Doing my headgasket... what else should I replace.

My time has come, 15 years and 180+K miles later my head gasket is starting to let go, only shows up under load driving in the mountains.

Ive ordered a new set of timing chains, retarded exhaust cam gears, tensioners and guides.

The water pump, thermostat, belt and pully bearings were done ~2 years ago.

Also, is there another chain guide or do you just use two of the upper guides (pn:13562-AD010) for left and right cam chains.

 

Don’t forget to get all the gaskets..valve cover, intake manifold, throttle body, etc

 

You are only replacing the gasket? Not getting the head freshened up with new valve stem guides and carbon cleaned out of the head and valves, etc...? If it looks good otherwise, I would at least replace the stem guides. They are a leading cause of failure on high mileage engines. They hardened up and crack leading to oil burning.

I take it you have ruled out fuel issues and dirty throttle issues causing the under-load problems? You losing coolant and/or low cylinder pressure?

 

Loosing coolant and bubbles in the reservoir, sometimes a white smoke on start up.

I bought the full engine gasket kit from toyota, once the heads are off they are going out to the machine shop for a refresh since I dont have the experience to deck the heads if needed.

 

Yep. Bubbles not good! The 05-06 models do have a history of bad head gaskets. Knock on wood, my 07 is holding up well at 185K. Good luck with the project. I think the only thing I would get is a new fan clutch.

 

You should be fine, they changed the gasket design half way through 06.

I only have one day a week to work on this so it takes the truck out of commission for about a month, figure one day for tear down and send the heads out. Couple weeks for the heads then one day to button everything back up.

Luckily i have another car or I would have to suck it up and pay a garage.

 

Got the head gaskets done finally, took a little over 2 months working on it a few hours a week when i could.

Replaced all the timing/guides components along with retarded exhaust cams and steering rack bushings.

Seems ok so far. Ill send the oil out to the lab after a few hundred miles to see whats going on inside.

Overall it was a big job but really as with most things in life its just a series of smaller jobs put together. Hardest part was getting the exhaust bolts off as they were rusted and getting the AC compressor off as there is not much room for a few of the bolts.

If anyone is thinking of doing this themselves its completely possible to DIY if you have the time and patience. I bagged and tagged everything but I wish I took a few pictures as there is a left over bolt I have no idea where it goes.

Dont rush any part and double check the steps involved BEFORE starting a phase of the project. I rushed the last bit and missed a loose connector along with a ripped o-ring causing me an extra days work.

 

Good job

I always like to hear that a job like this was done on a DIY.
Only head gasket I was ever involved with was on older carbureted Chevrolet engines.
327/350/400.

Unless we can add watching, lol
I watched my dad do a Head gasket / stud job 6.0 Ford Powerstroke.
I stopped by to visit, seen that mess, and left. QUICKLY.

 

I would kinda rebuild the head if you were to go through that kind of trouble pulling it off to replace the head gasket. You will have to replace the TTY bolts as they are not reusable. You don't want to even think about it so here are a few tips.
1.De torque the head properly because if you don't it will warp. The same applies when you torque it back down.
2. Take a straight edge to the head, you want to make sure that it is not warped.
3. Perform a leak down test. If the valves are leaking then lap the valves and their prospective seats.
4. Change out the valve stem seals.

Its really not that hard to do.

 

The heads were rebuilt with new valves seals and and a valve job while they were off. That was handled by a head shop.

 

Maybe I skipped over it but definitely new radiator and heater hoses plus any other hoses that might be under and around the intake manifold.

 

New radiator 2 years ago, checked the hoses for cracking, rot or tearing and found none so I reused them all.

 

I recently replaced some hoses that looked good but after doing a nearly complete cooling system overhaul it turned out that coolant was making its way into the core of the hoses and began leaking out of the ends at the nylon chords.