Another blown head gasket.

Going to start the job now!!
A week early. Lets see how it goes.

 

As Mendel mentioned above, I just use Oxyclean for EGR cooler only. I'm on my third soak in Oxyclean and rise since this afternoon and still carbon cruds still coming out. I think mine is really clogged.

If one were to do EGR cooler cleaning, it'll be best to swap with a clean one(like Ray and others are doing) since it'll take very long to clean it thoroughly. I wonder if it will better or faster(?) with Oxyclean and put it in the ultrasonic cleaner.

 

So finally, I got the head out now. It's been slow going especially, taking out the EGR cooler. I think it took me about really crazy 2 hours to get the damn thing out. I don't know why Toyota does not use just a bolt instead of that stud and nut. I have to kneel on the engine to reach to exhaust connection and that one nut below the EGR cooler. I think EGR is a must do maintenance at 100K as everyone here already knew.

Also, I see some oil puddle in my intake manifold. Good think I bought a catch can and will install it. I didn't see the oil puddle when I clean it 10k ago. Not sure why there is so much oil this time.

The head gasket looks ok. I'm not sure if there can be a coolant leak into cylinder. There might be but can't say by just casually looking at it. Maybe I'll take a careful look tomorrow with good light. I'll install everything tomorrow and hope I can do it faster and finish it. For me, there is quite good enough room to deal with timing chain cover. Much more room than my old Integra, I think if I remember right. I just need to make sure to clean the oil thoroughly when re-installing the timing chain cover.

I'll post some pictures I got. No videos though, sorry. If anyone wants any particular pictures, please let me know.

 

Some pictures.
Not sure how to put description to each pic.
1. Hood removed.
2. Wiring harness moved to side.
3. Intake manifold oil.
4. EGR cooler removed.
5. Intake manifold and cam cover removed.
6. Cam/chain.
7. Spark plugs. Cyl 3 and 4 leaner and Cyl 1 & 2 are a bit darker but not oily. Bad spark plugs?
8. Oxyclean bubbling from EGR cooler soak.
9. Chain cover removed.
10. Chain guide and tensioner.
11. Bottom, oil pump.
12. Head removed.
13. Head removed, another angle.
14. Cyl 1.
15. Cyl 2. A bit more cruddier than others. Hmmm.
16. Cyl 3.
17. Cyl 4.
18. Under side of head gasket.
19. Cyl 1, water jacket.
20. Cyl 2, water jacket.
21. Cyl 3, water jacket.
22. Cyl 4, water jacket.
That's all for now. Forgot to take the underside of the head.

 

Place holder #1

 

Place holder #2

 

I'm going to post a few more pics and it's all from reflection.

Yes, the cylinder wall are fine with still alot of cross hatch patterns left. It's just the reflection make it look really bad and very hard to take pic with reflection and blown highlights. The valves are fine too but I don't have the tool to remove the valves and change valve oil seals. I was cleaning the intake and exhaust ports with brakekleen and it does not at all leak out from valves but I don't know the condition of the valve seats. I also don't want to do too much since I just need another 50-100k miles out of this car. Thanks.

 

Seems like I can't edit my old posts. Here are the last round of pictures since there is not much in reassembling everything back together.

1. nice copper spray.
2. Cyl blocks and water jackets.
3. Head/valves cleaned
4. gasket on block.
5. head.

 

Now some thoughts and bad news.

This job can be done in about 16hrs. There is plenty of room in the front of engine to deal with timing chain cover unlike Hondas. Very easy to remove crank bolt unlike Hondas. Majority of my time spent is dealing with wiring, removing stuck hoses, and several EGR cooler removal/install.

The chain cover install was not the hardest but squeezing out the RTV from the tube is very furstrating/annoying. I wish there is something like caulking gun. Very hard to get uniform bead but I think it's ok. It's not as scary as I thought it would be.

Made couple of minor mistakes that takes up extra times, forgot to put EGR shim so I have to loosen the EGR cooler again. Forgot to put Fuel injector rails before EGR cooler so that's another removal/loosening of EGR cooler. Forgot to connect Engine coolant temp connector and got P0118.

The worse is, I was in a hurry and lazy and used my marking on the timing chain re-install and probably missed one tooth since my marking was not very precise and got P0011. I think the crank and cam position sensor reading are not matching. I hope I didn't bend any valves. Engine started very smooth and not a strange noise at the startup or during running. So hopefully everything is ok. Now I have to go check the timing marks and indicators on the chain and figure out if I need to pull the chain cover again.

Would I do it again, maybe. Would I just drop another engine instead of doing it in the car, it's 50/50, since it still require alot of time to clear of wiring/connections to pull the engine, unless, your engine is quite messed up. I think I can now probably do it in 10-12 hrs for this head gasket job. That's my thought.

 

Thanks. Let's hope nothing is bent.