A novice tackles the head gasket thread (1 Viewer)

[DetroitStyle]

OK. Here we go. I'd rate myself at somewhere slightly above total novice mechanic. I've done things like headers on an LT1, waterpumps on an XJ, and a timing chain and guides on a 22RE. Most of those went well, albeit a lot slower than the average mechanic. So I've decided it's worth it for me to try to save $1500+ by attempting a head gasket repair myself.

I'll be posting pics of my progress and asking a lot of questions.

Background:
I bought the truck just about a year ago... I wish I'd known more things to look for, as I suspect this issue was there when I bought the truck... but I was more concerned with lockers and a cheap price. This past winter, I started seeing weird things and at one point my heat started blowing ice cold and I found this in the radiator:

I immediately suspected the head gasket, but talked myself out of it, thinking it was a red/green coolant mix gone bad. I flushed it a few times and things seemed OK for a few months. However, I would frequently notice the sweet smell of coolant in my exhaust... but I was still in denial.

Finally, symptoms returned, I checked the rear heater hoses and discovered that they were already bypassed and my fate was sealed.

So, the magic journey begins. Fortunately for me, I have another vehicle to drive, so I'm not down. However, my schedule is very busy. I watch my two small boys (1 and 3) all day, and I work afternoons, leaving for work as soon as my wife gets home. She works most Saturdays as well, so my free time is very limited. Progress WILL be slower than most.



Step 1:
Ordered about $450 worth of parts from Beno who was super helpful in steering me to a nice landing spot somewhere between the bare minimum that should be replaced and the super extensive covering all bases twice HG + all PM stuff. I couldn't afford to go all out and replace the radiator and every little bit... but I think I will be happy with what I am replacing.

Step 2:
Ordered IdahoDoug's Head Gasket DVD. Watched it twice. I'm sure I will watch it a dozen more times in sections as I go.

Step 3:
a $275 trip to Lowe's for oddball tools (30mm socket, a "wobbly", PB Blaster, scrapers, scouring pads, etc, etc, )

Step 4:
Clean up the garage and make a nice space for working. Stocked up on rags, towels, handcleaner, set up my shop lights and got cracking

Step 5:
Drained the radiator and watched all of that pretty, red, fresh $40/gallon Toyota coolant pour out, never to be used again..

*pic coming*

Step 6:
Getting the hood off by myself was interesting!

Step 7:
Air cleaner removed

Step 8:
Heat shields and plug wire cover removed... a few of the holes around the heat shield bolts were getting corroded and flimsy... might have to try to score a new set.

Step 9:
I also managed to get the distributor and wires out. Thanks to paying attention to Doug's DVD, I removed the distributor and wires as one unit and that is one less thing to have to mark and put back together.

*pic coming*

Now I'm at the alternator and bracket. No pics of that yet, but I will add them.

*pic coming*

I have soaked the exhaust manifold bolt with PB Blaster and will hit them again tonight when I get home. I'm skurred about 20 years and 200k miles of Midwest driving...

 

[DetroitStyle]

Got home from work at 1am and worked for 2 more hours.... trying to stay quiet as the wife and kids were sleeping

Alternator out!

Hard elbow off... and looking inside, reminds me of Ghostbusters II

and that was it for last night. Woke up at 9am and got back out there.

Hey, a throttle body!

backside:

Upper intake off... it was a PITA, using the "wobbly" and the mix n' match extensions... but I plowed through it.

The exhaust manifolds, I couldn't have been more surprised with how well things went. Copious amounts of PB Blaster for a few nights prior and they came out with just a little bit of muscle. Really no drama at all. .. with the exception of THIS bolt.

The rest are out and the exhaust is ready to be pulled away from the head.

On that note, are you guys disconnecting the manifolds at the Ys? Best way to do that? Or leave them connected and lower/move them another way?

 

[DetroitStyle]

fifth Space reserved for future updates

 

[DetroitStyle]

Two questions...

