EGR & Intake Manifold Clean Results

It's an EGR cooler.

 

P0301 returned. Guess it's time for a head gasket.

 

Is piston #1 wet or steam-cleaned?

 

I have not looked recently, but there are no coolant leaks and the coolant tank dropped 2 inches in 200 miles. I moved the coils and plugs when I did the EGR stuff, so if it were a coil or plug, I would have gotten a different code. I have done many many head gaskets and this one looks pretty easy compared to most modern stuff. Trying to decide if I want to replace the TTY bolts. Every time I have used a micrometer they checked out fine. I'll have a head shop do their thing too.

 

Well, I have little to lose at this point, so I soaked #1 in the BG stuff and it turned the carbon into liquid and took a day to drain into the pan past the rings. The piston wiped off spotless. I’m soaking it again and the other cylinders hoping any stuck rings may be freed up and #1 will stop burning oil. I kind of want to hit the pistons with an air chisel to vibrate them, but too afraid of damaging a cylinder or piston even with a wood block or brass drift.

 

I decided to try the brass drift on #1. I hit it with a hammer a few times in all directions where there was lip on the piston.

#1 has stopped draining while 2,3, and 4 are still draining. So I smacked them with the drift too and I'm hoping to have resolved the oil consumption issue.

I also got the head back from the machine shop today. The valves did not need lapping, and they only took off .003”.

 

Why are you hammering on the piston???? What lip on the piston????

And you need to clean off those valves! They failed to do so. I don't understand why
they didn't do that? Did they replace the valve guide seals also?

 

I was tapping on a brass drift on the edges of the "dish" of the piston to push the rings around in their grooves with forces not encountered while the engine is running. It apparently worked as before I tapped on the pistons, if I put oil on top of the pistons, it would drain past the rings overnight. That is no longer happening.

As for a little carbon on the valves, I don't care. There would not be any measurable performance increase. I just had them hot tank it, surface it, and check the valves for sealing. I didn't ask them to do valve guide seals. I have the tools for that.

 

You'll get hot spots on the valves, and it could cause pre-ignitions....
I take it you're going to replace the guides, so if you have a bench grinder
with a wired wheel, it would only take a minute or 2 to clean it off.
Since you're going to all that work, why not do those little important things.

I hope you didn't have any damage from the storm.

 

Well, I failed. I can't get this thing to run. It has misfire codes for all cylinders. Compression is 125-135. I assume this is low because I didn't think about wedging the throttle body open, but it's still good enough for combustion. Valve timing is definitely correct. I pulled the valve cover off and spun it over until the colored links lined up and the the long mark on the intake cam was about 2:00 and it was at TDC. It has new plugs and oil and I can't find any disconnected hoses or wires - including the PCV. I used to swap out MLS head gaskets on my 2JZ all the time, so this isn't my first rodeo. I have also done MLS head gaskets on Ford modular V8 and V10 engines and they are way harder than this. I feel like an idiot.

 

FYI, it turns out I had an injector fail. I don't know why it was giving multiple misfire codes. Car is running like new. Hopefully with less oil consumption.

 

How did you find it was the injector? And which one? Did you replace all of them?
Or did you clean them?

 

When I was checking fuel pressure, the gauge was bouncing oddly. I used my injector pulser on the injectors and all of them loudly rattled and relieved the rail of pressure except #4. I took about 3 minutes to do a happy dance. I don't know where #4 was before disassembly and I cleaned all of them in a sonic cleaner as I have done in the past. Since injectors are basically solenoids, I removed it, pulsed it, and rapped on it with a wrench, and it started clicking like the others. I will replace them all for good measure, but I drove it a couple miles and it's running great with the beaten injector.

I was very close to killing the hybrid battery since it didn't want to run well enough to charge. So glad this is done.

 

Throw a quart of marvel myster oil in the fuel tank just before you fuel up.
The will help clean out the injectors. Then drive it so it can do it's thing.

 

Nah, it’s burned enough oil!

 

I meant fuel tank! But it won't hurt to put one on the oil...

 

I’ll ask here….

For an intake, EGR, EGR manifold complete job, what parts should you have on hand before starting so there are no delays if something is worn or damaged?

 

I would buy all intake gaskets and replace them. I think there are 3 of them (red rubber). Those metal gaskets in egr and egr cooler hard to damage but on the other hand not expensive to buy. Finally, you may want to have spare M12(?) nuts. The ones used for egr valve and cooler. I was super careful (in my opinion) but still dropped one egr fastering nut.. Luckily had similar nut in garage. One of those egr nuts is very easy to remove and measure. Open the hood and look at the egr valve and you know what i mean.

 

You should replace all the gaskets. About $20 from toyota. Except for the intake
manifold gasket. It's about $13 I think. But you can find all the gaskets online....
Spare cooler if possible. Gunk, .22 bore brush to clean out the 4 holes on the intake manifold.
Carb cleaner, oven cleaner, pressure washer, rags, hand cleaner...