Head gasket replacement..... finally at the installation point

Easily fixed: Toyota Service Information and Where To Find It | PriusChat

Another option: in the manual, you'll find how to measure how stretched the head bolts are, and which ones you can reuse and which ones you shouldn't.

 

Have it checked by an automotive machine shop. Ask some mechanics where one is located. Usually you want new valve seals as well. The head or the head bolts are very important and could force a second (third) job later.

The egr cooler is the real issue, no need to disassemble the egr valve.

End view of egr cooler, must be able to see light through it

Should be no sealant on head gasket except at one or two small spots. The timing chain cover is only sealant, no gasket.

Every head bolt. Head bolts are critical! A loose head bolt will cause another hg fail. They are designed to stretch and could loosen or break if reused.

Don’t worry about the exhaust- the intake is plastic and important to clean properly or replace.

Timing, head bolts and connectors.

 

Candidly, your optimism both impresses and scares me. Thoughts:

1. Did you get the broken head bolt out?

2. As mentioned above, no goop on the head gasket. There is quite a bit spec'd for the timing chain cover. If you use the Toyota spec Form-In-Place Gasket Maker, it's cure time is insanely short, considering it must be neatly applied all 'round the perimeter, the water pump interface, a couple of small interior points, and at the horizontal split lines between upper oil pan, block and head. All of that in 3 minutes IIRC. Then the cover is supposed to be installed, all bolts (different diameters and torque values), within 15 minutes (from the time you first started applying the FIP gasket maker).

Which is pretty much impossible outside of the factory. Gasket Masters use Permatex Ultra-Black Form-In-Place gasket maker, which has a much more leisurely cure time, food for thought.

3. Regarding flatness of the head and block, this is checked with a machinist straight edge, and feeler gauges. You can maybe "ghetto" it, checking with what you've got, say a few near-new levels, lengths of slotted angle. Specs for that in attached.

4. For DIY, I would just get all-new head bolts. They should have oil-soaked threads. Definitely follow the Repair manual torque sequence to the letter.

FWIW, I've never taken on anything this daunting.

 

I've been feeling guilty, repeatedly posting the full engine section (it's about 5 MB's). Anyway, revised my signature, last line links to the full 3rd gen Repair Manual chapter on engine (posted in one location). Worth a careful read. On a phone turn it landscape to see signature.

 

The problem with the pdf repair manual excerpts is none of the blue hot links work. This can leave out important info that is online or hundreds of pages elsewhere in a pdf.



Plus Toyota writes these instructions for experienced mechanics who have access to a Master Mechanic in the dealer’s shop.

When we see Gasketmasters (GM) do this job in four hours, we see a couple of guys who have done hundreds of these tasks and have figured out techniques for doing the work in the car while Toyota recommends pulling the engine. So the procedures are can be slightly different and GM takes shortcuts for efficiency.

What may not be obvious is Gasketmasters has rebuilt heads ready if needed. They often carry complete engines to replace yours if they find a damaged block, piston or rod.

With that said, advanced diy’ers do accomplish these repairs. Some repeat the work when the timing is not right or fight no starts usually caused by a disconnected cable or pvc hose.

I would suggest finding some experienced help to put it back together with you.

In Mendel’s 196 page excerpt here are a few items:
P64 head inspection
P84 hg installation and head bolts
P14 part of of the timing chain installation

 

Yes an automotive machine shop would do the proper checks and repairs. Or they would tell you to get another head if there were cracks or severe warpages. You want an Automotive machine shop. Not just any machine shop which might be around.

P84 of Excerpt about HG sealant at two spots

Sealant carefully placed in 2 places on block


Head_Gasket Installed on Block and then more sealant at same two spots, this time on gasket


Sealant excess carefully removed


Frankly if there was more sealant than this on yours, somebody already changed the head_gasket in the past. If so, it is absolutely essential to have the head professionally rebuilt and new head bolts.

 

See the pic above
4 mm in diameter, 10-15 mm long
(about 5/32" diameter by 1/2" long)

 

As suggested earlier, online TIS access is usually better for details but even then it can be tricky since you have to know what to search for. The “don’t know what you don’t know” thing can get in the way.

The actual repair manual compilation is over 9000 pages long. Working online with hot links saves the day.

Often mechanics really don’t “torque to spec” everything, relying on their “calibrated” hands, a kind of running joke on many videos. Eg they just tighten to a degree their experience suggests is ok on non-critical bolts.

Perhaps the attached has what you need plus details on the timing_chain.

 

(See post above for camshaft installation)

Most people usually buy a two day “Standard” TIS (Technical Information System) subscription and download every relevant portion to their hard disk or Google Drive (my choice) for future use.

When online to TIS the hot links work so someone doing a big job over weeks might choose the month option.

There is a learning curve here as well.

TIS Link
https://techinfo.toyota.com/techInfoPortal/appmanager/t3/ti?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=ti_home_page&goto=https%3A%2F%2Ftechinfo.toyota.com%3A443%2Fagent%2Fcustom-login-response%3Fstate%3Dvq2poK1OOJqUfcTRqKeE6e5pL50&original_request_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftechinfo.toyota.com%3A443%2F

 

Most of the FIPG material on the timing chain cover will be pressed out on its inside edge if the cover is torqued down within the 15 minute window. The gasket material only remains in the spots where the cover and the crankcase/block/head/camshaft housing do not mate perfectly, and only a small fraction of the material ends up remaining to fill in those imperfections.

Not having the exact bead diameters will simply result in a little more or a little less material oozing out on the inside edge, so I wouldn't consider getting the beads the perfect thickness to be super critical.

With a little preparation, I managed to get all the bolts torqued down in a little under 17 minutes this time. What helped:

1. Valco Cinicnnatti 2" dispensing pliers for squeezing the material
2. Using a uniform ~5 mm bead everywhere
3. Sorting the bolts beforehand
4. Memorizing where each bolt type goes
   
5. Memorizing how much torque each bolt type takes
6. Having two torque wrenches set to 26 Nm (with a 12 mm socket) and 51 Nm (with a 14 mm socket) ready
7. Impact wrench or electric ratchet (set to auto mode) to drive the fasteners in

 

Did you do a dry run without FIPG to memorize which ones go where? I am doing a HG job as well and planning to just do the job once without FIPG so that the second time is perfect and fast.

That tube dispensing gun, that's genius, I've never seen that before. You know if they have them at Walmart?

 

Eric of South Main Auto makes a very convincing click-click sound while doing “informal” torquing. He does use a very pricey looking digital torque wrench on the more serious bolts/nuts.