The 1fz has a tendancy to blow head gaskets. It is kind of hit and miss though...some blow at 150k and others at 300k. It really has to do with maintenance.
HG gone?? Unusual Symptoms
- Thread starter nopistons96
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The 1fz has a tendancy to blow head gaskets. It is kind of hit and miss though...some blow at 150k and others at 300k. It really has to do with maintenance.
And luck. A few forum members that are original owners and have performed over-the-top maintenance have still endured a blown HG. Today, there are very few FZJ80s that are still low-mileage at 11 to 15 years of age. If we go back 4 or 5 years we were seeing a good number (IMHO) with failed head gaskets and mileage in the 50-100k range. There was some speculation that you might dodge the bullet if yours got to 150k on the original HG. We now know this is not true and those of us that are unlucky will have to deal with it at some point.
-B-
I think the bigger issue is where you live. Having a widely varied environment can't be good. I started my truck up the other morning and it was 3* outside. Those who live in the South west don't see those extremes as often and that makes for less movement due to expansion.
The block is cast iron, and the head is aluminum. The HG is under a lot of stress from expansion and contraction. The later rigs run hotter and thus are more susceptible IMO.
Head gasket
What is the best way , again, to get the assembly back together without burgaring up the new head gasket?
What is the best way , again, to get the assembly back together without burgaring up the new head gasket?
- Thread starter
- #46
hey raineyseay, welcome to the forum. im sure your finding it extremely helpful. if you dont have the hood off yet, take it off before you try to get the head back in. it'll make it 10 times easier. and make sure you mark where the hinges are on the hood before you loosen the hood bolts. my plan after the block is cleaned up im going to put the alignment pins back in and lay the headgasket on the block. when i pulled it i was standing on the frame in the engine bay and the wifee was standing in front of the truck and with a little bit of rocking it pulled right off. i pulled up the front half and she places a 1x4 board under the head and the repeated that in the rear. i think when it goes back in well do the same in reverse. just take your time and be as gentle as you can. like i said, this is how i plan to do mine, but i haven't done one on this truck before. good luck.
- Thread starter
- #47
we get the same extreme weather temps that landtank sees. anywhere from -20 below to 98 plus humidity. minnnesota has a crazy climate and i think thats what so hard on them. PM can only take you so far. and a touch of luck will help. 
- Thread starter
- #48
well, i got the head gasket done and the truck is running. there were a few bumps in the road tonight when i went to take it for a test drive. but its fixed now. i took a bunch of pictures and i will get them posted as soon as i get the chance to reduce them and get them uploaded. possibly tomorrow night. hopefully this thread will be of some use to someone. thanks for all your help guys.
mike
mike
Hey nopistons96 , my damage was slightly more extensive as my #6 cylinder had some glazing. Ipulled the oil pan(small one) and realized there is a windage tray between me and the rod bolts. I had to get creative and with advise from mechanically inclined neighbors the only way to keep from having to pull the block, I had to drill a line of small holes and snip and bend the windage tray and remove those 2 rod bolts and then that piston. My 97 LC has 138 k and I live in warm sunny south Florida. This is a major project for me but I am very excited about getting this accomplished and there is so much information here with all ther great members. Getting back to the task at hand : I also removed the wire harness though the fire wall. Ihave cleaned everything spotless after the light hone job. I kept any debri from getting to the low end of the motor. I learned the hard way about needing to open the gas cap to relieve fuel pressure. All the injectors are clean as well as the fuel rail. I believe your right about removing the hood- sounds like the best way. I ordered the dvd about the gasket job but I havent recieved it yet. Machine shop today and picked up my head and new piston rings and rod bearings- mine looked fine but for good measure. Waiting for parts from CDAN. He is awesome and pretty patient with me. I wanted to remove the radiator and have it flushed by a pro. Everything else was great until the hg blew. I am doing a tune up while I am at it. Mike are you connecting the intake after the head is on?
- Thread starter
- #50
wow.
i'm glad i dont have to dig in as deep as you raineyseay. i've had that same oil pan off before when i did my timing chain. not fun. funny thing about that fuel pressure, huh. i forgot myself.
Cdan helped me out a bunch too. and he saved me a bunch of cash. he's a good guy. and i need to have the radiator flushed too. my problem is that my wife needed her truck back to get herself and the kids to and from school. so i am going to wait to get that all done until this summer. i know i should do it right away but it's just not going to happen.
about the intake... the reason that i pulled the wire harness was so that i could torque it on the bench before i put it back in. and i think it's worth the extra work.
let us know how the everything turns out.
mike
i'm glad i dont have to dig in as deep as you raineyseay. i've had that same oil pan off before when i did my timing chain. not fun. funny thing about that fuel pressure, huh. i forgot myself.
