Head Gasket FAQ (2 Viewers)

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I'm a little late to the party but I'd have suggested that the OP pull the ECU harness with the engine because that way, you only disconnect the three or four large connectors at the ECU then pull the whole thing through the firewall. In any case, I suggest pulling the ECU harness out of the vehicle, fixing and fortifying the part around the EGR (search will reveal info) then install the harness on the engine before stabbing the thing back in!

If you're going to die with your cruiser, I might suggest simply purchasing a brand new ECU harness for $6xx (lubrication not withstanding) and call it done for another 25 years.

Another pro tip - play close attention to the spring loaded cam shaft sprockets in the FSM. If you didn't do this already, make sure to screw in a 8mm or was it 10mm, bolt into the cam sprocket so that they're properly pre-loaded.

Also, the oil pump bronze bushing is only sold by Witt's end products and you may need to replace yours, so check out the condition before wrapping it all up.

Goes w/o saying, do replace all of the transmission and Tcase and engine interface seals!

Enjoy dude, this is an enjoyable process.
 
Another pro tip - play close attention to the spring loaded cam shaft sprockets in the FSM. If you didn't do this already, make sure to screw in a 8mm or was it 10mm, bolt into the cam sprocket so that they're properly pre-loaded.

6mm x 1.0 pitch IIRC Same as a Valve Cover Bolt.

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It’s amazing how something so cheap and seemingly insignificant can derail a project. Finally got the $4 o-ring in today. Reassembly finally starts today.

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Outstanding looking truck and great job with the post! I'm keeping this one.
 
Made some good progress today. Only one sheered bolt 🤬. Thank god it was an easy fix.

Some things I learned today:

The zip tie placement on the timing chain guides and sprocket makes life a lot easier. I made 3 adjustments before doing it right.

The FSM was more helpful than YouTube for reinstalling the cams. Diagrams were easy to follow and there isn’t any over complicated verbiage.

I wish I had been more organized with my bolt placement and labeling when taking this apart. I was super OCD at the beginning but as the beers went down, so did my attention span. Getting Christmas decorations out didn’t help considering I had to move everything out of the way to access the attic 😂. Oh well. Happy wife happy life.

I did some research on valve clearance. I recommend doing the same after reinstalling your shafts. I’m gonna have my mechanic buddy check them again before I move forward.

Overall I’m very pleased with how this is going. These repairs would have cost me at least 5k in a shop. I’m a noob mechanic with a decent set of tools. I lacked a lot of confidence going into this project but have been fortunate enough to find this forum, Toyota 80 Series USA on Facebook, and OTRAMM to guide me along. I can’t wait to hear it run for the first time after the repairs knowing I fixed it. Thanks again for the tips.

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Nice job fella 👍 . Regarding the valve clearance, I had my engine shop grind down the appropriate amount of the valve stems after they did a valve job. I provided them the shims so that they knew how much to remove from each valves. This allowed me to re-use all shims and not deal with checking the clearances, doing the math, then ordering the shims from Toyota. Checking the valve clearances does require you bolt the head to the block, then the cams to the head for the most accurate readings and I didn't feel like going through all that.

Just a thought.
 
I lacked a lot of confidence going into this project but have been fortunate enough to find this forum, Toyota 80 Series USA on Facebook, and OTRAMM to guide me along. I can’t wait to hear it run for the first time after the repairs knowing I fixed it. Thanks again for the tips.

There aren't that many 'gotcha's' with the 1FZ-FE. They are pretty much a Forklift engine with a fairly refined head on them.

Designed to be serviced/repaired way out in BFE with a minimum of tools.

It might seem daunting (if your first time to go that far on an engine) but if you follow the FSM you'll end up with something that runs just fine.
 
Hello everyone,

I am sorry that I did not do a good job of keeping up on this thread. I have a lot of good updates and some not so good.

Putting the head back together was a blast. Definitely helped having an extra set of hands when reinstalling/re-seating the valves. It is sparkling clean compared to the block. Now that the engine is back in, I do regret not painting the block. Obviously performance > cosmetics here but how often do you get a chance to paint/clean your block? I did paint the lower oil pan and the valve cover. I regret painting the valve cover. I don't like how the plastics look on it now. Oh well.

