Changing my head gasket, me asking for your help while doing this

[Doat]

Forgive me if this has been done before but I feel it is best that I make this thread so I let you guys know what is going on while I am doing this. Since it is unlikely that we all have the exact same issues while we work on our cars I think it is a good idea for me to make this thread. Thank you all in advance and I appreciate the help and advice.

So now I am draining the oil and when i took out the oil pan bolt the oil poured into my oil container and it pooled up quite a bit before I plugged the hole to let it drain into the container, the oil seems to be pretty thick. Could this be the coolant and oil mixture, a heavy oil weight, or because it is just a cold heavy weight oil? I do pretty much all of the oil changes in my family and I have not seen oil pool on top of the container like that and be so thick. I am hoping it is just the coolant/oil mix from the BHG or just a heavy weight and it's all normal. We all have Hondas in our family and we use like 5W-30.

 

[jonahs_supra]

better hope previous owner didnt put some lucas oil stabilizer in to cover up a engine noise
if you want to make a good thread provide lots of pics and what tools(correct size) are needed

 

[Doat]

I plan on flushing the motor thoroughly after the change the gaskets anyway so hopefully that will get rid of the old oil and coolant. I have the previous threads on this site and supraforums about changing a head gasket and what tools are needed I just wanted to make this thread as progress thread so I can log my progress and let you guys know what is going on and give me advice on what I should go or how to remove certain parts like tricks and things like that. My friend is very close to the previous owners and he has done all of the work on the car along with their son, who is his best friend and has known him since they were kids, so I trust my friend and he knows his way around an engine and has told me everything that is wrong with the car and what needs replacing and I have yet to find any surprises.

 

[JStoked]

First thing. It is way easier to change the hg with the motor out of the car. Just to give you some heads up.

 

[Doat]

I don't have the tools to get the motor out of the car lol

 

[Suprapowaz!(2)]

Pics please. Coolant mixed with oil will look like a chocolate malt milk shake.

 

[Doat]

The oil is already in container it just looked really dark it didn't look like chocolate milk; however, under the oil cap is where there is the chocolate milk mix.
Here is the oil cap

Now inside of the oil bolt I did find some really thick black oil I tried scooping out with a stick or something and it dripped off like the rest of the oil, it was kind of slow but not like gooey slow it was more of a liquid drop than like say a booger drop.

 

[Doat]

some chocolate milk oil splashed out of the pipe above the 3000 intake pipe, my phone doesn't seem to want to upload pictures to Flickr so I will upload pics after I am done in a few hours and upload them from my computer.

 

[Doat]

Turbo doesn't have any shaft play unless you need to hold it with a needle nose pliers and pull firmly

 

[Doat]

Alright here are some pics of the oil that splashed out of the pipe above the 3000 pipe

and this grounding wire, I think, snapped off of the screwed on part of the coil pack. I tried removing the screw but it would not budge and kind of stripped it a bit, so I tried the other side and it snapped off from the coil pack. Any suggestions on what to do with that?

 

[JStoked]

It's the ground wire for your coils. When and if you ever get your motor back togeather make sure you ground the coils.

 

[jonahs_supra]

drill new hole, install new eyelets and piece of wire
heres just a few things to be careful with off the top of my head:
the exhaust studs have a tendency to loosen and come out
the turbo oil drain/feed tube is a pain in the A$$...do not bend the tubing
any hoses that feel soft...replace them cause they will only burst later and you'll be right where your at all over again
wiring harness going over head near timing belt gets brittle due to under hood heat temps and age...be very careful when moving wires around...inspect wires for bare spots...replace section of wire as needed(NO BUTT CONNECTORS) soldering is key
if your valve covers still have factory phillip head bolts then be careful cause they tend to strip...not a bad time to replace with head bolts
i found it easier to remove intake with upper and lower sections still attached
be easy with injector clips...the tabs get weak over time
replace the timing belt
rotate engine to TDC(top dead center)on CYL 1 then take a picture of CPS when cover off...plenty of people have lots of problems setting this

IM SURE OTHERS WILL POST THEIR EXPERIENCE AS WELL


do you have money set aside for getting the head milled? im sure the machine shop will say it need new seals and valve cut
if you dont have a machinist straight edge for checking for warpage then you have no way to check warpage

if i remeber reading your doing a oem headgasket and arp studs?

