Head Gasket Blues!

[JerseyCruiser]

Well the dam thing let go today! It had a rough idle since yesterday and today it started to overheat on my way to a wake. When I got to the church I opened the hood and found the coolant reservoir overflowing and the radiator dry. After about ten minutes in the church one of the directors was asking people if anyone owned a Toyota Land Cruiser you can imagine the sick feeling I stared feeling at this point! He said smoke (steam) was coming out of the tailpipe when I started it up it looked like 007's car! F-ME!!!! Where can I get a copy of Doug's repair DVD? I guess what happened is the rough idle was one of the cylinders cutting out from being flooded and now all of my coolant is in the oil pan. Is this a very bad failure or typical? Is my head cracked? Does anyone know a good machine shop to inspect the head and or mill it in the North Jersey area? I've rebuilt my knuckles and did a rear OEM locker retrofit, with that under my belt is this something that I can handle myself plus my Dad's a TV repair Man He's got an awesome set of tools! I need a lot of these right now, or grab a shot glass and hangout with my friends Johnnie, Jim, and Jack.

George

 

[SR93]

Man i feel your pain. same happened to me last week. 223000 miles .

 

[IdahoDoug]

Bummer. Especially with zero warning. Once you park it wherever you're going to do the work, open the rad cap (without getting burned) to relieve coolant pressure, then pull the spark plugs, crank it over a bit with marine fogging oil in the plug holes (and EFI fuse out) and drain the oil. This depressures the coolant system pushing more coolant in after shutdown, lets you oil the cylinder walls against rust while it's sitting, and draining the oil gets the coolant out of your bearings which it will attack aggressively. Then fill with fresh oil and crank it a few times for 5 secs each to spin fresh oil into the bearings.

Then you're good to go. PM me if you need express service, btw.

DougM

 

[JerseyCruiser]

Man i feel your pain. same happened to me last week. 223000 miles .

Mine only made it to 118000 I fault the PO's lack of maintenance.

 

[JerseyCruiser]

Bummer. Especially with zero warning. Once you park it wherever you're going to do the work, open the rad cap (without getting burned) to relieve coolant pressure, then pull the spark plugs, crank it over a bit with marine fogging oil in the plug holes (and EFI fuse out) and drain the oil. This depressures the coolant system pushing more coolant in after shutdown, lets you oil the cylinder walls against rust while it's sitting, and draining the oil gets the coolant out of your bearings which it will attack aggressively. Then fill with fresh oil and crank it a few times for 5 secs each to spin fresh oil into the bearings.

Then you're good to go. PM me if you need express service, btw.

DougM

Thanks for the advice. I'm getting it towed home today its 5 miles away and I can risk driving it like that. How many hours of labor are involved in the gasket replacement? What is a ballpark figure on parts from Cdan?

 

[LX_TREME]

With all the tools handy and new parts ready to use, well maybe just the headgasket probably takes about 40hrs job (1 week). I did mine in 2 weeks rebuild 1FZ (overhaul top and bottom) pistons, rod bearings, piston rings, seals, clean balanced the injectors, throttle body, intake, all new hoses, new timing chain- tensioner, belts, water pump, thermostat, idler bearing, ac bearing, new plugs, new plug wires, distributor etc...

 

[landtank]

If you are doing the work yourself, are an average back yard mechanic and plan on sending the head out, figure two weekends. The first weekend to tear down the engine and the second weekend to put it back together with the week in between to have the head reworked and cleaning various parts.

 

[dcarlo]

I'm still in progress on mine (currently re-assembling). I've worked on engines lightly and consider myself a backyard mechanic... the HG repair is doable, but can be a challenging process... I think I viewed Doug's DVD 20 times and re-read the FSM at least 10 times.

Dougs DVD is a must, but the FSM is absolutely mandatory.... and DON'T RUSH ... you will make mistakes if you rush. Also, it's a good idea to figure out what else you want to fix/replace while your in there and order those parts early. I replaced lot's of stuff and I estimate the entire job to be about 50-60 hours (un-rushed). My head needed surfacing and some valve work... $650.00 for the machine work.

Good Luck !
--don

 

[landtank]

It's really no big deal to do, just involved. The only real Gotcha is the sevice screw for the exhaust cam gear.

I've never viewed Dougs DVD but had no problems doing my head with just the FSM and it's been over 100k miles without issue.

 

[DTAYLOR]

It's really no big deal to do, just involved.

Or it could get really involved if one tries a little bit..

 

[JerseyCruiser]

Bummer. Especially with zero warning. Once you park it wherever you're going to do the work, open the rad cap (without getting burned) to relieve coolant pressure, then pull the spark plugs, crank it over a bit with marine fogging oil in the plug holes (and EFI fuse out) and drain the oil. This depressurize the coolant system pushing more coolant in after shutdown, lets you oil the cylinder walls against rust while it's sitting, and draining the oil gets the coolant out of your bearings which it will attack aggressively. Then fill with fresh oil and crank it a few times for 5 secs each to spin fresh oil into the bearings.

Then you're good to go. PM me if you need express service, btw.

DougM

Drained the oil today and found no contamination from coolant in the oil at all, it must have went out the exhaust. Do I still need to fog the cylinders or wait till I get the head off?

George