Cdan helped me out a bunch too. and he saved me a bunch of cash. he's a good guy. and i need to have the radiator flushed too. my problem is that my wife needed her truck back to get herself and the kids to and from school. so i am going to wait to get that all done until this summer. i know i should do it right away but it's just not going to happen.about the intake... the reason that i pulled the wire harness was so that i could torque it on the bench before i put it back in. and i think it's worth the extra work.
let us know how the everything turns out.
mike
- Thread starter
- #51
going back together...
well even though the truck is back together and the wife is happy once again, i thought that i'd post up a few last shots that i took getting it all back together.
and i didn't want to start a dead end thread.
heres what the old head gasket and the new one look like side by side. you can definately tell that its been used.
heres two shots of the cleaned up number 1 and number 6.
this is what a fresh mill on some import aluminum looks like. you can see what a misfire on #1 looks like too.
here's the head with the intake torqued and ready to bolt back on the block. make sure that all of the sensors are back in and torqued. there is a short piece of hose for the cooling system that needs to be clamped on the lower part of the head too. make sure thats on there now, because it's a b!tc# to get it on after the intake is bolted up. ask me how i know.
where's my head at?? torqued and ready. this is the part where my wife hopped up in the engine bay and helped me out a ton. after i got the head bolts torqued to 29 ft lbs, she helped make sure that the next 2 90 degree turns were as close as one could get it. and she had a good view of the bolt heads so she moved the wrench according to the tightening sequence.
and again.
valve shims and cams are in and tightened. Ray gave me some bearing grease to apply to the cam bearing and recommended that i take a quart of oil and run it over the cams before buttoning it all up. and another quart went over the cam chain and tensioners.
i am currently running the old oil filter and new oil until anything that could have been left in the engine works it way to the filter. i will change the oil and filter here in a few more miles to make sure all is fresh and good. the rest of the reassemble was relatively boring. it went a lot like the disassembly only backwards. i highly recommend getting the factory service manual before attempting any of this sort of work. and of course, use the search function on here. i hope this helps someone out there.
well even though the truck is back together and the wife is happy once again, i thought that i'd post up a few last shots that i took getting it all back together.
and i didn't want to start a dead end thread.
heres what the old head gasket and the new one look like side by side. you can definately tell that its been used.
heres two shots of the cleaned up number 1 and number 6.
this is what a fresh mill on some import aluminum looks like. you can see what a misfire on #1 looks like too.
here's the head with the intake torqued and ready to bolt back on the block. make sure that all of the sensors are back in and torqued. there is a short piece of hose for the cooling system that needs to be clamped on the lower part of the head too. make sure thats on there now, because it's a b!tc# to get it on after the intake is bolted up. ask me how i know.
where's my head at?? torqued and ready. this is the part where my wife hopped up in the engine bay and helped me out a ton. after i got the head bolts torqued to 29 ft lbs, she helped make sure that the next 2 90 degree turns were as close as one could get it. and she had a good view of the bolt heads so she moved the wrench according to the tightening sequence.
and again.
valve shims and cams are in and tightened. Ray gave me some bearing grease to apply to the cam bearing and recommended that i take a quart of oil and run it over the cams before buttoning it all up. and another quart went over the cam chain and tensioners.
i am currently running the old oil filter and new oil until anything that could have been left in the engine works it way to the filter. i will change the oil and filter here in a few more miles to make sure all is fresh and good. the rest of the reassemble was relatively boring. it went a lot like the disassembly only backwards.
i highly recommend getting the factory service manual before attempting any of this sort of work. and of course, use the search function on here. i hope this helps someone out there.
