Headgasket replaced and failed shortly after? Do anything different next time?

Not enough data points to come to a conclusion; just get more data! You're already in the store: Try another shelf, another partition, or another ruler/level. If you're at Home Depot, just don't try anything in the lumber section.

 

Seven thousands of an inch out. Good thing you took it to a machine shop. Many don't. It was three times the max tolerance. So much for the straight edge and feeler gauge theory.

 

Not if you take your straight edge to the machine shop first!

 

Yeah the amount he removed was 3.5 times the spec'd max warpage:






Conversion of how much he removed, to millimeters:



Only thing, WAS that the variation, or just the minimum amount he could practically plane off?

 

oil analysis, will tell you more about engine.
from there you'll know if the engine can live on after a headgasket replacement.

 

Glad all is working for you!
The thing about the head, if it's machined too far, the valve and piston can meet. Which is never good.
They are already pretty close.
Some manufactures have thicker head gaskets just for that, and to keep the compression ratio correct.
I am not sure if they still have those or do that anymore.

You can use a yellow crayon to mark each bolt with a line, then another line to make a "plus" on it.
If a third time, another line. We used that when adjust valves, you mark the one you just did.
Then you know you haven't missed any. I always marked the last one! Even though I knew there
weren't anymore to do.

I'm sure you'll happy for all the hard work you did and the satisfaction of a job well done!

 

Did one head gasket and 70k miles later still works. Did another w a Fleabay HG and it lasted 10k be crapping out. Stay far far away from Fleabay. Lots o Chinese junk and scammers.

It's hard to imagine your motor not burning oil. I had one that did initially and after 30k of WOT it stopped burning oil. Not sure why.

I guess u can do a HG but I won't do it again. Not worth the risk of it coming back...

 

Yeah, that seems like a lot. I would be concerned about timing issues since the marks definitely will not line up 100% if the head had that much material removed.

OP, glad to hear that the repair was successful. I wish I saw this thread sooner or else I would have offered to help. I am about 40 miles north of you.

I was working on this 2gr-fe while you were doing yours. The Prius is easy in comparison.

 

Yes, engine removal is required for timing cover and cylinder head removal on the 2GR. It is actually fairly easy to drop the engine out of the bottom as long as you have access to a lift. It only takes about 2 hours.

 

They don't recommend machining because that thick nice person permanent torque head gasket will take up quite a bit of the issue . Or they used to .

SM-A715F ?

 

I've an old LS Starter surface plate on a stand here in old shop sposed to be flat to single tenths 1/10.000 of an inch at 75 degrees . It hasn't been certified in over 40 years but it also hasn't been moved if I remember correctly from my machine shop days these have to be certified every few years from my Pratt & Whitney days memory serves me well which it may well not

SM-A715F ?

 

Velcro used to make really nice copper shims just for this application for certain overhead valve engines that this was common to happen to like the 22REC Datsun l20B etc. Not sure if they still do anymore or it's been many years

SM-A715F ?

 

They do not recommend machining because it may cause timing issues.

 

I'm happy it is working well for you!