Sense-A
Junior Member
1999 Toyota 4runner Sr5 4x4 5VZ-FE 266,000 miles
Over the course of about two years I was burning a little bit of coolant and could smell it out the exhaust, especially out of the exhaust during cold start. I got by for two years topping off the Coolant with the red asian coolant from Walmart. Every two weeks I poured about 10-15 fluid ounces in there.
Performance suffered. Acceleration was putt putt sometimes. The spark plug in cylinder 4 looked like there wasn't much left of it. One day the spark plug even shot out of the engine during start-up, which means there must have been a build up of fuel in there trying to compensate for bad combustion or a disgusting mix of coolant, oil, and fuel.
It's amazing My toyota kept running. I was abusing it. It was leaking oil, burning coolant, the catalytic converter is rigged on to cut pipe from where a thief had stolen the last one.
One day two weeks ago it overheated even though i was just driving slow down 25mph and 35mph roads. This time i couldn't solve it by just topping off the coolant. In fact, the coolant was overflowing into the excess reservoir this time.
When my truck overheats, i pull over and shut it down. I don't push it. When it gets into the red i believe that if you shut it down immediately you can mostly avoid damage to the cylinder heads or gasket. I think it is prolonged overheating or continuing to drive the vehicle once it is in the red that will blow it up. That's my theory at least and what i did. If the temp gauge got into red i turned off the road and shut everything down. Also blow the heat hot to help exhaust all the heat and get the temp back down. And with this method the engine would soon cool off. Then i can drive another mile or two and repeat. I think it took me 3 hours to get just 10 miles by inching my way back home.
Now i know already to pay a mechanic to pull the cylinder heads is at least $3K plus they'll try to sell me on a long list of other things and i'll get a $5K bill. So i decided to take off work for a week and DIY.
I followed the videos of both Timmy The Toolman and Worse Than Chiggers. Both have excellent head gasket replacement video tutorials and they are so good it's why I appreciate the internet.
It took my a week to tear off both cylinder heads, the timing belt, the water pump and get it to a bench.
I found a crack in cylinder 4 that runs below the valve seat. this cylinder was caked in sludge that crept its way up into the intake and lower plenum. Thick nasty sludge.
cylinder five has a micro-crack between the intake and exhaust valves. It looks very small and shallow. I am torn whether or not to replace it. Toyota guys say yeah replace it, it will only get worse. Auto mechanics who deal with hot rods and other cars laugh and say those are normal and if you don't have cracks you're not even breaking it in yet and not to worry if the crack isn't below the valve seat..
I am in a rush to go now but i will update and maybe post pictures later.
I first tried to get refurbished rebuilt cylinder heads but the machine shop was picky and the ones i was giving in as core exchange and didn't want them and wanted to charge me extra core fee instead. So instead I ordered some cheap imported chinese cylinder heads for about $450 each that dont even require a core exchange, so this might get interesting. Will they be junk or will they bolt on and give an old grumpy 4runner another leg in life? Stay tuned...
So far I've spent $650 on tools, wrenches, pulley pullers, torque wrenches, angle head wrenches, ratcheting box wrenches, etc. And I've spent $1,265 so far on parts which includes the chinese import cylinder heads that are shipping from CA after probably coming from China.
Also i cheaped out on the gaskets and water pump and timing belt. After market. Will i regret this or will i get everything up and running? Place your bets.
Also if you calculate my lost income from me working on it i would cost out my labor at about $800-900 so far.
I will try to return and post pictures later and update you when my Chinese cylinder heads go on. Also sorry to my Japanese friends for being so cheap because i really do respect Japanese engineering and their audio products too. Always was good stuff. I like japanese motorcycles and dirtbikes too.
The thing is that most people wouldn't even try to fix this truck because so many other things are wrong with it. The actuator on passenger side front door doesn't work. The clock doesn't work. The front seat is torn. It is high mileage. I haul trailers with it. I've replaced two wheel bearings so far and recently a rear axle seal. The exhaust leaks because of a stolen catalytic converter that i rigged back together. But if i can get the engine running again then i will be remotivated to fix the other smaller nagging problems.
