No power after head gasket replacement and valve job!!!

Vegas4Runner · 2015-12-19T20:25:23+00:00

In the interest of time I will keep the details to a minimum, but after having my rig in the shop for six weeks to replace the head gaskets, do a valve job, replace the water pump and timing belt, and replace a faulty injector, I finally got my baby back. And it now has the torque of a Jazzy power chair. It is a 3.0 with a manual transmission, and while it was never a beast off of the line, it now takes nearly a mile to get up to 55 on the highway. There is almost no power between 2 and 4K rmps (where it usually pulled the most). The shop swears that they did a compression test after reassembling everything and they are telling me that it must be a clogged cat. I pulled the O2 sensor in front of the cat to see if I would notice a boost in power (as that would theoretically minimize the obstruction from a clogged cat by allowing the exhaust to vent trough the O2 sensor port). Other than a lot of noise, this made no difference. I have a compression tester, but no time and I don't want the shop to hide behind a "well you messed with it after we got it back to you" claim. Can anyone think of a reason that would account for the loss of power across the board if the shop is correct and there is no loss of compression? They are closed for the weekend, but I would like to better understand the options before I take it back in there on Monday morning.

Thread starter Vegas4Runner
Start date Dec 19, 2015

Vegas4Runner

Member

Jan 15, 2016

The check engine light never came on for me, but the shop said it kicked on while they were taking it for a drive. It's a good thing too, or those idiots wouldn't have ever figured it out.