Finished Head Gasket Replacement

Hey Guys
With insight from members on the board and watching some awesome videos on YouTube this job was successful! Anyone tackling the head gasket job get ready for some parts replacing,and lots of detailing of notes. Had to create some tools for valve spring seals and harmonic balancer installation and she fired right up! So excited that I was able to get it back on the road after 3 weeks of ordering parts and waiting for them to come in. Anyone have any questions let me know.

 

nice work!

Seems like you had much better luck then the guy who was trying to do a compression test with water while his cylinder head was off lol!

 

Think we found his other account.

 

What mileage did the head gasket go?

 

What pics would you like to see

260000

 

Good to hear.
I give you lots of credit for doing a job like that yourself

 

Agreed. I've rebuilt f and 2F engines along with aircooled VWs and I'm dreading the thought of the head gaskets on this engine giving out.

 

I created a couple tools to tackle this job, one is a compression tool for the valve springs with a slot so you can push the half moon clips into place and use a small screw driver to push them down. The other was the harmonic balancer stabilizer so I could torque the bolt to the rediculous 184lbs of torque! Reality of it is 10mm, 12mm, 14 mm, 8mm allen wrench, and triple square bit for the head bolts, big ole breaker bar, need to rent torque wrench 250lb, pre spray Yield penetrating oil ( best ever) on exhaust hardware and anything else rusty. Also Bought about $1500 in parts. Take notes as you disassemble and follow in reverse. Did lots of cleaning of built up grease and dirt on everything.

 

I am dreading the thought of developing an exhaust manifold leak and the rusty bolts round off or break, then would need to pull the heads.

 

I was thinking the same thing

 

Just curious let me in on the insight joke? Are you referring my post as another dudes post?

 

I over came that by pre spraying bolts, as I removed the nuts that hold it on and head was off I used the best penetration lube called Yield. I soaked them and everything came off beautiful! I worked them slowly with vise grips and all came out no issues. I did break off two valve cover bolt heads. Once again I sprayed them and worked the stub in and out. I am in the Midwest so we have all sorts of things rusting. The header support brackets were rusted through and were molded to the catalytic receiving flange.right angle grinder and cleaned the threads. Patience is the best tool on this project.

 

Yeah, with the heads off it is easy peasy. Trying to do it in place so you don't have to pull the heads, not so much. I had a neighbor who was in this situation and ended up trading his truck in to avoid a $3000 repair bill.

I give you a lot of credit for DIY'ing this. I could pull it off, although I have never done heads on an OHC motor. Done cams on OHV with timing chain which is similar. Except I have a lack of space in my tiny garage and this thing is my DD vehicle. Hopefully I won't have this issue soon, though at 120,000 miles and lots of salt on the roads in winter it could happen.

 

@Timpig
"I over came that by pre spraying bolts, as I removed the nuts that hold it on and head was off I used the best penetration lube called Yield. I soaked them and everything came off beautiful!"

@$47 a can? Or have you found it less expensive somewhere?

 

Yup, exactly. We're not taking a dig at you or anything. W/o going into much detail there was another dude recently who was doing some top end work on his motor (amongst other things ) and let's just say he ended up ruffling a lot of feathers around here with his daily multiple new threads. It got to the point where one of his threads was locked and I guess he was banned or disappeared temporarily (or something to that effect ), hence the comment from us joking about you being him under a different alias (username).

That being said, we know for a fact you can't be that guy under a different username. "Why?" you might ask. Because you posted a thread about you actually finishing the job on your own w/o needing to be spoon fed every step of the way. And if there still was any doubt and that you might be him, well you removed all of that when you said:

No way in hell those words were coming out of that guy's mouth.

 

Gotcha, now I know back ground, no definitely not an alias. I love my Tacoma bought it brand new in 2008. I just couldn't afford a quoted $4k bill to get the dam thing fixed. Detail cleaned heads, covers, etc. Bottom line, if you're overflowing and overheating and hear gurgling, it's the head gasket. Best videos are Mayo cars Dr, 1GRFE rebuild and the Gasket Makers 1GRFE head gasket repair. They rush through the repair you better takes great notes.

 

I get a case of 12 of that for about $170 from my Chemsearch rep. Trust me this is the best stuff ever! I have used this stuff for my career as a Maintenance manager / stationary engineer, on boilers, corroded hardware, rusted bolts and nuts on closed loop chiller system. Use can use this stuff on drill and tapping threads as well.

 

I was curious what the dealer or shop would quote for this. I was guessing $3000 but it looks like I was low!

 

Sounds great but this shit seems next to impossible to locate/buy! W/o a Chemsearch hookup where in the world do us common folk go to buy this miracle-in-a-can? I'm proposing for you to become the official TW Yield distributor.

 

I use Castle Thrust penetrating oil and have been happy with it on old VW engines. The rust issue is going to be an issue on my engine as well and we rarely have snow and definitely don't use salt here. If I had the room to store it I'd pick up a front clip and pull the engine out so I could just do a swap; without the garage space to do that I'll probably end up having the mechanic I use grab one and install it when the time comes.