i have reason to believe my head gasket is toast. gonna do a compressions test this weekend. anyone know what the specs are for the 3.4L ? thanks

 

what year do you have? I seem to remember that the 3.4's (not 3.0) had some HG issues early - like 95.5 - 96? could be mistaken tho

The last specs i got off my 98 were 190-195 psi on all 6 cylinders
On my 97 i got 170 - 175 off all cylinders.
My 99 were 190 - 200 psi and thats at 150k miles.

 

From the 2003 FSM:
http://www.deserted1.com/FSM/Repair_...c5v/serdat.pdf

Here's the whole thing:
http://www.deserted1.com/FSM/

 

thanks guys. i have a '99. im gonna be pissed if its my headgasket. anyone done it before? how hard is it?

 

What makes you think it may be the HG? I'm sure the FSM has the proceedure detailed. BTW the early 5VZ HG problem was an external coolant leak.

I know of one guy that blew a 5VZ HG here:
http://www.ultimateyota.com/index.ph...6&topic=2241.0

 

I am in the process of replacing the cylinder heads on the 5vzfe and it is not easy. The biggest access issues come from some of the exhaust system nuts that are tough to get to and tough to loosen.

Also, what are the specific symptoms that are causing you to believe it is a bad head gasket?

My problem started with rough running at start up combine with coolant consumption. It ran good once the engine was warm, with good power and mileage. There was no tell tale white "smoke" out of the tail pipe. It ended up being a cracked head in cylinder 3. I had the local dealer do a compression test and it came out good, therefore it was not very helpful. A leakdown test may be more useful. The only other symptom was a discolored and sometimes wet (coolant) spark plug from that cylinder, and that is what helped me to decide to pull the heads. The cracks are very small and do not really affect engine performance once the engine is warming up.

In the process of doing this repair, I have talked with a few people at Toyota dealerships and at other shops, and the issue of cracked cylinder heads in the 5vzfe (especially in cylinders 3 or 4) seems to be not uncommon.

Good luck.

 

white smoke, watery oil, the occasional miss, and coolant consumption. pretty sure its the headgasket. talked to a toyota tech today who said it was a 12 hour job. i dont have a garage to use and its cold outside so not sure what im gonna do.

 

Usually the heads are removed as a complete assembly:

Remove intake manifold. Disconnect exhaust downpipe. Remove timing gears and cams and stuff.

Remove both heads together with exhaust crossover.

Takes 2 or 3 people to lift everything off, but it's a cakewalk after that.

Cheers!

 

It's a pretty tough job even in the middle of summer, in winter it would be downright brutal if you had to work outside in the cold. Unless you have a heated garage I would either look for a used motor to swap in (and maybe rebuild the other as a spare) or take it to somone who can do the work for you. Unless you do these alot or are very skilled as a mechanic, it is gonna take you alot longer than just 12 hours to do the entire job. You also should send your heads out to be rebuilt while they are off, it's fairly cheap and money well spent.

 

what do you think it would cost to have someone do it? i wouldnt mind doing it myself but like i said i have no suitable place.

maybe this is my excuse to do a 1kz-te swap?

 

Unless you have a friend that is talented and willing to help you out most shops are going to come in at around $1500-2500 for doing both heads. That is why I suggested that maybe a used motor might also be a good option since the cost of install should be around $500-800 depending on the shop so if you can get a good deal on a running motor, sometimes that is the cheaper way to do it.

 

did a compression test today, 190 across the board. waste of time a should of just borrowed a leakdown tester. the plugs looked ok though. maybe my headgasket is ok afterall. will do a leakdown and a coolant system pressure test and go from there