Blown Head Gasket-What am I getting into? (1 Viewer)

[ScubaSteve80]

I know I know, there are many threads on this but most of them are old and I couldn't find some of the answers I was looking for.

So I believe have recently joined the blown head gasket club. Here's what happened, while pulling my trailer with a good load of fire wood. My scan gauge temp jumped to 246 degrees. As soon as I noticed it I pulled over. The temp went down pretty quickly but the reservoir overflow tube had been spitting coolant out of the reservoir and the reservoir was much fuller than I filled it up to. Once the temp got to normal I drove it for another 30 mins or so and noticed it seemed to be missing going up some hills, but the temp stayed normal. Once I got home I let it sit and when I started it up I got the famous white smoke from the exhaust. So I went and got the head gasket test and the blue liquid turned yellow quickly.

My first question is, is there anyway this could be anything else beside a head gasket?

Second: How bad is this repair if I dive into it. I have seen Otramm's video and that's really the only source I have of how to do this. The head gasket kit from Cruiser Outfitters is $360 I believe. Besides having the head machined, is this my only major cost in the repair (besides all the other things I could fix while I am in there)?

Are there any other sources to see how this is done? I have the FSM and I have seen messages about a DVD but am unsure where to get the DVD.

Any advice, tips or comments would be appreciated. Thanks for the help guys.

 

[Nframe]

It's not as bad as you're thinking it is.
Mega threads on here (with pics) on how to do it.
Best advice I can offer is take the hood off, and open the wallet. Lots of other stuff you're going to want to do while you've got it apart.
Good luck.

 

[skhochay]

no way around use OEM gasket

 

[NorCalFJ100]

Look up the Otramm videos on YouTube. Super helpful!!!!

 

[ScubaSteve80]

It's not as bad as you're thinking it is.
Mega threads on here (with pics) on how to do it.
Best advice I can offer is take the hood off, and open the wallet. Lots of other stuff you're going to want to do while you've got it apart.
Good luck.

Thanks for the info. There's almost too many threads on it. I didn't see any with "how to pictures" Do you have a thread in mind that you have used or suggest following?

 

[Nframe]

I used Jorgito's Head Gasket job (total noob) thread to start, then just relied on my FSM.
Watch OTRAMM's video, it helps a lot. Think I watched it 3 times.
Good luck.

 

[subzali]

The @OTRAMM videos are probably the best thing going right now. Budget $1500 for parts, machine shop work, fluids and consumables. It’s a good time to replace some other things like hoses, PHH, water pump, etc. The @jcardona1 thread has some pics of the process. Start looking at all the threads with pics and you will start seeing them all looking the same and you can visualize the process.

This thread from the FAQ has some tips:

Done 2 headgaskets now, my write up (w/ pix)

Completed 2 headgaskets now, my write up (w/ pix) Tail of two ‘Cruiser head gasket jobs by two root beer drinkin’, Yes on 8 supportin', mormon brothers from Utah::D Between myself and two brothers, we have three 80 series cruisers. Mine is the sweetest, a charcoal grey 1994 with 180K on the...

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[ceylonfj40nut]

Inspect your timing chain slip and slippers. Timing chain is a lifetime part usually. Seen some with slop. Some years the slippers would fail.

 

[Rusty Marlin]

Does Bamma do emissions? If not you may want to think about deleting the EGR while you're in there.
I haven't done the LC's HG, But I've done several other inline engines. My experience is thus:
Take your time, follow the manual, don't force anything.
If it looks worn out, replace it. (this will slow down the rebuild as you can't order the parts till you have them out and inspected)
Check your valve clearances while you're in there and adjust as needed. Measure your cam lobe heights, and cam journal bearing clearances too.
Check the head flatness with a stright edge and feeler guages, you might not need to have it decked.
I can't stress this enough; Read through the FMS and order all the "diamond marked" parts at once. It will make your life a lot easier.
As I remove assemblies I put all the fasteners and small clips and what-not in paper lunch bags and label them and place them in order from back to front in a shoe box, it make's reassembly a whole lot easier.

Approach it methodically and you'll be fine.

As for parts, you don't say how many miles are on it, but I would change all the timing sprockets, timing chain, chain guides, and tensioner.

Good luck!

