my 80 series head gasket saga

[cruisertoy]

I had the injectors cleaned and tested this week as well. Well worth the $90.

The tank dip and decking cost me $130 including dipping the valve cover to get it nice and clean. Sad, It actually looks 10x better on the inside than it does on the outside. I'm tempted to buff the outside of the cover.

The machine shop does a full pressure and Vacuum test on the head with the valves in to make sure they are seating correctly. They said it was perfectly tight and there was no need for a valve job. If they did do the full valve job it would have been over $500. Funny, they did say they don't do very many mid 90's Land Cruiser heads. This head is so long that it barely fit on their machine.

 

[freshspecbluegt]

Sounds like theres no need for a valve job then. Everytime someone pulls one of these engines down its really amazing to see how little wear there is, even when the engines have 200K on them.

 

[Willman]

I paid right around $500 for the complete package on my 60 head here local...Cleggs...I had a blown valve....

So far so good!

I have heard 80 heads are a nightmare to pull....I guess if you have the time and money......anything can be done....


:ylsmoke:

 

[Wheelingnoob]

Why not do a full valve job while the head is off? I would give them the cams as well and let them set the valve clearances if you do have a full valve job done. Working with the shims is tiresome and can get expensive. Just went through all this on a 3vz rebuild

I did not do mine as I had 165-170 compression all the way across the board and no leak down (5% so normal). No need spending money were it is not needed. Doing the Valves would have required the valve adjustment after and would have made the head shop costs over $600 in my case + my time after setting up the valves. My valve seals were not even leaking and the truck ran awesome no misses or any valve train noise.

 

[cruisertoy]

Just an FYI. If your replacing your Vacuum hoses, Toyota doesn't sell the hose by the foot off a roll. You have to buy individual hoses. My parts guy found the longest hose for the best price and I bought 6 of them. They were $3 each and I ended up using 4 of them to replace every vac hose I could find. Use part # 90999-92003. And do them one at a time so you don't get confused.

 

[MattScott]

Just an FYI. If your replacing your Vacuum hoses, Toyota doesn't sell the hose by the foot off a roll. You have to buy individual hoses. My parts guy found the longest hose for the best price and I bought 6 of them. They were $3 each and I ended up using 4 of them to replace every vac hose I could find. Use part # 90999-92003. And do them one at a time so you don't get confused.

I think this is an example of a time when you can use over the counter parts. Most auto shops sell vacuum line in all sizes, I replaced all of my lines for about $2, works great, snug fit. I did zip tie all of the ends just incase though, I find it nice insurance incase something gets bumped on accident.

 

[Wheelingnoob]

I think this is an example of a time when you can use over the counter parts. Most auto shops sell vacuum line in all sizes, I replaced all of my lines for about $2, works great, snug fit. I did zip tie all of the ends just incase though, I find it nice insurance incase something gets bumped on accident.

On a note to this be very car full what vacuum hose you buy if from a parts store. Do not get the line with the seam on it, I have used it before and had a hell of a time tracking down vac leaks. Turned out all the hose I had just changed was bad, I had small leaks along the seam.

I always spend a bit extra for the Toyota vacuum line, the stuff lasts a long time and is much more heat resistant than the over the counter bilk I have found.

 

[cruisertoy]

I think this is an example of a time when you can use over the counter parts. Most auto shops sell vacuum line in all sizes, I replaced all of my lines for about $2, works great, snug fit. I did zip tie all of the ends just incase though, I find it nice insurance incase something gets bumped on accident.

I'm glad you had luck with the over the counter stuff. I tried it three years ago with my 93 and had horrible luck. The Autozone, checker and Napa stuff was all just a little too big. I got everything installed and then days later I'd trip a code and find several hoses that had slipped off the smooth metal tubes. I figure it cost me $12 instead of $2 but its all good. I think it's crazy that parts places don't carry metric hoses in all sizes.

 

[cruisertoy]

So my saga continues. I noticed Tuesday night that the gasket kit from Toyota came with Valve seals and I just about died. All the heads I've had done over the years have been full valve jobs so Cleggs or the other shop I use have always installed new seals. This one I was just having them clean and deck it, but assumed new seals would be put on due to the cleaning solution messing with the rubber. I called first thing yesterday morning to make sure they had slipped new seals on. They had charged me more than they originally quoted and I had assumed it was for the seals. NOPE!

I called them and the guy says" Those valve seals never go bad. Plus you said you have 200k miles on the motor so we didn't bother. They looked good." Knowing that I had not specified that they install them, it was my fault and I'll take ownership of it even though I still think they should have called. He then quotes me about the same as all the work they had already done cleaning and decking the head. At that point I told him I'd go ahead and take care of it myself.

I'm now the owner of a $20 Craftsman Valve Spring compression tool, the C-Clamp style one. I had to make a small part on the mill at work to adapt it to our buried valve springs, but it worked great last night. I'll post up some pictures this weekend. As I pulled the springs I became more and more upset. The rubber on the seals was very hard. Several of the seals had a gap between the seal and the valve stem. Literally I could see down between them! There's no way they even looked at the seals when they were putting everything back together. The seals were stuck on the tubes and it took 2+ hours to do 18 of them. I'll finish the rest tonight.

