Head Gasket Job Underway (1 Viewer)

[akarilo]

Been picking away at this for the last week or so, a couple hours at a time. Almost everything has been straight forward, with a few tips from some great guys here on Mud.

The biggest Pita IMO was deciding what method to use on removing the intake manifold, as the wiring harness creates a very discouraging obstacle; patience is key here. I finally decided to remove it as an entire unit and then remove the head. I will seperate the halves and clean it now.

Here are a few pics.

Half way there; maybe

 

[NorCalDoug]

looks like fun

take lots of pics

 

[arndog123]

That's one job I'm not looking fwd to when the time comes.

 

[bigbp74]

I'm sitting in the exact same spot w/ my HG replacement, drop the head off tomorrow at the shop to take a little off the bottom. Good wrenchin to ya!

 

[Sc0-]

Watchout for those knock sensors! $170ea, I and a few others broke one when disassembling/reassembling... Much easier to remove and then reinstall later...

I would also clean up that head surface on the block...

 

[akarilo]

What's a good tool to use when cleaning the block surface/ piston tops, without scratching anything up?

 

[azcromntic]

This clears something up for me. You don't have to pull the engine to take the head off. Or did you? I was under the impression that the engine had to be pulled for this HG job.

 

[akarilo]

No engine pull, but it feels like it by the time you get to here.

 

[desertdude]

What's a good tool to use when cleaning the block surface/ piston tops, without scratching anything up?

Scotch Brite

I scraped with a clean straight razor first 0 being very careful to stay flat - then polish up with the Scotch Brite.

ALSO: I ran a shop vac while I was scraping and sanding to keep the ports and cyl's clean as they could be.


My arms and chest still hurt from leaning and squeezing doing the HG



:::

 

[desertdude]

Here is how clean I was able to get it in a few hours:

 

[akarilo]

Very nice Desertdude. Tell me about keeping the timing chain on the crank gear. I have the chain zip tied to the cam gear up top. I don't really want to remove the timing cover unless it's totally necessary.

 

[desertdude]

yep thats it- I moved the zip ties up top at 10 & 2 o clock once I was ready to place the head back on.

when you get close to finish cleaning; I wiped it all down with acetone to get it very clean and free from stuff - then oiled up cyl's and moved the crank to get the pistons to lift up and last minute debris - with a final oil wipe with clean oil.

I changed the water pump while I was there - just because it was easy.

 

[CycloSteve]

A neat trick I learned from Robbie when cleaning the block is to cut-out some thin cardboard 'rounds' and place them in the cylinders / over the pistons. This reduces the amount of crud which falls in-between the cylinder wall, piston, and top compression ring.



Steve

 

[cme4lyt]

This clears something up for me. You don't have to pull the engine to take the head off. Or did you? I was under the impression that the engine had to be pulled for this HG job.

You don't have to pull the engine but the job is waaaaaaay easier if you do: ask me how I know.

Yes, you might need a 'engine picker' and some other stuff and a buddy to help out but I'd never do it in the engine bay.

Just my 0.2 cents

Of course, when you pull it, you start with all those 'while I'm in there' decisions: lot easier to take care of some of the PM things when the engine is pulled.

Rgds...

 

[deanfun]

You don't have to pull the engine but the job is waaaaaaay easier if you do: ask me how I know.

Yes, you might need a 'engine picker' and some other stuff and a buddy to help out but I'd never do it in the engine bay.

Agreed. I don't know how any of you guys are doing these jobs with it in the bay. The wiring harness takes about 15 minutes to pull through the firewall. Pull the transmission and case along with the engine and it gets even easier!

 

[A2ShedsJackson]

Watchout for those knock sensors! $170ea, I and a few others broke one when disassembling/reassembling... Much easier to remove and then reinstall later... .

I've been testing some knock sensors from other Toyota engines on the 1FZ-FE and so far all with the same size thread and electrical connector have been working fine. Most junk yards don't know what they are or assume they are temp sensors and let them go for <$5.

 

[akarilo]

Progress

Got the block and pistons all cleaned up and got the head back today; yee haw.

 

[OGBeno]

I've been testing some knock sensors from other Toyota engines on the 1FZ-FE and so far all with the same size thread and electrical connector have been working fine. Most junk yards don't know what they are or assume they are temp sensors and let them go for <$5.

This is true.

Knock sensors as well as 4WD switches are the same across many models. Some have different connectors but that is easy to get around.

They are all 2 position logic sensors. Either the sensor is reading knock or not...either the switch is on or off.

 

[Tacoma4life]

Oh, those last two pictures get me excited. What all did they do to the head?

 

[akarilo]

Oh, those last two pictures get me excited. What all did they do to the head?

Shaved it a hair, ground seats, pressure test, set valve clearance, seals, and cleaned the crap out of it.