Blown Head Gasket???

Discussion in 'Engine/Drivetrain' started by SD YOTA, Feb 12, 2009.

  1. SD YOTA

    SD YOTA Grand Toyotaholic

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    well. ive noticed as of late that the truck has been running a bit odd..... by odd i mean it has a slight and very illusive miss to it at idle. it also has a tendency to idle oddly after a long period run or coming off the highway. also, i noticed that on the way to work it had a strange period of misses and hesitations. however, all this did not cause or show any overheating issues. no oil mixing with water in the dipstick and no condensation in the oil cap.

    i pulled the plugs however and this is what i found.

    plug 1
    [​IMG]

    plug 2
    [​IMG]

    plug 3
    [​IMG]

    plug 4
    [​IMG]

    from the looks of it there may be a VERY slight chance it could just be a bad or blown intake manifold gasket seeping in water from the water jackets :shrug: i find it unlikely however and fear the worst..... i have a sneaking suspicion the head may be warped but cant confirm it as of yet. from the plug readings though, cylinder number 3 also has signs of possible water entering the combustion chamber.

    oddly enough, the truck otherwise runs and pulls as if it didnt have an issue at all..... hell... it EVEN PASSED SMOG 2 days ago!!!!!!! there is no oil and water mixing.... ive looked and the oil is clean, so is the top of the oil cap. only other fear i have is that the head could be cracked and that would just be catastrophic :cry:
     
  2. ShoNuff

    ShoNuff Toyotaholic

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    looks like you need new spark plugs :rolleyes:


    1 n 2 look pretty bad. if it is just the plugs, id clean em and regap em. then throw em in and see if it fixes the problem. if so buy some new ones.


    are you losing any coolant?



    have you done a compression check? leak down?

    got any smoke or steam after the car has warmed up, or abnormal amounts on first start?
     
  3. Zwalker

    Zwalker Enthusiast

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    I've been having the same problem with my old rust bucket of a truck, just replaced the spark plugs and all seems good now? (hopefully)
     
  4. SD YOTA

    SD YOTA Grand Toyotaholic

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    im losing a very faint amount of coolant.... not much at all or anything to get worried about. the plugs are pretty much toast.... ill get new ones.

    im gonna tear off the intake manifold and see what i find. ill make sure to get pictures.

    and those plugs cant be more than 2 years old............. and dont have more than 7000 miles on them. i know cus thats how long ive hd the truck and did the math on how much it had and now.
     
  5. Toyo Trucker

    Toyo Trucker Addict

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    I had the exact same problem 2 weeks ago. I've changed the spark plugs and the truck is running good.
     
  6. StupidSheet

    StupidSheet Addict

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    I had a similiar problem with a 4Runner I used to own and changed the plugs and everything was good. You should be getting more than 7000 miles out of a set of plugs IMO but those do look pooched.
     
  7. ShoNuff

    ShoNuff Toyotaholic

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    sometimes letting a car sit is worse then regular exercise. it does odd things to fluids, cavaties, and parts.




    SD-

    dont tear it apart until you've tested it thuroghly. would suck to rip the eng apart only to find that the radiator drain wasnt fully closed, or something just as minor.
     
  8. SD YOTA

    SD YOTA Grand Toyotaholic

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    yup.......turns out my suspicions ((and hopes)) were correct. the intake manifold gasket was bad. had deteriorated between the number 1, 2 and stared seeping in the 3rd runner as well.

    one late nighter, free gasket from a buddy, lolitas potato burrito, and cold iced manzanita later its all back together and purring like a kitten! ill post pictures later :waytogo:

    i also tossed a fresh set of denso plugs in as well. i may sometime soon check up on the head bolts and retorque them to specs if needed. i couldnt believe that the HG had gone with only 155k on the clock. i know i run mine hard once in a while but only to clean out the cobwebs out of the secondary. i have plans to do a few mods to this motor before going into a full turbo rte build in the future. this is by far thee best little truck ive ever had.
     
  9. SD YOTA

    SD YOTA Grand Toyotaholic

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    my truck on most occasions does not sit too long.... its just i also have a bike i ride to work as well and that takes a load off the milage on the truck. i do take the occasional sunday cruise out to the country once in a while so the truck does get used and well stretched....... i try not to do short trips like run to the grocery store and back with it. its hell on cars when they dont get proper warm up time and allowed to cycle correctly :waytogo:
     
  10. HumanResource

    HumanResource Member

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    compression tests don't tell you much if you have a small amt of coolant seaping into the combustion chamber.
    there's a way they can check the coolant for hydrocarbons though
    Personally, I'd teardown IF you have another way of getting around

    HG jobs aren't bad. It's an opportunity to check out what going on in the engine.

    usually the piston that's sucking in the coolant will be cleaner than the others.
    I went a step further, removing the rod caps from the bttm to check the bearings and popped the piston out the top. Good thing I did as I found out my ring lands were melted enough to seize the ring!!!

    Have the head resurfaced and pressure tested at a machine shop for good measure. If you have the cash they'll try to sell you a complete valve job, but I find that the seats are usually in good shape, even after 300K mi!!!
    Gotta love the servicability of these engines!!!
     
  11. SD YOTA

    SD YOTA Grand Toyotaholic

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    i found out that the initial problem was the intake gasket........ the second issue was the .018 gap on the plugs i replaced the old ones with. instant fix and night and day difference. truck is good now :waytogo:

    from what i can also tell...... im getting a clean even burn all the way across.
     
  12. 88Sandshark

    88Sandshark Toyotaholic

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    Blown Gaskets suck!!!!

    My head gasket busted last year, that sucked majorly! I was told that I had lost a bolt on the intake manifold which caused the problem. Coolant boiling out like a water fountain. It was so bad that cylinder #4 wouldn't work.:brickknock: Because I had recieved this truck before I got my license, I couldn't tell how much power it had so I had no way of telling any difference. So $1200, new gasket, and a new head later, I realize I was missing out on the real 22RE.
     

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