salvatore Posted September 22, 2004 Share Posted September 22, 2004 Hello all, Well, the one thing we all dread seems to have happened to me. Recently got me car out of storage and set off, rad seemed to be leaking badly. Limped home and got it fixed (or so i thought). Went out last week and was driving over to cheltenham when i went to overtake some old biddy doing about 20mph. Floored it - loadsa smoke and not much boost at all Took to gloster toyota for a diagnosis, was told to suspect a blown head gasket. Bummer...But worse was to come. When the guy from Toyota rang me, he said that if they found any cracks in the head after pressure testing it, they would have to replace the head, since (in his opinion), it's difficult to skim the head on one of these - he's reckoning on about £5000 for the job. FECK!! Anyway, took it to a reputable local garage where he thinks the dealership are talking through thier arse about a new head. Have got a nice new 1.6mm HKS metal headgasket courtesy of TDI ready to go in anyhoo. So, anyone got any stories of problems with warped/cracked heads - or (hopefullly) are these things as bombproof as i suspected! Cheers, Salvatore Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digsy Posted September 22, 2004 Share Posted September 22, 2004 Originally posted by salvatore Hello all, Well, the one thing we all dread seems to have happened to me. Recently got me car out of storage and set off, rad seemed to be leaking badly. Limped home and got it fixed (or so i thought). Went out last week and was driving over to cheltenham when i went to overtake some old biddy doing about 20mph. Floored it - loadsa smoke and not much boost at all Took to gloster toyota for a diagnosis, was told to suspect a blown head gasket. Bummer...But worse was to come. When the guy from Toyota rang me, he said that if they found any cracks in the head after pressure testing it, they would have to replace the head, since (in his opinion), it's difficult to skim the head on one of these - he's reckoning on about £5000 for the job. FECK!! Anyway, took it to a reputable local garage where he thinks the dealership are talking through thier arse about a new head. Have got a nice new 1.6mm HKS metal headgasket courtesy of TDI ready to go in anyhoo. So, anyone got any stories of problems with warped/cracked heads - or (hopefullly) are these things as bombproof as i suspected! Cheers, Salvatore MKIV head gaskets going is very rare. Whether or not you have warped the head will depend on how hot it got. You mention "loadsa smoke". Was this in fact steam from water getting into the cylinders, or did you have an oil leak? Don't forget that pretty much everything goes through the head gasket (oil, coolant, combustion chambers) so there is plenty of scope for different systems leaking into each other. You also mention "not much boost". This doesn't really sound like a HG to me, unless you have a massive leak around the combustion chamber. From your suspect rad leak, it sounds like maybe you have a coolant leak in the HG, if that's what it is. I'd be concerned about water having got into the cylinder bores. Before you took it to the garage did you do any checks yourself (look for water in the oil, oil in the water, compression test, etc.) What tests did the garage do? As for it being difficult to skim a MKIV head, I would have thought that any decent machine shop could do this job, although maybe the total deviation from flat over the length of a mildly warped inline 6 head means you have to take a lot of metal off, but this is just me speculating. Just a quick Q about the metal head gaskets: What kind of gasket does the MKIV have as stock? Metal bead gaskets put a lot more load into the head structure than the older types. If the head wasn't designed for it from the off, I'd be concerned about using one. You can fail a head gasket - or even the head - by over loading it. As for cracking the head, again this depends on how hot you got it. Ask the garage for more details and to show you the crack. HTH. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Posted September 22, 2004 Share Posted September 22, 2004 The stock one is a multi layer metal gasket. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digsy Posted September 22, 2004 Share Posted September 22, 2004 Originally posted by Alex Holdroyd The stock one is a multi layer metal gasket. Well, that's alright then Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salvatore Posted September 22, 2004 Author Share Posted September 22, 2004 Alright Darren, Thanks for your inquiry - you obviously know what you're talking about, whereas i only have a basic knowledge of engines! The garage has confirmed that the head gasket HAS blown, and there is traces of water in the cylinders - bugger. So i think it is a coolant leak into the head, for wich (correct me if i'm wrong here) the gasket will need to be changed. Ragrding the smoke and boost, well, the smopke was thick black shite (same as they had today when they tried to run her up), and no boost meant just that - flat response, like the turbo's were'nt even there. Does'nt sound too healthy, does it? Far as tests the toyota dealer did - i think they did the compression test, and that's all. Anyway, the garage is whipping the head off today, so i'll give u an update when we know more. TTFN Salvatore Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul mac Posted September 22, 2004 Share Posted September 22, 2004 i really really hope i'me talking s***e mate but black smoke and no boost sounds like blown oil seals in the turbos to me, hope i'me wrong cos its all gonna get very expensive otherwise Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick_TC Posted September 22, 2004 Share Posted September 22, 2004 BLACK smoke is overfuelling BLUE smoke is oil burning WHITE smoke is coolant/water burning We recently had a 2JZ-GTE head skimmed by the local machine shop with no problems at all. We just asked for a finer finish than normal. 20-30 RA iirc (but might be way off due to Stella ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.