Since my last post, I completed the build. This was a huge win for me considering I had never done something like this before. I ended up replacing all my fuel injector connections, the bi-switching valve, temp sensors, and knock sensors. Waiting on parts from Toyota is a never ending story with this build. I replaced all of the 3.5mm vacuum lines using the kit from Wit's End which was perfect. I watched a video on 1FZ-FE vacuum lines and learned that there is a small port on the top of the intake manifold that you can clean with a 1/8 drill bit. Not sure if it will make a difference but it was definitely clogged completely.

I am very appreciative of alia176 for telling me to pull the wiring harness prior to putting the engine back in. Solid advice my dude. making all of those connections and routing prior to putting the engine back saved me a ton of heartache and pain. The only thing I ended up screwing myself on was not draping the o2 sensor plug over the back of the engine prior to reinstalling everything. Luckily it wasn't too difficult to fish through.

I did have a hell of a time getting my engine mounts to line up properly. If I do this again in the future I will for sure remember to reattach the mounts prior to dropping the engine rather than trying to seat the brackets after the fact. It took some serious maneuvering to get them in properly.

I ended up going with a Toyota radiator. The price was a tough pill to swallow ($503.96 w/tax). There was no issues with fitment and I figure that the first rad lasted 220k miles, I am sure i'll get that out of this one.

post will continue sorry for the long winded update...

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Now down to the nitty gritty. I have reached the point of this project where I am ready to give up and call for help.

She starts up just fine, runs smooth, smells like its running rich but I have only had it running for about 10 total minutes since finishing the build. But when I do start her up, my oil pressure immediately spiked to high. No oil light coming on. She is running smooth, but the pressure is pegged. I read some threads on high pressure but I do not have a gauge to read what pressures I am getting. I cleaned the terminals on the oil pressure sending unit and they look fine. Where do I start with this?

Another bigger problem I have is that I have a wicked coolant leak around the thermostat housing. I thought it was the 3 o-rings from the water pipe so I replaced those, tightened everything back down, put in a gallon of distilled water, then boom, leaking BAD again. I am guessing I forgot to replace a gasket? I have had a hard time locating diagrams showing all the gaskets/seals in that area. I know for sure my water pump gasket was there. It definitely is leaking from below the thermostat housing. Does anyone have a better diagram than what I've been able to find on Toyota's website? Maybe I didn't put the o-ring back in with the thermostat or something. Is there any other seals behind the thermostat (excluding the o-ring) I should check for?

Thanks again for all your help.
 
Your oil gauge is useless, you need a true gauge showing true PSI. High pressure on a rebuild isn't atypical.

Also get a new version of your FSM here. I just organized the 93-94 FSM and made bookmarks to help navigate, you'll find the thermostat info in <2 mins
 
Here are the possible leaks at this location:
  • Heater pipe gasket missing or damaged
  • By-Pass Pipe O-ring(s) missing or damaged
  • Water pump gasket missing or damaged
  • Water pump internal seal damaged, you'll see coolant pouring out of the hole on the bottom of the pump housing (replacement water pump is the only fix for this)
  • Radiator hose not sealing correctly could be a bad hose or clamp issue.

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Regarding the valve clearance, I had my engine shop grind down the appropriate amount of the valve stems after they did a valve job. I provided them the shims so that they knew how much to remove from each valves. This allowed me to re-use all shims and not deal with checking the clearances, doing the math, then ordering the shims from Toyota.

Just a thought.
Grinding the valve is a last resort, but even as a last resort I wouldn't do it. Hard pass on my build. Do as Toyota designed it.
 
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Grinding the valve is a last resort, but even as a last resort I wouldn't do it. Hard pass on my build. Do as Toyota designed it.

Interesting point of view, I must say. If you shave the head, where do you compensate for the valves that will end up being too long?
 
Grinding the valve is a last resort, but even as a last resort I wouldn't do it. Hard pass on my build. Do as Toyota designed it.


Grinding valve seats, and valves is factored into Toyota's design. This is why the factory service manual provides guidance on how to grind the valves and valve seats.

If you are taking the engine down for a major overhaul (200k+) and you don't grind the valve seats and valves you aren't fully rebuilding the engine.
 
Interesting point of view, I must say. If you shave the head, where do you compensate for the valves that will end up being too long?

The amount of decking the head and block will receive is not enough to cause interference. If you are that worried about it then the easy solution is to get a thicker MLS gasket to compensate. But most of us never worry about it and don't have problems, at least for the first decking.
 

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