1. should I have marked something when removing the distributor?
2. How likely is it, given the sludge in my radiator, that there has been some sort of bearing/lower end damage?

I'm still trying to determine the extent of my issues. I think it's possible that the head gasket failed completely, as the truck was leaking coolant down the back of the block (didn't leak much when parked on a level surface at work, but leaked significantly more when parked on the slight incline of my driveway) and that I was also smelling coolant in the exhaust.

 

[breathed]

When doing an R+R on the distributor o-ring, it's a good idea to mark the distributor position on the head as you can re-install the distributor close enough to avoid measuring and adjusting the timing advance.

With all the cleaning you're going to be doing, you'd lose that mark anyways unless you make it with a chisel. A $20 Harbor Freight timing light will help you set your timing when you put it all back together. I bought one to advance my timing and it works just fine.

 

[DetroitStyle]

OK. I've never used a timing light before. Time for some interwebz learning!

 

[SteveNJ]

OK. I've never used a timing light before. Time for some interwebz learning!

Not hard, my first time was when doing my HG as well. Look for a video, made so much more sense then.

 

[blkprj80]

If you pull the rest of the air cleaner (3 more bolts I think) you will have room to put your foot when you sit on the rad support.

I glued stainless flat washers on both sides of my heat shield where it was all cracked out. Still holding. I used black FIPG but only because it was there. Any silicone should work.

Looks good so far. If you're going to do the oil pump o-ring you should break the crank bolt free now, before you get a lot of electrical stuff unhooked as you might want to use the starter bump method.

Take your time. It looks like you're off to a good start! Keep up the updates.

 

[DetroitStyle]

If you pull the rest of the air cleaner (3 more bolts I think) you will have room to put your foot when you sit on the rad support.

I glued stainless flat washers on both sides of my heat shield where it was all cracked out. Still holding. I used black FIPG but only because it was there. Any silicone should work.

Looks good so far. If you're going to do the oil pump o-ring you should break the crank bolt free now, before you get a lot of electrical stuff unhooked as you might want to use the starter bump method.

Take your time. It looks like you're off to a good start! Keep up the updates.

Appreciate the tips!

 

[DetroitStyle]

Making progress... but I can't seem to get any power to the back two exhaust manifold bolts... Any tips? From above? Below?

 

[Rookie2]

What does that mean, no power to the back bolts?

So how you getting away with not replacing the radiator, with that sludge coming out?

 

[half k cruiser]

I have never seen sludge that bad before. I'm surprised there was any coolant flow at all. With that much stuff coming out I would be highly suspicious of lower end damage or a warped head. If that were my truck I would be thinking about slowing down, taking the entire motor out and checking it over really well. If everything checks out it would be the perfect time to do a full reseal, pans, rear main and the entire top end. Then you won't have to worry about anything leaking again for a long time.

 

[DetroitStyle]

Meaning that I can't get any torque on the bolts... I got one (the furthest back) but the next one forward is stopping me. Pics coming in a bit. Have to clean up and go to work. Stopping for today...

 

[greentruck]

This will be a very instructive thread before it's all over. Hope it's something I never need to know

I'll also second revisiting the radiator. It was probably original, so is almost two decades old, even assuming everything else was OK. But that gunk is definitely not something I'd want in a 20-yo already partially clogged radiator. No point in doing all that work and then finding out she overheats again

Some HGs fail just because they're in a LandCruiser, while other fail because of cooling system failure of some type.

Also, before you get her back on the road, search here for the Raventai water temp gauge mod. That way you'll be able to tell if you have a cooling system issue, new radiator or not.

Good luck!

 

[DetroitStyle]

New progress pictures added to post #2

On a side note, I hear what you guys are saying about slime/sludge/etc... unfortunately, I have ZERO intentions of rebuilding this motor. If I'm going to spend any more money, I'll just give the truck to a friend to use as a mule for his LSx swap research. He has done a number of LSx swaps into E30/36/39 BMWs and we've been talking a bit about doing one in my truck. He's intrigued and has started to look for a roller. Time will tell. If this thing is tore up from the floor up, I'll just park it for the winter and buy a beater 4x4 while we draw up LSx plans

 

[Rookie2]

I hear you on spending the extra cash. Hopefully after this effort, everything is still in good shape down below. Maybe you can do several water fill and drain cycles on the radiator the first few weeks when she's back on the road and get it all pretty well cleaned out. Seems like 200 degree water cycling through, would be a pretty good flushing agent.

