that it's easiest to pull just the engine by itself. And leave the trans and tcase in place. The drivetrain is so dang long I about killed myself and my buddy trying to get it out and back in. I did some very questionable things. Like balancing the entire drivetrain on the front bumper and bear hugging the tcase in the engine bay while my
Buddy re rigged it to hang better.

Yup, this is the best solution when a HG goes because of myriad of other things that need to be tended to at the same time. Good job on this huge task!!