This is my first head gasket job. This looks horrible- not really like the pictures you see with a breach between cylinder 1 and 2. This has been on for 100k miles. Symptoms: Used about 10 oz of coolant a week for about the last 2-3 weeks. Just last week I started getting P300, 301, 302, and I think 304, but not until then. Of course I've had some hard starts- but minor. No over heating (I have a scanner app I use every time) What is this? Normally I thought you would see a "steam-cleaned" piston and cylinder- they all look like this. (The green in coolant was that dye I used hoping to find a leak and not have to to this)
My guess is because you caught it early and are ahead of the game... As in the coolant will clean out some of the carbon if you wait long enough.
Who put the Fel-Pro in? It's a common rationale here, that since the Toyota head gasket failed, that must be the problem, so replace with Fel-Pro. Maybe some conflation?
Shop. I asked about that- they stated that there were some supply chain issues and they used whichever they could obtain- Toyota or Felpro; and in some cases if they couldn't get that - something else, I think it was Ishino Stone.
I am done! One thing I didn’t fool with in any way- the valves. What would you make make of this picture?
Did you try the leak test with brake cleaner, see if it’d seep past the valves when closed? which end is cylinder one btw? There’s a definite difference, one end versus the other.
That's always been my thought... Seems the standard is to take apart the head and clean it up and reassemble it. Every time I ask people about not doing valve work and just only doing the head gasket they act like that's not how its done. But what if you get to the headgasket early? I'm not seeing a clear reason why doing all the valves makes sense for a headgasket failure that's based on a design flaw rather than wear and tear from high mileage/old age.
Still, squirting a little fluid into the ports and watching if it makes it through is easy enough to do. Part and parcel of cleaning it up too.
Would be nice to see the other side of the head gasket. Seems you caught it early enough that you don't see much damage, which is good. Did you check the head to see if it is warped? Did you clean it up before putting it back on? Or have you not gotten that far yet? To check the valves for leaks, place the head so the matting surface is down and spray wd-40 into the intake and exhaust ports. Enough to cover the valves where they sit against the seat. Wait 10-15 minutes, then gently and evenly list the head and look for wd-40 that has leaked through. If all the valve/seat areas are dry, they are sealing. If there is any leakage, you'll need to reseat the valves. That means removing the springs, using valve grinding compound alone the seat of the valve and using a drive to turn the valve as you pull and release the valve to seat them. Then clean the compound with brake cleaner or carb cleaner to remove all the valve grinding compound. After reinstalling the valve and springs, spray wd-40 in the intake/exhaust ports and check for leaks as you did the first time. If there are any leaks, repeat the grinding for that valve. There is no sense in re-installing the head with leaking valves. I had one valve with an extreme minor leak. So I guess I caught it as it just started to leak. Make sure you flush the whole coolant system with distilled water before reassembly. Hopefully that die hasn't caused any damage to the water pump, radiator, thermostat, or heater core.
The op had another hg job done 110k miles ago. Which based on his reported symptoms back in January, led me to believe someone had used a better gasket then, now confirmed. Which probably means the leak this time was not the typical hg erosion - more likely a warped head or loose head bolt, both of which can create a leak without gasket failure. Based on the earlier thread, there is an excellent chance coolant was mixing with the oil masking continued oil burning. On an engine with 360k the prognosis is poor. The first two cylinders are cleaner as are their valves. His has a more common "clean" rather than a spotless appearance.
Looking at all these pictures, my non-engineer brain simply refuses to believe that those pistons can go up and down seamlessly against the cylinder bores at a very high rate without causing a crash and burn. How can those pistons look so bad? Why don't they look more shiny and smooth?