 

[Outbounders]

It’s really not a hard job at all. It’s time consuming and detail oriented. The hardest part may be scrounging up all the parts you’ll need and/or want. It’s too bad Onur is out of the parts business because he was great to work with and would discuss all the while you’re in there bits with you. Make sure you have a caliper and torque wrenches. I don’t recall any specialty tooling needed. The FSM is invaluable to this task and what I used for about 70 percent of the info I needed. The other 30 was supplemented with threads on here. I believe @jcardona1 rebuild thread is the thread I used primarily as well but don’t remember. My advice would be to rebuild as much as you can afford since you’ll be in there. Also, good time to send injectors off to be serviced. If you have plans of a turbo, might be a few other considerations to make. It can cost as little as the 360 you mentioned but you would be doing yourself a disservice by not addressing some other things while it’s all apart. I think I spent maybe 2500 and rebuilt/replaced everything I touched. Now I won’t have to worry about most of it for 200,000 miles. Otramm video was not around when I did mine. Oh, if you can, pull the motor. Would have made it SO much easier

 

[Atomic City]

Be careful - sometimes you find things "while you are in there". Then you end up with a new short block from Toyota.

 

[ScubaSteve80]

I used Jorgito's Head Gasket job (total noob) thread to start, then just relied on my FSM.
Watch OTRAMM's video, it helps a lot. Think I watched it 3 times.
Good luck.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[ScubaSteve80]

Does Bamma do emissions? If not you may want to think about deleting the EGR while you're in there.
I haven't done the LC's HG, But I've done several other inline engines. My experience is thus:
Take your time, follow the manual, don't force anything.
If it looks worn out, replace it. (this will slow down the rebuild as you can't order the parts till you have them out and inspected)
Check your valve clearances while you're in there and adjust as needed. Measure your cam lobe heights, and cam journal bearing clearances too.
Check the head flatness with a stright edge and feeler guages, you might not need to have it decked.
I can't stress this enough; Read through the FMS and order all the "diamond marked" parts at once. It will make your life a lot easier.
As I remove assemblies I put all the fasteners and small clips and what-not in paper lunch bags and label them and place them in order from back to front in a shoe box, it make's reassembly a whole lot easier.

Approach it methodically and you'll be fine.

As for parts, you don't say how many miles are on it, but I would change all the timing sprockets, timing chain, chain guides, and tensioner.

Good luck!

Thanks for all the info. That's helpful. No Alabama doesn't have emissions.

 

[ScubaSteve80]

It’s really not a hard job at all. It’s time consuming and detail oriented. The hardest part may be scrounging up all the parts you’ll need and/or want. It’s too bad Onur is out of the parts business because he was great to work with and would discuss all the while you’re in there bits with you. Make sure you have a caliper and torque wrenches. I don’t recall any specialty tooling needed. The FSM is invaluable to this task and what I used for about 70 percent of the info I needed. The other 30 was supplemented with threads on here. I believe @jcardona1 rebuild thread is the thread I used primarily as well but don’t remember. My advice would be to rebuild as much as you can afford since you’ll be in there. Also, good time to send injectors off to be serviced. If you have plans of a turbo, might be a few other considerations to make. It can cost as little as the 360 you mentioned but you would be doing yourself a disservice by not addressing some other things while it’s all apart. I think I spent maybe 2500 and rebuilt/replaced everything I touched. Now I won’t have to worry about most of it for 200,000 miles. Otramm video was not around when I did mine. Oh, if you can, pull the motor. Would have made it SO much easier

Thanks for all the good information. I got the head off and it wasn't hard at all. Glad I did it myself. Where did you send your fuel injectors to be tested and serviced? I don't have anyone around here that will test and service them our of the vehicle.

 

[ScubaSteve80]

Be careful - sometimes you find things "while you are in there". Then you end up with a new short block from Toyota.

View attachment 2259971

Looks sweet man. What type of spark plug wires are those?

 

[Outbounders]

Thanks for all the good information. I got the head off and it wasn't hard at all. Glad I did it myself. Where did you send your fuel injectors to be tested and serviced? I don't have anyone around here that will test and service them our of the vehicle.

Glad to hear it’s going well! I sent mine off to witchunter on the recommendation of several threads on the forum. It’s the only time I have had injectors serviced so I can not compare but I thought everything went great! They are reasonably priced and upfront with lead times. Print out they sent was informative. There is another one that came up a lot, but I can’t remember their name. Feel free to reach out with any other questions and I’ll answer if I can remember

 

[Atomic City]

Looks sweet man. What type of spark plug wires are those?

Thanks! They are NGK plug wires.

 

[Nframe]

I used Doctor Injector, who also did a great job.

 

[Atomic City]

I also used Witchhunter Performance for my injectors.

 

[ScubaSteve80]

I also used Witchhunter Performance for my injectors.

Thanks. I looked at Witchhunter website and looks like they are not taking any new customers right now, there website says "due to sickness" I will look into that later though since they aren't that hard to get to. I do want to get them checked soon though.