Blown Head gasket rebuild....@297k

All I see is one pic of the cooler, and while it appears some schmutz is there, the circular section appears clean. Since the gasket is dished, it appears that was engaged fully .

Definitely make sure to get a good snug fit of the gasket there, otherwise you’ll get a gross leak code.

 

I think I used a 1/4" drive E8 socket with a palm ratchet to remove the studs that face the firewall.

 

No rest for the wicked, had to walk 10 miles to buy an impact wrench. There's just no other way to undo the flywheel bolt. Even with the impact (rated 150 ft/lbf) it took almost 3 minutes of rattling to get it spinning.

Now, how the hell do I remove that flywheel? "Use 2 hands, wiggle it out" – tried, didn't work. Tried to "wiggle" it with a rubber mallet – nope. Don't want to use a pry bar, as timing cover is pretty thin in this area. Any suggestions?

That's because I've cleaned it, everything else (including inside) is a shiny metal. This schmutz is freaking indestructible, even carb cleaner won't remove it.

We were talking about studs & bolts that are used to attach EGR cooler to the engine, namely the "proctological" rear one.

 

There are threaded holes in the crank pulley. Thread bolts into the holes evenly. I think the size is M8x1.25mm.

The one that is very hard to reach, but faces the driver side fender?

I have never removed that stud; I only remove the 12mm nut. Typically, I remove the two studs on the EGR cooler to exhaust pipe connection, and one stud on engine that is very close to the top of the engine.

 

You mean thread until they brace against the timing cover, and then some more? Not sure if it's a good idea, as timing cover is actually curved under those holes.

 

Maybe a bit late for this project, but if you keep her, you may want to consider a second set of egr parts (used and cleaned) so when you do the cleaning process, just put the clean set in as you take the old out, then you don’t have to walk 10 miles.


-Spiral

 

If it wasn’t safe, the holes on the crank pulley would not exist.

I used the holes and it worked fine.

 

Is there matching bolts somewhere on the engine? I don't think I have this particular size in my stash.

Erm, maybe (just maybe!) they exist to be used with a proper tool?…

PS: If I'm not mistaken, you did HG without removing the engine. Did you support it when you removed the engine mount? If so, how? If not, how did you raise it back (I have no idea how much it weighs… yet)?

 

Maybe I got lucky (and a lot easier with the engine mounted on a stand), but I just hit the shaft with a rubber mallet while pulling on the pulley with my hand. I worked at it, but it came off.

The bolt idea isn’t any different than removing the brake rotors. If you just slowly tighten the bolts back and forth, it will reverse press off the pulley, it wouldn’t put extreme pressure on the timing cover. Especially since it came off with my archaic method.

But if you can get a puller easily, then that would surely be the best tool.

-Spiral

 

Not sure. A proper harmony balancer puller is probably a better idea but the crank pulley is usually not very stuck. So the bolts are adequate imo.

I think I used a block of wood on a floor jack to raise/lower the engine as needed. At times I just allowed it to hang.

 

A couple of years ago I had to remove the crankshaft pulley on my Highlander Hybrid as part of the process to replace the timing belt. I used an electric impact wrench to remove the crankshaft bolt, then used a puller to loosen the pulley from the crankshaft.

 

Rented a proper harmonic balancer puller (btw, why are they calling it "free lease" when in reality it's more of a "pay full price for a used tool and then return it for a refund"?), and the "flywheel" came off ridiculously easy. Mine seems to have an unusually tight fit – no way to "wiggle" it even at the very last few millimeters off the shaft.

Oh wheel, I mean oh well. Off we go to wrench the rest of the engine. Hajime!

 

Almost there, one last connector before I can remove the head… How do you unclip that thing (temp sensor)?

 

Push connector toward switch. Push center tab down and unplug from sensor. The connector is sealed with o-rings that make it tough to just unplug the connector.

 

Once I figured out what sensor it is, I googled it as a spare part and took a close look at both male and female sides. The rest was kinda easy.

IMG_0953 by schmuber posted Jul 17, 2019 at 12:03 AM

 

It’s looks good!
I had great success resurfacing my head using this method linked below:

resurfacing cylinderhead on glass - Bing video

 

I believe there actually are a few. If I recall correctly the hood hinge bolts, and you can remove a couple without leaving the hood loose, if you're careful.Still, if you're up for another hike, M8X1.25 bolts are available at Home Depot. Or get some run out to you with Amazon Prime, lol.

N'mind, it's off.

 

Luckily it's not warped at all, so I hope to make do with just a general cleaning and valve lapping… Which brings me to the next question: valves obviously have to go to the same spots they came from, but what about other parts? Springs, caps and those tightly fitting things near the edges? Do I have to mark them by position as well?

…On a side note, to provide y'all with some light entertainment today, here's my OSHA moment from last night. Initially I wanted to leave injectors and fuel rail in place, but realized that disconnecting the fuel line will require yet another specialized tool I don't have, so I had to remove fuel rail and injectors. Of course spilled some gas in the process. So here I am, spending next hour working with manual tools only to avoid sparks from the motors… Staying safe. Outdoors, in a swarm of mosquitoes… With a Thermacell on my belt.

 

Ideally everything should go back where it came from. However, the lifters and cam followers are all the same. They can be installed wherever. When I reassembled my head, I had the orientation flipped front to back on the lifters and followers. And my engine has been together 13k miles with no issues.

 

Just remove the injectors but keep the rail connected.

No need to lap the valves unless you have an issue. Fill each side with brake clean and see if it leaks.

But you should install new valve stem seals.

I took my head to a machine shop and had them vacuum check the valves for sealing. They also installed new valve stem seals and resurfaced.