Pepe blew his head gasket. Suggestions. (3 Viewers)

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calixto

calixto

Joined
Oct 24, 2007
Threads
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Location
Leucadia, California
As much as I like the "calixto is a spammer" thread...actually pretty surprised how long that one has become, I thought I would start a new one.

Looking for some suggestions on doing a head gasket job. The job is way beyond my technical abilities to do myself. Just looking for some advice on what to do, head gasket job, engine swap, crate v8...I don't really have the money right now to do an engine swap considering all the other things that would be needed to be done as well. SD Trux gave me a rough quote of $1500-2k for the job if it doesn't have a cracked head.

So my truck is a 73 F engine with supposedly 102k original miles. Engine seems to be in pretty good overall shape minus the head gasket issue. Was running good before this and would maintain freeway speeds no problem.

Here is my description from the other "spammer" thread:

"Sweet! Bigger problem is that my head gasket is toast. Had crazy heat spikes the last couple days, radiator boiled and spewed fluid I put in when trying to burp. I have a new Thermostat. Took it to a radiator shop and they confirmed the head gasket is done. Fxxx! I've kind of been denying that this might happen soon....I've seen a few signs. Guess I'm gonna see what SDTrux would charge to fix? "

"A little bit of white smoke, coolant around the head where the gasket is(been like this for a couple months) and weird high heat fluctuations. Heat spiking got really bad the last couple days so much that I didn't really want to drive the truck more than a couple miles to surf and back. I was getting up to 210+ and the engine hardly ever gets that hot. Tried to add some fluid yesterday and it took a bunch. Ran it to burp, fluid started coming back out of the filler, it hit 190 pretty quick and boiled over...big mess. Radiator shop ran a block test on it and confirmed. I replaced my thermostat a couple months ago with an aftermarket and was hoping that it had gone bad. I will double check this just to be sure. NS what to do? Engine swap, just a head gasket job or whole top end re-build? ProTrux gave me a ball park quote of 1500-2k! They said that is very rough without being able to look at the vehicle and it's age."

"Yeah, would really like to avoid a swap if possible....lot of time and money for something that is going to be old and used as well. Even going to a 2f or best case senario a new crate v8 is going to be out of my budget range considering all the other things that would need to be done to get it to work....but then again 2k is a lot of money to spend on an old engine. Gonna give it a couple days to weigh all my options and try to figure out what to do."
 
If the bottom end is good, all your looking at is a new top end. My cruiser came to me with a blown head gasket. It cost me about $350.00 to get a new valve job and resurface the head. I took the head into a machine shop and then reinstalled it myself.

These things are not hard to work on and you could probally get it back on the road cheaper than you think.
 
Thanks Tim! The cost for the parts and things I would need to do seem to be described on here pretty good. I just don't have a lot of experience working on engines and would need someone that really knows what they are doing to help me out. Obviously I would compensate for their time. I'm learning but this is a bigger job than I feel comfortable tackling all by myself right now. Just drove the truck back from the radiator place, 2 miles away, and the temp hit 210 from dead cold by the time I got back and got it turned off.
 
first off dude, stop driving it, you are going to make matters worse.

replacing the HG is not too hard, really. I think you should do it yourself and we can help where needed. It may take some time to get it done but again if you have a place to work on it and don't need it to get around, it is definetly something you can do on your own. If you dont' have a place to work on it/and or you need it to get to work, that changes everything.

Noah
 
Def not driving it anymore, just had to get it back from the radiator shop where they did the block check and confirmed the gasket is blown. Thanks again for all the help!
 
ok, so once I'm back from D.C. 28th, then the run on the 4th, I have Schmuckles fj40 here to do a rear main seal replacement. I'm thinking that will be on the 11th and 12th. He's going to help me sort out my roof during the summer. SO my driveway will not be open until the 13th or so, if all goes well.

After his truck is gone, you can do it here. I have most all the tools needed, and book with the torque sequence to do it in. You would do all the work, and basically I would be able to guide u, as I continue my work inside. I'm swamped now with work or I'd help more with it. So, that's the offer. It's not that hard of a thing to do.

The only thing I don't have that you would need is a good torque wrench, as I feel mine is not reliable anymore.
 
I have a good torque wrench, but it's a cheap unit, if I were doing this I would buy a nice one from sears.

I will come over to help you and drink all of shane's beer. :)

honestly if you need help, I would be happy to come over and help wherever the car is, pm'd you with details........
 
You are the man! BTW I've got a full kegerator stocked with delicious homebrew. I'll call you this morning.
 