 

[DetroitStyle]

OOOH, I think I just brainstormed my way to a solution for that difficult bolt on the exhaust manifold. I hate being at work and not able to walk out to the garage! It's been bugging me all night!

But that does bring me to my earlier question...

are you guys taking the exhaust apart at the Ys? I did remove one of the support bracket bolts down before the catalytic convertor, but that didn't seem to free up much play. I kind of like the idea of the manifolds being completely out of the way for removing the head... but those bolts that connect the manis to the Ys didn't want to budge.

 

[blkprj80]

What's that pipe that's in the way? I don't remember that on my '96. I do remember the back ones being difficult to get the studs out, but patience paid off.

I was able to separate my manifolds at the Y's. I used an impact and banged on them for a while. I was very happy when they all broke loose and came off! Hint: try tightening a bit, then loosening, repeat... Start with your impact at a lower setting so you don't beat the s*** out of the nut unnecessarily. Or snap it off...

I'm not sure I like your "reserved for future posts" idea on this. It sure makes it hard to keep up with all the stuff. When it gets longer, which it will, it might be bad.

Hope your idea works for that difficult bolt. I'd be trying to get to it from underneath to see if there was any better purchase there. You say bolt, mine had nuts & studs. Was '94 different from '96 in that aspect?

I got a little further than where you're at now (below) and decided to pull the engine. That turned out to be a good idea as the problem turned out to be a rod knock although it sounded like it was coming from up in the head.

Keep it up! You're making decent progress.

 

[DetroitStyle]

What's that pipe that's in the way? I don't remember that on my '96. I do remember the back ones being difficult to get the studs out, but patience paid off.

I was able to separate my manifolds at the Y's. I used an impact and banged on them for a while. I was very happy when they all broke loose and came off! Hint: try tightening a bit, then loosening, repeat... Start with your impact at a lower setting so you don't beat the s*** out of the nut unnecessarily. Or snap it off...

I'm not sure I like your "reserved for future posts" idea on this. It sure makes it hard to keep up with all the stuff. When it gets longer, which it will, it might be bad.

Hope your idea works for that difficult bolt. I'd be trying to get to it from underneath to see if there was any better purchase there. You say bolt, mine had nuts & studs. Was '94 different from '96 in that aspect?

I got a little further than where you're at now (below) and decided to pull the engine. That turned out to be a good idea as the problem turned out to be a rod knock although it sounded like it was coming from up in the head.

Keep it up! You're making decent progress.

The pipe you're seeing can be seen in this picture:

Just off of the top of my head, I think it goes to the waterpump?

Yeah, you're right, it's nuts on studs... wrong words on my part.

I'm going to try getting at it using my deep socket and a u-joint. I forgot I got a 1/2" u-joint in the 3 pack that I bought. Hoping that breaks it loose.

I have a smaller 3/8" Snap-On impact... but I'm not sure if I can get to the Y studs without an extension. I'm assuming I shouldn't be using an extension with an impact?

 

[blkprj80]

I have a couple impact extensions. They are black. They really do cut back on the applied torque though. I believe I may have got mine loose with a 3/8 snap-on butterfly impact. I was surprised they were as easy as they were.

I thought maybe you had some extra EGR type tubing that mine didn't have. Is it just the A/C pipe lost in 3D perspective?

Sometimes you can come in through the fender (wheel off) to get to a bolt you may not be able reach otherwise. Takes a lot of extensions, and boy, when they let loose... Pow! ... and then you check, hoping it was the bolt that broke loose! Sometimes you win. Use 1/2" drive stuff to minimize the twist up.