Over the course of about two years I was burning a little bit of coolant and could smell it out the exhaust, especially out of the exhaust during cold start. I got by for two years topping off the Coolant with the red asian coolant from Walmart. Every two weeks I poured about 10-15 fluid ounces in there.
Performance suffered. Acceleration was putt putt sometimes. The spark plug in cylinder 4 looked like there wasn't much left of it. One day the spark plug even shot out of the engine during start-up, which means there must have been a build up of fuel in there trying to compensate for bad combustion or a disgusting mix of coolant, oil, and fuel.
It's amazing My toyota kept running. I was abusing it. It was leaking oil, burning coolant, the catalytic converter is rigged on to cut pipe from where a thief had stolen the last one.
One day two weeks ago it overheated even though i was just driving slow down 25mph and 35mph roads. This time i couldn't solve it by just topping off the coolant. In fact, the coolant was overflowing into the excess reservoir this time.
When my truck overheats, i pull over and shut it down. I don't push it. When it gets into the red i believe that if you shut it down immediately you can mostly avoid damage to the cylinder heads or gasket. I think it is prolonged overheating or continuing to drive the vehicle once it is in the red that will blow it up. That's my theory at least and what i did. If the temp gauge got into red i turned off the road and shut everything down. Also blow the heat hot to help exhaust all the heat and get the temp back down. And with this method the engine would soon cool off. Then i can drive another mile or two and repeat. I think it took me 3 hours to get just 10 miles by inching my way back home.
Now i know already to pay a mechanic to pull the cylinder heads is at least $3K plus they'll try to sell me on a long list of other things and i'll get a $5K bill. So i decided to take off work for a week and DIY.
I followed the videos of both Timmy The Toolman and Worse Than Chiggers. Both have excellent head gasket replacement video tutorials and they are so good it's why I appreciate the internet.
It took my a week to tear off both cylinder heads, the timing belt, the water pump and get it to a bench.
I found a crack in cylinder 4 that runs below the valve seat. this cylinder was caked in sludge that crept its way up into the intake and lower plenum. Thick nasty sludge.
cylinder five has a micro-crack between the intake and exhaust valves. It looks very small and shallow. I am torn whether or not to replace it. Toyota guys say yeah replace it, it will only get worse. Auto mechanics who deal with hot rods and other cars laugh and say those are normal and if you don't have cracks you're not even breaking it in yet and not to worry if the crack isn't below the valve seat..
I am in a rush to go now but i will update and maybe post pictures later.
I first tried to get refurbished rebuilt cylinder heads but the machine shop was picky and the ones i was giving in as core exchange and didn't want them and wanted to charge me extra core fee instead. So instead I ordered some cheap imported chinese cylinder heads for about $450 each that dont even require a core exchange, so this might get interesting. Will they be junk or will they bolt on and give an old grumpy 4runner another leg in life? Stay tuned...
So far I've spent $650 on tools, wrenches, pulley pullers, torque wrenches, angle head wrenches, ratcheting box wrenches, etc. And I've spent $1,265 so far on parts which includes the chinese import cylinder heads that are shipping from CA after probably coming from China.
Also i cheaped out on the gaskets and water pump and timing belt. After market. Will i regret this or will i get everything up and running? Place your bets.
Also if you calculate my lost income from me working on it i would cost out my labor at about $800-900 so far.
I will try to return and post pictures later and update you when my Chinese cylinder heads go on. Also sorry to my Japanese friends for being so cheap because i really do respect Japanese engineering and their audio products too. Always was good stuff. I like japanese motorcycles and dirtbikes too.
The thing is that most people wouldn't even try to fix this truck because so many other things are wrong with it. The actuator on passenger side front door doesn't work. The clock doesn't work. The front seat is torn. It is high mileage. I haul trailers with it. I've replaced two wheel bearings so far and recently a rear axle seal. The exhaust leaks because of a stolen catalytic converter that i rigged back together. But if i can get the engine running again then i will be remotivated to fix the other smaller nagging problems.
