Head removed, hg pics 230k

[Comet]

Mine ran great, 180 in all cylinders for dry compression so I didnt bother with a wet test. I was burning oil past the valve seals in the head. Take pictures of everything and label/plastic bag all the bolts. It makes it easier in a month when you put things back together.......

 

[Hornd]

Jpoole, if it was me I would see if garden hose pressure would push through any of that gunk. At least it would show you what kind of flow, or trickle is coming through the coolant passages. Then shop vac anything up out of the cylinders and wipe them down with a rag with fresh oil.

My cooling system was a mess. Took me over a week of flushes before I saw anything you could remotely call "clear" water. Including a Cascade flush that was amazing at loosening crud. I may very well have coolant passages that look just like yours.

The previous owner took the term "Long Life Coolant" to a whole new level.

Explain Further the Cascade Flush (as in Cascade Dish Washing Detergent)?

 

[Kaninja]

@Hornd. Yes Cascade dishwasher detergent. I also used some TSP. YMMV here, but my system came out really clean.

 

[packetstormin]

Packetstormin, I'm planning to do a number of jobs now that I have better access including pulling/cleaning/resealing the oil cooler. What do you mean by world of hurt? It's apparent to me that aggressive cleaning is needed on this engine but it seems like that will be worthwhile given how it ran and compression tested.

So the oil cooler sits on the passenger side of the block. Because our blocks are iron, there have been reported cases where the passages to the oil cooler have become totally clogged, or rusted through. Since the water passages look pretty clogged going to the head, there is a chance the passages to the cooler are in bad or worse condition. I would pull the cooler off and look at it. When I pulled the cooler off my 257,000 mile block, I found the area behind it (the block) to be pretty nasty. I can post a picture when I get home this evening.

 

[jpoole]

After spending a little time cleaning it appears that the visible cooling system buildup was focused around the gasket surfaces. There were thin scales blocking off the passages but once those were flaked off, and sucked into the vac, the ports behind the blockages looked clean. I'm sure that there is crud in a variety of cooling system areas with similar characteristics as the head gasket but I'm glad that a lot of what I see looks good beyond the initial crud. From here I'll just finish the block prep for the new head gasket and then put it back together and run a number of flushes to try to get some of the gunk out.

Any suggestions on getting the rest of the old gasket residue off of the block? It was easy to safely get to the current point using a scraper but it's not as clean as I'd like. I've seen some folks use 3m bristle disks on hg surfaces but I'm not sure that any sort of power tool throwing abrasives around near open cylinders is a good idea. Carb cleaner and careful use of mild scotch brite pads also seems an option. Perhaps carb cleaner and more scraping is the safest bet followed by block sanding to lightly scuff the surface? I'm sure it's been covered a lot (and I've read a good bit on it here and elsewhere) but I appreciate any info on current best practice here.

 

[Mighty690]

No abrasives! That doesn't look too bad. I get a few new single edge razor blades and go at the surface with them. In the other hand I use a shop vac to quickly pick up any debris. (it'll also suck old coolant out of passages).

 

[jpoole]

Thanks @Mighty690 that sounds like a good way to go. To get to this point it was shop vac in one hand and a sharp/thin scraper in the other. A razor blade would take that up a notch and with a bit of carb/cleaner and acetone and a rag afterwards hopefully the deck will be squeaky clean.

It seems there are folks that like to prep for the new gasket by giving the surface texture through sanding, while others leave it smooth. I lean towards smooth since it's less work and avoids getting abrasives involved. Any hard evidence that etching or texture is worth the effort/risk?

 

[Kaninja]

I use a razor blade for the big stuff then a sharpening stone with honing oil or even WD-40 works. Take your time. My stone is 2"x8". I use a straight edge to check for high spots, although the stone does a good job at that as well.

 

[jpoole]

That's a really good idea @Kaninja I've got a really fresh set of oil stones that should work well and not shed cylinder scoring debris in the process.

 

[Mighty690]

Thanks @Mighty690 that sounds like a good way to go. To get to this point it was shop vac in one hand and a sharp/thin scraper in the other. A razor blade would take that up a notch and with a bit of carb/cleaner and acetone and a rag afterwards hopefully the deck will be squeaky clean.

It seems there are folks that like to prep for the new gasket by giving the surface texture through sanding, while others leave it smooth. I lean towards smooth since it's less work and avoids getting abrasives involved. Any hard evidence that etching or texture is worth the effort/risk?

I believe anything beyond what you've accomplished with razor blades should be a proper block deck at a machine shop, and that's a whole 'nother ballgame. I personally think more harm than good can be done with any abrasive such as a stone or rotating disk. The fresh OEM gasket is going to bed right down. A better discussion, I think, is are you going to reuse your old TTY headbolts and how will you chase those holes?

 

[jpoole]

@Mighty690 Next step on the head bolts was going to be to try to check them per the FSM specs. My tools aren't going to yield super precise results but hopefully will give me a sense of where I am with them. From there running the bolts in and out without head on to see how the threads feel should help me know if I need to chase the threads out. If I run into issues on either front I'll have to research my options.

What's the typical experience with these? The engines that I have experience with head bolt/stud issues are AC VWs and on those the problem was always pulling out of the aluminum case, I may have seen one broken stud in a handful of engines. I've also seen corrosion/breakage on older flatheads but these Toyota bolts came out clean and easy. Do these 1FZFE engines snap head bolts very often? Is the issue getting a consistent torque on them or failure of some other sort?

 

[Kaninja]

An iron block is hard to mess up outside of tomfoolery. Taking your time with an abrasive will yield good results. Remember you are looking for a flat and true surface, not necessarily a shiny blingy surface.

 

[Mighty690]

@Mighty690 Next step on the head bolts was going to be to try to check them per the FSM specs. My tools aren't going to yield super precise results but hopefully will give me a sense of where I am with them. From there running the bolts in and out without head on to see how the threads feel should help me know if I need to chase the threads out. If I run into issues on either front I'll have to research my options.

What's the typical experience with these? The engines that I have experience with head bolt/stud issues are AC VWs and on those the problem was always pulling out of the aluminum case, I may have seen one broken stud in a handful of engines. I've also seen corrosion/breakage on older flatheads but these Toyota bolts came out clean and easy. Do these 1FZFE engines snap head bolts very often? Is the issue getting a consistent torque on them or failure of some other sort?

I think most guys on here check spec and re-use. I did that too, but on the next engine bought new OEM bolts. It was worth the $, IMO. But you can search and see those debates if you want.