what was your oil pressure like with engine cold and warm?

heres your online bible

http://www.cygnusx1.net/Supra/Library/TEWD/MK3/manual.aspx?S=Main&P=15

 

[Doat]

I have a felpro gasket and they assure me it's the same as OEM, am stock anyway and don't plan on increasing HP until I fully do the suspension and brakes anyway and that is all in the distant future. I just need the car to run and what I have will work perfectly fine for that. Yea I have seen some hoses that have sort of hardened and the intake hose has cracked toward the end a little bit so I have to replace that as well. I am taking pictures of everything at every angle and putting the parts in marked bags so I won't mix or lose bolts. I have the TSRM pdf and bookmarked the online bible lol. Thanks for the advice and help much appreciated, others are more than welcome.

I am going to replace the timing belt and tensioner that should come in tomorrow as well as the ARP head studs and shifter bushing.

Here is a pic of the turbo, I was pulling and pushing it with my fingers and it didn't not budge at all

 

[JStoked]

Felpro is crap!!! Go buy one from Toyota and have your Head planed also get so arp head studs. And all new vac lines

 

[Doat]

I have a roll of vac line and replaced the ones I could reach awhile ago. I read on the forums and searched reviews of Felpro gaskets and they seem to be good. Like I said I do not plan on making any power on this gasket anyway I just need the car to run and far into the future when I start increasing the horsepower I'll get a metal gasket and machine the block and head or just save up for a JZ swap and do it to that motor. I am going to take the head to my friend's shop and have him check it out for flatness, should I also have him check out the turbo even though there is no shaft play?

 

[91whitepack]

If the exhaust studs do come out with the bolt seized on them i would get new studs and helicoil the head. When i broke mine lose (after soaking in penetrating oil) 4 of the 7 studs came out along with the threads from inside the head! Do not over torque these when installing them. I didn`t have any problems with the intake side, again, don`t over torque them.

 

[Doat]

What is helicoil? I did spray some PB blaster on the exhaust bolts twice before covering the motor and calling it a day, so hopefully those won't be any trouble. I plan on removing the turbo, intake manifold, and throttle body before removing the valve covers and taking off the head just to be sure I don't damage the cams or get any dirt or chemicals in there.

Also what oil do you guys recommend I use? I plan on flushing it with some cheap but not crappy cheap oil, I saw castrol GTX at walmart for $15 for a 5+ jug but I have been told that Rotella is really good and Rotella for diesel engines is great for 7ms. What do you guys think?

 

[Cyrus]

helicoil is a brand name. it is basically a steel thread-replacement insert that replaces stripped threads. you have to drill the holes smooth, then use a tap and create threads, then thread in the steel insert. then you screw your stud into the steel insert's threads. i just did my head... i HIGHLY recommend you do this with the head off. just do all 7 stud holes while you've got the head off. it is a real pain in the ass to get the head back on the car and then have a stud spin on you when you are trying to torque the exh manifold on. i did mine while the head was on the car and it was not nearly as easy as it would have been to do while the head was still on my work bench. go to driftmotion.com and search for the 7/16 exhaust stud kit.

also, that ground wire you broke off... mine broke off too, though at the bolt not the coil pack. i just soldered it back together and then put a section of heatshrink over it to protect the new joint.

 

[Doat]

Y'all are talking about the exhaust manifold bolts right? I am sort of confused thinking y'all are saying to make new threads for the head studs or the exhaust manifold.

 

[Cyrus]

yes, the studs in question screw into the head and allow you to attach the exhaust manifold to the head. because the head is aluminum, the heat cycles over 20 years soften the metal causing the studs to rip the softened aluminum threads out of the head when you try to torque the exh manifold mounting nuts to 29 ft/lbs (per TSRM). This is especially likely to happen if the engine has overheated in the past. the way you fix this problem is by installing steel thread inserts. heli-coil is one of the more popular/common brands that offer a product designed for this purpose.

head bolts/studs screw into the block. the block is cast iron and should not require heli-coiling. that metal should remain hard enough for the high torque required to attach the head to the block. that being said, you should still definitely chase the threads using a tap. if i recall correctly it is a 12mmx1.25 tap. if you use studs, i recommend a bottoming tap. if you use bolts, a plug tap should be adequate.