Confirmed bad headgasket, what else shall I replace “while I’m in there”

C

CoCoCo4Runner

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I spent the day going through and diagnosing my new 1998, and discovered that cylinder 6 has a headgasket leak. Using a leak down tester, all other cylinders maintained pressure, cylinder 6 immediately started bubbling out of the open radiator, proving the issue.

I’m planning to DIY it all, and have the time, room, and skill to do so, especially considering the wealth of information available.

Anyway, there’s the aforementioned headgasket leak, there’s an odd issue where I’ve got oil all throughout my intake, it’s pretty bad. I traced it back to the vacuum hose that connects to the rear of the valve cover on the drivers side, why would this be happening?

Some pics as well,

Imgur: The magic of the Internet


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Thoughts on this felpro headgasket kit at rock auto?

Seems to come with many things I’d want to replace on the top end.

3f7663a300e3453a572731be14377039.jpg



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On a job like this I would only use the OEM head gasket straight from Toyota. Everything else I think would be good with aftermarket. Thats my take on that but I could be wrong.

I'm not familiar with engine rebuilding but are you planning to resurface both heads? I think getting both heads resurfaced by a machine shop can bump the compression up a bit more if the surface is not very smooth like it should.

I have felpro valve cover gaskets and it has been perfectly fine. Going for 2 years on it.
 
FD7683 said:
On a job like this I would only use the OEM head gasket straight from Toyota. Everything else I think would be good with aftermarket. Thats my take on that but I could be wrong.

I'm not familiar with engine rebuilding but are you planning to resurface both heads? I think getting both heads resurfaced by a machine shop can bump the compression up a bit more if the surface is not very smooth like it should.

I have felpro valve cover gaskets and it has been perfectly fine. Going for 2 years on it.
Click to expand...


Yes, definitely taking the heads to a machine shop, they can deck the heads and inspect for cracks I wouldn’t be able to notice.


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Update on the truck, it’s partially disassembled, intake manifold is off! Getting close to removing the heads, haven’t touched the timing belt or cams yet.

Various stages of disassembly - Album on Imgur

Unfortunately the valley in the motor is disgusting, pooled oil, rat turds, and decade worth of dirt and grime. Also weirdly, I found some random things there too…

I can’t identify this, but when I removed the intake manifold, either this fell off the intake and into the coolant passage, or it was hiding in the valley and fell in there when I moved the intake. Or it dislodged itself from the inside of the motor.

Does anyone know what this is?
Random item in coolant passage - Album on Imgur

Here’s where I found it
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Couple of annoyances, I lost the rearmost intake manifold nut somewhere, it came off, bounced around and was nowhere to be seen from again. I recovered the washer under the intake manifold. I also pulled one of the studs from the block. Is it weird there is coolant pooled at the bottom?

I also found these two random springs among the rat turds and grime, what the heck are these used for?

06efd5fced9dfca711b301257c5feb42.jpg
 
Change the knock sensor and its harness with OEM while your in there. The harness gets super brittle. I'd go OEM on the head gaskets too. I have a feeling the intake nut will show back up by the time you pull the heads off but I have no idea what the springs or mystery parts are though.
 
Sparky 97Runner said:
Change the knock sensor and its harness with OEM while your in there. The harness gets super brittle. I'd go OEM on the head gaskets too. I have a feeling the intake nut will show back up by the time you pull the heads off but I have no idea what the springs or mystery parts are though.
Click to expand...


I stand by the Yota-Shop head replacement kit. I’ve used them 3 times with zero issues. Their site explains the head gasket material.

It comes with everything needed to replace the heads and that includes the knock sensor cable.


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19963.4lsr5 said:
I stand by the Yota-Shop head replacement kit. I’ve used them 3 times with zero issues. Their site explains the head gasket material.

It comes with everything needed to replace the heads and that includes the knock sensor cable.


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Click to expand...


Thanks! That looks like a solid bit of kit.

Also, while my credit card is out, PO had the water pump replaced at 196k miles and timing belt has 6000 miles on it. Can they be reused? I didn’t plan on removing the water pump if I could avoid it.


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I’d not touch what you don’t have to. I recompressed my timing belt tensioner and re-pinned it to remove the heads. That’s what I did on my 96 until I found the cylinder bad and causing my supposed head gasket leak.

If you don’t have an Asin water pump now is the time though.


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Guess all the know-it-all saying don't go with FEL-PRO, go with OEM, have never worked with fel-pro gaskets. Easy when it's not their own money.

These are top-notch. You won't have a problem with them if correctly used and installed. And I don't know about the OEM price, but you'll also probably pay a small fraction for all the material you've got there.

Go with them with peace of mind.
 
Those springs look like a heli coil repair part. Probably stripped something somewhere and fixed it. Wow, one day I’ll get that far into mine. Oem gaskets, seems smart.
 
diverscale said:
Guess all the know-it-all saying don't go with FEL-PRO, go with OEM, have never worked with fel-pro gaskets. Easy when it's not their own money.

These are top-notch. You won't have a problem with them if correctly used and installed. And I don't know about the OEM price, but you'll also probably pay a small fraction for all the material you've got there.

Go with them with peace of mind.
Click to expand...


Yeah, felpro has been around forever, I feel like their stuff should be reputable?


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diverscale said:
Guess all the know-it-all saying don't go with FEL-PRO, go with OEM, have never worked with fel-pro gaskets. Easy when it's not their own money.

These are top-notch. You won't have a problem with them if correctly used and installed. And I don't know about the OEM price, but you'll also probably pay a small fraction for all the material you've got there.

Go with them with peace of mind.
Click to expand...
I use OEM with my own money when it comes to any gasket that requires a lot of work to get to when it fails unless there is a known problem with the specific OEM gasket material or design.
 
CoCoCo4Runner said:
Yeah, felpro has been around forever, I feel like their stuff should be reputable?


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Click to expand...

While a bit anecdotal, I can say that I installed Felpro PermaTorque MLS headgaskets in my own 4Runner and have had no issues so far. While getting my heads resurfaced, I chatted with the owners of the machine shop and they had no concerns with using Felpro either. They certainly weren't in a rush to suggest OEM. Take that how you will.

What I can say is that the performance of whatever headgasket you use will mainly come down to proper cleaning, inspection, and installation.
 
jlaho said:
While a bit anecdotal, I can say that I installed Felpro PermaTorque MLS headgaskets in my own 4Runner and have had no issues so far. While getting my heads resurfaced, I chatted with the owners of the machine shop and they had no concerns with using Felpro either. They certainly weren't in a rush to suggest OEM. Take that how you will.

What I can say is that the performance of whatever headgasket you use will mainly come down to proper cleaning, inspection, and installation.
Click to expand...


I haven’t gotten the heads off yet, ran out of time
over the weekend. But I intend on getting the block as clean as possible and sending the heads out to be cleaned, resurfaced, and pressure tested


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CoCoCo4Runner said:
I haven’t gotten the heads off yet, ran out of time
over the weekend. But I intend on getting the block as clean as possible and sending the heads out to be cleaned, resurfaced, and pressure tested


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Click to expand...


If you choose to buy the Yota-Shop kit give them the valve stem seals it’s part of the kit.


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