Last edited:
- Thread starter
- #52
alternator brushes
since i was in there i decided to change out the alt brushes too. heres a quick look at that.
once the alt is out and on the bench, its a quick and easy job to change the brushes out. and since it had to come out to do the head gasket, i figured may as well. remove the 3 10mm nuts, 1 philips head screw and the 12mm nut that holds the plastic piece of the charging terminal on.
then once that heat shield is off the brushes are easily accessible. just remove these two screws and slide the brushes off the pole. and here you can see the difference between the new and old.
once the new brushes are installed just go ahead and tighten the 2 philips head screws down and reassemble. when i put the brushes in i just used a small flat headed screwdriver to hold them in the plastic case. quick and easy.
since i was in there i decided to change out the alt brushes too. heres a quick look at that.
once the alt is out and on the bench, its a quick and easy job to change the brushes out. and since it had to come out to do the head gasket, i figured may as well. remove the 3 10mm nuts, 1 philips head screw and the 12mm nut that holds the plastic piece of the charging terminal on.
then once that heat shield is off the brushes are easily accessible. just remove these two screws and slide the brushes off the pole. and here you can see the difference between the new and old.
once the new brushes are installed just go ahead and tighten the 2 philips head screws down and reassemble. when i put the brushes in i just used a small flat headed screwdriver to hold them in the plastic case. quick and easy.
- Thread starter
- #53
back together but not finished
i know this was mentioned early on in my rebuild but i failed at checking it thoroughly and paid the price in time, later on. after i got the truck back together and it was time to turn the key i took one last look over and held my breath. it took a few minutes of cranking it over to get it to fire up. i assume to get the fuel pressure up and what not. after it did, i let it run for a while and warm up. it needed a good wash so i backed out of the garage and headed for the car wash down the road. the idle was a perfect 650 rpm and the throttle was quick and responsive. but as soon as i put it in drive the idle dropped and it started running terrible. no power and running rough. i continued to the end of the block with hopes that it would go away. it didn't, so i returned back to the house and put in in the garage. as soon as i put it back in park the good idle returned and it was running great again. to make sure that i didn't miss anything, i put my foot on the brake, put the truck in reverse, and gave it some gas. i figured that maybe the rough idle was because of the load on the trans. not true. the truck ran great in park, neutral and reverse, but was running terrible in drive. after spending hours checking the diagnosis on the trans and looking everything over and over again to make sure i hadn't forgotten a vac line, i came in the house stumped. i was searching the forum and ran across this thread https://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-tech/61744-idling-acceleration-problems.html where perk had some of the same symptoms. i figured i better check the wire harness one more time. after i peeled all of the rotted heat shield off i noticed that i had some melted wires. and one of them had copper showing. it turns out that when it was running the torque of the motor when in reverse pulled the motor away from the harness but when in drive, the torque of the motor was twisting the erg pipe into the wire harness and shorting out the one wire causing it to run bad. so if i would have just checked it closer i would have been able to fix it right away while the harness was out. i was still able to get it sealed and re wrapped but i can guarantee it would've been easier before it was back together.
i know this was mentioned early on in my rebuild but i failed at checking it thoroughly and paid the price in time, later on. after i got the truck back together and it was time to turn the key i took one last look over and held my breath. it took a few minutes of cranking it over to get it to fire up. i assume to get the fuel pressure up and what not. after it did, i let it run for a while and warm up. it needed a good wash so i backed out of the garage and headed for the car wash down the road. the idle was a perfect 650 rpm and the throttle was quick and responsive. but as soon as i put it in drive the idle dropped and it started running terrible. no power and running rough. i continued to the end of the block with hopes that it would go away. it didn't, so i returned back to the house and put in in the garage. as soon as i put it back in park the good idle returned and it was running great again. to make sure that i didn't miss anything, i put my foot on the brake, put the truck in reverse, and gave it some gas. i figured that maybe the rough idle was because of the load on the trans. not true. the truck ran great in park, neutral and reverse, but was running terrible in drive. after spending hours checking the diagnosis on the trans and looking everything over and over again to make sure i hadn't forgotten a vac line, i came in the house stumped. i was searching the forum and ran across this thread https://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-tech/61744-idling-acceleration-problems.html where perk had some of the same symptoms. i figured i better check the wire harness one more time. after i peeled all of the rotted heat shield off i noticed that i had some melted wires. and one of them had copper showing. it turns out that when it was running the torque of the motor when in reverse pulled the motor away from the harness but when in drive, the torque of the motor was twisting the erg pipe into the wire harness and shorting out the one wire causing it to run bad. so if i would have just checked it closer i would have been able to fix it right away while the harness was out. i was still able to get it sealed and re wrapped but i can guarantee it would've been easier before it was back together.
why me?
