Finally got a 1st gen t4r!!

I'm looking forward to your next post as I just found out that I have a blown head gasket.

Just fired it up tonight. She started right up and purred!! Runs great so far. So glad i can finally drive it and hit some trails.
Ill tell you this much, its a very time consuming job if you do it right. I spent alot of time prepping parts and cleaning. Just dont cheap out on certain things so it all goes smoothly and hopefully last many more miles.
Stay tuned for pics soon and if you have questions, hit me up
 
Good job fixing it right. It is very time consuming but well worth it to have a well sorted engine. And now, on to the fun stuff.
 
How many miles on it when the head gasket blew? I have an '89 with 210k miles and I'm not sure when it was done last.
 
How many miles on it when the head gasket blew? I have an '89 with 210k miles and I'm not sure when it was done last.

well looks like the dealer replaced the HG before, but they did the side that was blown under the recall/ tsb.
then while i was digging in it i saw it had felpro upper manifold gaskets and the head gasket that was blown/leaking was labeled with some chinese off brand head gasket and also looks like before i purchased the vehicle it was done when they also replaced the timing belt at 135k and when i changed it it has 162k on it now.
i believe that the reason it blew this time was because whomever did the repair previously didnt do a good job and used crappy parts.
when i did everything i used all OEM parts except the sealant i used was permatex super black. also i had to replace the starter and the power steering pump which were not oem. i did the clutch as well and it was oem, thats why i pulled engine, it was easier to do that.
 
Just fired it up tonight. She started right up and purred!! Runs great so far. So glad i can finally drive it and hit some trails.
Ill tell you this much, its a very time consuming job if you do it right. I spent alot of time prepping parts and cleaning. Just dont cheap out on certain things so it all goes smoothly and hopefully last many more miles.
Stay tuned for pics soon and if you have questions, hit me up

nice work! I'm actually going to be pulling the engine to do a full rebuild. A couple things have pointed towards putting a fresh head on it, so I might as well do it right and take a look at the bottom end while i'm at it.
 
after removing the upper intake manifold and plenum, noticed it had few-pro gaskets so then i knew repairs had been done elsewhere other than dealer.






made sure my cam sprocket marks were line up as well as top dead center on crank pulley.








 
heads..

pulled heads and soon to see what cylinder was leaking and burning antifreeze!














and there it is! the one will antifreeze in the cylinder and the one thats all shiny and new looking!! lol







also noticed it had a nakamoto head gasket on it which is probably a chinese one and one thats of very low quality...


 
after tearing this engine apart, i soon realized it would be easier at this point to just pull engine. i was planning to install a new clutch so this would be easier to do at this point and also be able to clean the engine bay up nicely. i hooked my pressure washer up to the hot water heater so it would cut through oil and grim. worked out well.








didn't take many photos of the whole process of cleaning and painting block and prepping but here are more pics. installed clutch and resurfaced flywheel and reinstalled engine.











 
while i had the engine out, i did replace the rear main seal OEM Toyota. also went ahead and removed oil pan and resealed which was a PITA! i properly torqued every bolt to spec as per FSM and google and here! had help and info from members of t4r.org help me out so special thanks to you guys!!!
anyways, i was planning to build up entire engine before installing but that would have mede it harder to access certain bolts i needed to access so i just reinstalled same as i pulled it. after cleaning the chassis below engine, i painted everything and man! what a difference.
now next thing is heads to be prepped and lots of prepping parts and cleaning and reassembling which too lots of time. so many oily and dirty parts from my power steering pump leaking as well as rear main seal was leaking and valve cover gasket leaks.
when doing this job, i purchased the oem toyota head gasket kit. i will post a picture of the box with part number. it was 286.00 for it. has alot of items needed to do this job RIGHT. i used every item in the head gasket kit.
 
heads

starting on the heads and going to clean the valves and install new valve stem seals.












i used a big c-clamp tool and a o2 sensor socket to compress springs and that did the trick.





















heres the kit from toyota that has nearly everything you need!!! awesome kit!
there were the valve stem seals, o-ring and seal kit for fuel injectors, all gaskets for the egr system and all other gaskets. there was upper intake manifold gaskets, exhaust manifold gaskets, exhaust pipe donut gaskets and much more.


 
heads installed

installed heads and upper intake manifold. wished i had taken more pics in between but was pressed for time and needed this truck running!










 
torquing the head bolts was a PITA! it was sketchy for sure torquing to 33ft lbs and 90 degree and then another 90 degree torque sequence. i thought a head bolt would have snapped! man i was worried. lol. but everything worked out great. i did use BRAND NEW OEM head bolts. didn't wanna chance it. i also rand a tap in the head bolt threads in block to make sure they were clean then blew them out with compressed air. i lightly oiled the new head bolt threads and then torqued them. everything went together nicely. took some time prepping and cleaning but i was please with the outcome.
i used a vacuum purge tool for the coolant system. i blew all the coolant from the heater core as well as rear heater core ( factory rear heat). the vacuum purge tool hooks to you air compressor and pulls vacuum on coolant system and also checks for leaks and reinstalls fluid back in without air in system so no bleeding required if used properly. loved this tool!!!
i ended up putting a new starter on the truck as well as power steering pump. tried to rebuild the power steering pump but kept getting wrong seal so i gave up. i also replaced all the ground cables with 4 gauge wire and installed a optima red top. still have a few little more things to work out. need to bleed the clutch again. i replaced the clutch master cylinder and slave cylinder with oem aisin.
i also bought cheap oil and filter and ran engine for about 20 miles then refrained oil and changed filter with synthetic oil and ready to rock!
 


if you notice, where the battery sits, i had to sand and prime and paint that area because previously looked like the battery exploded or leaked and it was rusting below. so i did a quick corrosion control repair. red doesn't match perfect but o well.



cleaned up and repaired the coolant hoses on firewall.






vacuum purge tool for coolant system.









and done!!!! for now......





 
Man nice work is right! Bet it's running better than ever!
Btw I would have pulled the engine too considering how far in there you were haha
 

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