Hey Shane, you have the the 73 engine FSM? Just called Toyota the 800 622 2033 number and they don't have it anymore, she searched a couple years but only had 75-80 for the engine. Thinking that might be okay since they are pretty darn close? If you have it I might just have to photocopy the sections I need until I can track down an F copy on here or ebay.
 
Nice, way easier than printing 178 pages off the internet from coolermans site.

Bad news is that Toyota doesn't make an OEM "valve regrind kit" (includes the head gasket) anymore for the F engine I have...just got off the phone with C Dan. Plan B, guess I will have to go with Spectors kit. Good news is it is pretty inexpensive for my truck and although it's not OEM it says it is a Japanese part. They have a great overhaul kit that is only a few dollars more for a bunch of extra gaskets but it's just some random aftermarket kit. They reccomended going with the more basic Japanese one.

Good news is I already have Pertronix and a new coil...so that is one less thing to jack with there.
 
1973Guppie said:
I have a good torque wrench, but it's a cheap unit, if I were doing this I would buy a nice one from sears.

I will come over to help you and drink all of shane's beer. :)

honestly if you need help, I would be happy to come over and help wherever the car is, pm'd you with details........
Click to expand...

How about making it a wrenching party for local Cruiserheads? I am sure there are other locals would would like the experience...and perhaps the beer!:beer:
 
That would be fun. Anybody that wants to come by and help/check it out is welcome. I live in Luecadia and have a decent garage. I'll buy you lunch if you help out. Noah is helping me pull the head and break everything down this Tues March 24th. We are hoping to get all the break down and head off to the machine shop in one day. Will probably get the head back from the valve job by the following Monday March 30th and hopefully put it all back together at some point that same week. Hoping on one day tear down and one day put back together. I've already started taking a lot of basic stuff off like bumper/brush guard, battery, drained fluids etc. to make the actual getting to the engine go a lot quicker on Tues. I am taking a ton of high resolution pics so I'll post those up on here....but definitely anyone that wants to help would be much appreciated. Did I mention I have a full keggerator. PM me for the address if you want to come by.
 
Oh Darby, I know you have this same engine FYI Toyota doesn't make an OEM head gasket for this F engine anymore. Spector has two kits a "valve regrind kit" which covers all your head gasket parts or a bigger kit "overahaul gaket kit" which is really nice and includes a lot of extra goodies for only $9 more. The cheaper less stocked "valve regrind kit" is "Japanese" made and was reccommended by Spector as the higher quality option of the two.
 
calixto said:
Oh Darby, I know you have this same engine FYI Toyota doesn't make an OEM head gasket for this F engine anymore. Spector has two kits a "valve regrind kit" which covers all your head gasket parts or a bigger kit "overahaul gaket kit" which is really nice and includes a lot of extra goodies for only $9 more. The cheaper less stocked "valve regrind kit" is "Japanese" made and was reccommended by Spector as the higher quality option of the two.
Click to expand...

I cannot make it Tuesday, but plan on making it Monday for the reassemble. Can you PM me the location?
 
the "assemble" date has not been determined yet.....

on thing that we will need is a second or third set of eyes to look over the lower engine block. I have done the HG procedure before but am not sure what to look for in the bottom end to ensure that this is worth doing. From what I know the bottom ends on these trucks are virtually bulletproof but for me I would be more comfortable if we could get somebody whom knows what to look for as far as wear, cracks, etc.

Chris, after we get done with the dissasembly, I would ask around and try to get a few people to come by and look at the block during next week. Better safe than sorry. The machine shop should be able to tell you if anything is wrong with the head.

Noah
 
NP. Yeah, I will post up on here whenever we can figure out a day to do the re-assembly. Anyone willing to come by to take a look at the block sometime after Tues? That would be awesome!
 
I might be back in time to check out the reassembly, and keep you motivated by beating you with a stick.

monkey-stick_1207558i.jpg
 
I am taking next week off and may be able to help out if needed in between the million things my wife has lined up for me;).

Make sure you have the head magnafluxed first to check for cracks. Just throwing that out because I am not sure where you are having your machine work done.

Tim:steer:
 
Thanks guys! Definitely will get it magnafluxed. I plan on taking the head to a machine shop Brett reccomends by the In N Out in PB. I'll keep you updated on what we find when we get in there. I plan on posting up some good pics. Hoping the tear down goes pretty smoothly. Really looking for a third set of eyes to come by and check out the bottom end sometime between tear down Tues March 24th and reassembly hopefully sometime the following week of March 30th.
 
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