hey guys. I'm new to the forum, im 22 years old and been workin on my own stuff for a while now. What brings me here are the exact same symptoms that you are having. ive got a 1993 fj80 with 230k on it. Its blowin smoke like a fog machine, and it smells just like it too. Water is disappearing into thin air (or white smoke) and its running like i stuck a hot cam in it. I bought it last year around this time w/ a blown headgasket and milky oil for a steal. iknow what yall thinking that this car is shot, but fortunately the fj was a one owner w all toyota service records and it was owned by a girl who took very good care of it.
anyway...this time last year i put a new headgasket on the motor, had the head resurfaced, and a couple of burnt valves replaced. (piston #6 and 4 were the leaky ones)I bought my gasket kit off ebay for $100
Me and a buddy did the work ourselves with the help of a chiltons manual. 50hrs and two weeks later 
we had it fixed.
there are short cuts to doing this job lemme know if need some, but i think i can do it in about a quarter of the time this shot around.
My questions are #1 why me
lol #2why has my head gasket gone out again in 20k miles #3 i know im an idiot for getting my gasket set off ebay were do i get one that'll hold up this time around?
Thanks for the help
hey guys. I'm new to the forum, im 22 years old and been workin on my own stuff for a while now. What brings me here are the exact same symptoms that you are having. ive got a 1993 fj80 with 230k on it. Its blowin smoke like a fog machine, and it smells just like it too. Water is disappearing into thin air (or white smoke) and its running like i stuck a hot cam in it. I bought it last year around this time w/ a blown headgasket and milky oil for a steal. iknow what yall thinking that this car is shot, but fortunately the fj was a one owner w all toyota service records and it was owned by a girl who took very good care of it.
anyway...this time last year i put a new headgasket on the motor, had the head resurfaced, and a couple of burnt valves replaced. (piston #6 and 4 were the leaky ones)I bought my gasket kit off ebay for $100
Me and a buddy did the work ourselves with the help of a chiltons manual. 50hrs and two weeks later we had it fixed. there are short cuts to doing this job lemme know if need some, but i think i can do it in about a quarter of the time this shot around. My questions are #1 why me
lol #2why has my head gasket gone out again in 20k miles #3 i know im an idiot for getting my gasket set off ebay were do i get one that'll hold up this time around?Thanks for the help
Cruiser Dan, he is a forum member and manager of American Toyota in NM OEM parts at a discount just mention this site to him when you order. 1-800-432-6668 ext. 8hey guys. I'm new to the forum, im 22 years old and been workin on my own stuff for a while now. What brings me here are the exact same symptoms that you are having. ive got a 1993 fj80 with 230k on it. Its blowin smoke like a fog machine, and it smells just like it too. Water is disappearing into thin air (or white smoke) and its running like i stuck a hot cam in it. I bought it last year around this time w/ a blown headgasket and milky oil for a steal. iknow what yall thinking that this car is shot, but fortunately the fj was a one owner w all toyota service records and it was owned by a girl who took very good care of it.
anyway...this time last year i put a new headgasket on the motor, had the head resurfaced, and a couple of burnt valves replaced. (piston #6 and 4 were the leaky ones)I bought my gasket kit off ebay for $100
My questions are #1 why me
Thanks for the help
out of curiosity, why reuse the old filter? Why not spend 7 dollars at Autozone and get a cheapy? Also why didn't you clean anything? Top of the pistons, camshafts, the head? I know it all works the same, but how often do you plan on being in there? Why not just start over with clean everything?
Like this: 
hey guys. I'm new to the forum, im 22 years old and been workin on my own stuff for a while now. What brings me here are the exact same symptoms that you are having. ive got a 1993 fj80 with 230k on it. Its blowin smoke like a fog machine, and it smells just like it too. Water is disappearing into thin air (or white smoke) and its running like i stuck a hot cam in it. I bought it last year around this time w/ a blown headgasket and milky oil for a steal. iknow what yall thinking that this car is shot, but fortunately the fj was a one owner w all toyota service records and it was owned by a girl who took very good care of it.
anyway...this time last year i put a new headgasket on the motor, had the head resurfaced, and a couple of burnt valves replaced. (piston #6 and 4 were the leaky ones)I bought my gasket kit off ebay for $100
My questions are #1 why me
Thanks for the help
Get the factory valve grind kit and if you call CruiserDan he will add a few things that are missing in the kit. Also be sure you install the head bolts properly. You torque them to 29 ftlbs and then 2 90* turns. Some have missed that second 90* turn.
I know I did the two 90* turns but for some reason now I have a bad feeling I first torqued them to 90 ft lbs is that possible or would I have snapped them off if not is this REAL bad?