My instructions to them when I dropped the head off were to clean, Deck, test and inspect this thing and call me if they felt any other work needed to be done as I planned on running it for another 200k miles. Needless to say I'm happy I caught it. I wasn't burning oil before the head was dipped, but I would have been.

 

[cruisertoy]

Stop the presses boys and girls. There most likely will not be a head install party at my place tomorrow. It looks like I unknowingly am missing 13 parts that are needed to complete the job. When I pulled the head bolts, apparently I missed that fact that there WERE head bolt washers under the bolts. I could not even see them with the dark oil staining everywhere. I failed to remove them before sending the head off to Cleggs for the cleaning, machining and trashing of the valve seals. How did I come to find out that there were head bolt washers that I did not remove before dropping off the head. No, it was not my precise study of the FSM. No, it was not my head bolt nuts trying to reach me through the telepaphy. Upon removing one of the Exhaust valves tonight to finish replacing the ruined valve seals, I found one of said washers wedged partly under the spring! Cleggs!!!!! I've left a message with them to call me if anyone goes in on Saturday. I will call the dealer and see on a long shot if they have any. If I can't find any I will changing my saturday activities to take my frustration out by cutting down a bunch of big Poplar trees in my yard. Bring your chainsaw and have some fun.

 

[cruisertoy]

Does anyone know if a 93 head will work on a 97 motor? I may have a line on some head bolt nuts that will come with a fully rebuilt head with less than 3000 miles on it.

ToyoDIY.com has the part numbers that are one digit off from each other for teh two different years. 69106 vs 69105. I'm assuming that means they dont fit.

 

[MoGas]

Does anyone know if a 93 head will work on a 97 motor? I may have a line on some head bolt nuts that will come with a fully rebuilt head with less than 3000 miles on it.

ToyoDIY.com has the part numbers that are one digit off from each other for teh two different years. 69106 vs 69105. I'm assuming that means they dont fit.

Post the whole part number. I don't think you are looking at the right part. I get 90201-12222 for the washers and 90910‑02111 for the bolts on both the '93 and '97.

Dave

 

[cruisertoy]

Sorry Dave. The head bolt nut number is as you stated. The numbers I threw out there were for the heads on a 93 and a 97. In the end, the head and it's head bolt washers were gone and I was SOL today. I spent the day cutting down 5 large Poplar trees in the yard instead of working on the cruiser. Not what I planned, but when life sends you lemons you make lemon Aide.

 

[Wheelingnoob]

I had a similar few days. I got my head back, decked and new valve seals put in. Mine does not look at all as clean as yours tho, they only parts washed it and did not hot tank it .

Today I got the new injectors (cleaned and balanced) installed and the head on.....only to find one of my head bolts is bad the 2nd is questionable. It seems the two rear head bolts are stretched and the one on the side I had the leak is rusted to the point I would not use it again if it was not stretched. So I got the rest of the bolts in and hand tight......need to wait till Monday to get the new bolts. If I had had the head bolts I would have been able to get it running tomorrow. At least I caught it before I resembled it, would have sucked to break one :S.

 

[cruisertoy]

Wheelingnoob, glad to hear your still moving along on yours. Hopefully yours goes smoothly when your bolts come in. I'm going to double check my bolts today just to make sure there are no other surprises.

I went by Cleggs machine this morning and had one of the younger guys come up to help me. I told him who I was and that I needed the rest of my parts they left in their dip tank. When he looked up my work on the computer he said that they didn't remove the valves when they dipped and decked the head. I asked how much a dip and deck is and he said $80-90. He said you pay extra to have them pull everything off. I then questioned him as to why my bill was $130+, why I had been told that the valve seals had been inspected and looked just fine even though I could stick a toothpick between the seals and the valve and the fact were impossible to inspect without pulling the springs. He clammed right up and told me he would get the owner.

The owner came out 10 minutes later with 14 head bolt washers, 7 of which were not the same as the one I brought in. He would not say whether or not they pulled the springs and would not knowledge the fact that I had found one washer wedged under the exhaust spring. The funny thing was I wasn't asking for my money back, I was not accusatory, I was merely trying to allow this guy to take ownership for the work he did or didn't do. Was the extra $50 he charged for work that his other guy already admitted to not doing worth tarnishing his shops name. Even cheaper would have been the $10 in washers I just purchased from Toyota to replace the ones he says must be in the trunk of my Jetta (not there by the way). He said the ones he gave me of varying thicknesses and widths would be fine, but he also said he inspected the valve seals. Trust has to be earned and either they lied about the work they did or charged me for work they didn't do. Either way they are caught. I wont promote or use Cleggs again. I'll drive 30 minutes to Salt Lake if I can't find another Reputable shop in Utah County.