Advice Needed for 95 Taco

I have a 2.7L 3RZ automatic 4x4 with 251k miles. 3 weeks ago my water pump cracked and my truck overheated and blew the head gasket. Took it to a local auto mechanic and he used a sealant on the head gasket and replaced the water pump. He tried to sell me on the idea of getting a used engine and quoted me around $3500 with labor included. I took it home drove it for a week and my spidey senses started tingling. Yesterday, I decided to do a compression check and got these numbers: cyl.1: 120psi, cyl.2: 120psi, cyl.3: 30psi and cyl.4: 90psi. Would this be symptomatic of the sealant not working on the head gasket? or do I have a bad cylinder? If I have a bad cylinder I think I'll get a JDM used motor and replace my old engine. But if its the head gasket, I will just replace it. Any thoughts or ideas?

 

Was it a new head gasket or did he just put some goop on the old one and close it up? Could be a warped head, is your coolant reservoir slowly going down as you drive day to day?

 

Any dude that even tries magical cure in a bottle things like head gasket sealer isn't a mechanic I'd trust to change my oil let alone replace the engine. Another engine might be a good idea but I'd find someone else to do it. It is a weekend project if you have the tools.

I had my head replaced a while ago and that worked nicely, might work for you too since it is usually the aluminum that warps.

 

Only way to tell is send it to a machine shop or head shop to be magnafluxed for cracks and then decked so the mating surface is 100% flat or you're just wasting an expensive gasket on a guess.

 

Magic shit in a bottle NEVER WORKS. Your mechanic is a shade tree fuckstick. I wouldn't trust that dude to put air in my tire let alone swap an engine. Ive been a mechanic for 12 years professionally. Get the head off of the engine and take a look at the cylinder walls. If they dont look too scored up and there isnt obvious engine in the bottom end then send the head off to get the once over by the machine shop. replace head gasket with OEM and be happy. if the bottom end is messed up swap in with a new used engine. in any case find a new shop. your current one is a blatant thief for even attempting magic parts store bottle garbage to fix an engine.

 

Yeah it always fucks something else up in the process. When my head was off you could see all the ports that were blocked cause the dumbass previous owner put that Bar's leaks bullshit in. I have since replaced the head, flushed the block, replaced all hoses, replaced my heater core, new thermostat, new radiator. Shit is just garbage, but on the bright side all that stuff was 22 years old and probably a bit of it was just good maintenance to change anyway.

 

You never know what's still in there, the head was the most surprising, it has lots of tiny passages and some were completely blocked off with leak stop garbage. The head was cracked anyway so no biggie since it had to be changed anyway. The rest of it I changed out after I rolled my truck and swapped the drivetrain to a new truck haha. New radiator made a huge difference, never goes above 194 on the hottest days. Used to get to 212 occasionally before the new radiator.

 

So far the consensus seems to be that head gasket goop = a bad and useless thing to put into a engine. And my favorite, the mechanic who put it in there is a "shade tree fuckstick." Ha! I took out all of the spark plugs before performing the compression test
The metal piece on the left is from the high-tension cord section that connects to the top of the spark plug. That was a unexpected surprise. Also, 3 and 4 high-tension cords were a bear to pull out, leaving rubber pieces on the spark plugs.

 

I chuckled pretty hard at shade tree fuckstick, it's what I was thinking but not what I would say haha.

 

How much would it cost to have a machinist tune up the cylinder head?

 

Do any of you have suggestions on a good write up on cylinder head removal. Total noob.

 

I could probably dig up the factory service manual instructions for it...

 

Merry Christmas

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1GvBLacW-qQm9_ecOL2RI260rBCHJ28GC

I would recommend Printing the sections you want. The section I'm providing has 300 pages as it has EVERYTHING 3RZ/2RZ including evap, exhaust, troubleshooting, torque specs etc. It will be a pain in the ass to try and scroll through everything while you're working.

 

Pulling more away from the engine. Found a crack in my exhaust manifold.

 

Unfortunately that's not too uncommon. The cast manifolds crack after lots of hours, luckily the 01-04 stock mini header fits the older models and is a crack free improvement.

 

Here you go:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/headers-for-1st-gen-tacoma-with-egr-valve.525614/

 

So I finally had the time to work on removing the cylinder head. Everything has been pretty easy so far. I got one hiccup and that's with step 32a in the manual for cylinder head removal. I don't get how to "place the matchmarks on the camshaft timing gear No. 1 timing chain." I set the no.1 cylinder to TDC/Compression as shown above, and I removed the chain tensioner. I assumed I could remove the chain and move it to the match marks but there is not enough slack. What am I missing? And how important is this step?

 

uh, so you just mark the chain with a marker or something. Is that the step? I though there were marks on the chain already. Ha. Me feel dumb.

 

the chain itself has black links which it wants you to use to match up. Honestly, I wouldn't worry about the chain as you're gonna take all that apart. Focus on the timing marks which are on the back of those gears and the timing mark at the crankshaft gear. once all of those are lined up you can then proceed with disassembly.

 

Removed the cylinder head and this is what I found. Gasket didn't look as bad as I thought it would. I'm going to send the cylinder head to a local auto machinist and have it checked. I couldn't detect any cracks in the head. I'm not exactly sure what I'm looking for in the cylinders. No obvious cracks or deep scratches. Top of the pistons look they need to be cleaned. Any feedback?