Blown Head gasket rebuild....@297k

Well OK then. I guess I won't use pen to plan for 10 minutes of pressure washing to get mine done. Thanks for the data point. Maybe I'll get lucky on mine.

 

it broke off when i was installing it back on. but part of stud was sticking out so i took vice grip pliers and clamped it very very tigh where i hardly clamped it just to be sure it would slip and then turned it and it loosened, then i unscrewed it off with hand. whew what a relief i didnt had to go through tapping or other ways to pull it out. i will now just get the stud from dealership and right back on track.
heres the broken stud and vice grip pliers i used.

 

here are some pictures of coolers where you can still see the carbon in channels. these are from today after abt 10 days of soaking in oxi and 3 rounds of pressure washing and drilled through with wire on drill.
i believe i will use stove cleaner tomorrow and call it good enough.

 

depends on when was last time you cleaned and also how many miles/years has it been since last cleanup. either way this thing is a bitch to clean

 

Glad the stud was easy to remove!
That doesn't look too bad for the cooler. Soak it with oven cleaner for 30 minutes or so
and pressure wash it...
Then I'd start searching junkyards for a spare cooler. I'll be putting mine in next week.

 

Man, that's nuts. I remember my first run with the pressure washer just ended up with me being soaked in water and carbon back-splash. I went back the next day with my zip-lock back and just crouched there blasting it. Feeling and seeing the water and carbon finally burst through was so satisfying. And I think I scared some folks the first time since I went at night and when I held the cooler to the light to look through it, it looked as if I was holding a firearm.

 

Seems like the more socked-in it is with carbon, the more hopeless it becomes.

 

i think i will have to start searching for a junkyard cooler for quick swap(will take few hours,not so quick)

 

Be glad for the internet, or you'd be on the phone a lot!
Or driving a lot!

 

lol, i meant few hours to swap not for searching. ofcourse its much easier to search online than scavanging place to place or call around.
i hope internet stays put during this apocalypse lol. if we go in 2 week countrywide quarantine, i would definitely be able to finish working on my cars and other projects around house which has been delaying for months now.

 

I hear ya!
After I did the egr system the first time, I decided to look for another cooler.
Expecting to pay $100, but found one for less than $50, it was from a junk yard.
I was lucky because it is clear, just some soot. I cleaned it with just my pressure washer,
but it didn't completely clean it. Sunday I'll spray it with oven cleaner then pressure wash it again.
That will make the job go a lot faster and easier.

Good luck on your search!

 

for $50 i would just get one everytime and throw away the previous one lol. wouldnt get intpo hassle of cleaning everytime. oil change cost me abt $30 every 10k miles so if i will have to buy cooler for $50 every 30k to 40k i wud just get new one everytime.

 

You can buy a used one for around $50, for sure will need cleaning, hopefully not as bad as yours though. And: you can take your sweet time getting it cleaning. Revisit every 50k miles and it wouldn't be too bad.

 

Update:
finally got around to finish putting everything back together.
Ran into roadblock when realised theres a water bypass hose which connects to a plastic piece which is a divieder of coolant, has broken off so took 2 days for it to get from dealer and today finally put it back.
filled coolant, in 2010 model there is a bleed on top of one of hose i opened it and let coolant get into places. Took a little over a gallon to fill whole system.
then i followed @nutznboltz guide on how to put car in maintenance mode, i did that and engine started for the first time after putting it back together. it started loud dry and rough but quickly when oil circulated it smoothened out.
BUT then suddenly i saw smoke coming out from backside of motor so i shut it down and started scratching head where that smoke could be coming from. after few minutes, i started again and after few seconds started seeing smoke again but this time it was considerably low, so i shut it off agian.
then started checking around and noticed the egr valve gasket isnt holding and i see liquid there which possibly could be water not fully dried up from all the cleaning since theres no coolant flow through there. but smoke was still mystery, i believe it could possibly be leaking from exhaust manifold in the back of motor from maybe the gasket for exhaust manifold not sealed up properly?
i will try to take another crack at it tomorrow to see if it probably was oil somewhere which burned at startup or maybe all that brake parts cleaner i used to clean the motor and heads and valves burning at startup.
any suggestions are welcomed.

one mistake on my part is that i did not disconnect traction battery orange plug to prevent possible battery drainage, the car stayed parked for almost a month now but today when i started i could still see 2 bars left so hopefully when i start tomorrow i will drive around to charge battery before it depletes to dangerous level.

 

The smoke could be some oil residue on the exhaust, burning off. Or who knows.

Fingers crossed you get through this.

 

yeah im hoping it is just some oil residue. will find out tomorrow. also seal situation set me back again probably 2 or 3 days since taking apart egr cooler isnt easy. also taking egr apart is big mess with coolant spill since i dnt have pinchers, in my repair i drained all coolant so it wasnt bad.

 

If you need to remove EGR again, drain 2 quarts coolant from rad (into clean container) beforehand, and the EGR will be high-and-dry. Pour it back into reservoir after.

 

good tip, i will do this definitely instead of wasting fresh new coolant.

another hunch i have about smoke is that maybe the exhaust manifold in the back of engine has gasket leak, if that is the case then i dnt know how i can change that gasket without taking apart engine again.

 

So, i started car back up and there was no smoke or anything funny going on. now startups are smooth with no rattles at all. no smoke or funny smells. I believe the smoke on first start was due to either oil or coolant residue somewhere which burned up.
I ordered new gaskets for egr cooler and valve system and pick up tomorrow to eradicate leakage due to absence of gaskets and then i believe this journey will be over. took me over a month lol but im glad i did it myself with the help of @Mendel Leisk and @ASRDogman and others i dont remember the names. your help is greatly appreciated and all the resources @Mendel Leisk shared i couldnt have done it without, specially when i messed up the timing of engine.

If anyone have any questions regarding head gasket replacement in future or to get the timing of engine back just ask me i will try to help as much as i can from my experience.

 

I'm glad it's up and running smoothly!
I always buy new gaskets. They are very inexpensive.
There are some you can get away with reusing. But for the egr system and manifold, it's not worth it.
Too much time and work to remove everything for one $2 gasket!