Removing the head

Hi all,

Looking at replacing my head gasket.

Do I need to lift the engine out to remove my head? Or can it be done without lifting it out.

Thanks

You dont need to take the engine out.

Take the rocker cover off, remove the distributer, remove the cams and them unbolt the head. Quite easy really. I read somewhere you can do it without having to touch the cam belt aswell. I just cut mine off because the engines getting stripped anyway.

Thanks mate, what order do you suggest I remove everything in?

I have a mechanic doing it although they want to get as much information together before they do.

Thanks

Also- you can either remove the inlet manifold or leave it on, and you'll need to remove the fuel rail too. It took me about an hour to strip the head down, and thats never haiving done it before.

Ok thanks mate, my mechanic looked at my engine and said it was too hard? I dont think he was going about it the right way though.

If he says he cant do it is it something that is particularly difficult?

any reasonable mechanic shouldnt have a problem with a basic job like this.

Theres nothing difficult in replacing the H/G

I think you mechanic is trying to fob you off.
Its a case of ripping everything from the head, and lift the bugger off.
No need to remove the inlet manifold either.

Its only a mornings work.

I'd go somewhere else...

How can any mechanic not know how to do it? Most engines are the same?? Remove rocker/dizzy/cams/lift head. Simple??

rory quick question i read somewhere that toyota heads dont need to be skimmed can u shed some light on this has i think it may have been in thread u posted

Heads only, generally, need to be skimmed if they are warped (from overheating or some other reason). If the car is having a h/g uprated (without the old one breaking first) there will be no need to skim the head/block at all, as no damage will have occured. If the h/g is being changed/uprated because the old one failed, it should be checked for any sign of it warping. If it hasn't, obviously, don't skim it

Dave

Having mines done by kev, was about to get it done by a local but want it done properly with out any mistakes.
How much can a standard headgasket take?

BoostIng said:

Having mines done by kev, was about to get it done by a local but want it done properly with out any mistakes.
How much can a standard headgasket take?

Click to expand...

http://www.toyotagtturbo.com/showthread.php?t=14200

Quite alot apparantly.

p2d said:

http://www.toyotagtturbo.com/showthread.php?t=14200

Quite alot apparantly.

Click to expand...

Well thats ok, dont think i be going over 0.8/0.9 bar if i do decide to boost up. so might as well stick to standard

Ok I'm thinking about doing this myself now. I have a good idea about what I need to do. I am sure I am missing things out. Or placing things in the wrong order. Can anyone add to this or move bits around.

1.Remove plugs/dizzy caps, air box and battery
2.Drain all oil/water
3.Remove distributor
4.Remove rocker cover
5.Remove cams (can someone go into a bit more details on this? What do I need to mark?)
6.Remove outlet manifold (a couple of the bolts look very hard to get to underneath, do I need to remove anything to get to them?)
6.Remove head bolts
7.Remove head

Sorry if I sound really thick asking all this I could just do with some help.

Thanks

dave-gtturbo said:

Heads only, generally, need to be skimmed if they are warped (from overheating or some other reason). If the car is having a h/g uprated (without the old one breaking first) there will be no need to skim the head/block at all, as no damage will have occured. If the h/g is being changed/uprated because the old one failed, it should be checked for any sign of it warping. If it hasn't, obviously, don't skim it

Dave

Click to expand...

Cheers Dave kinda what i was thinking

This is my list of how I do it;

Make tea
Disconnect battery
Drain oil and water
Remove radiator
Remove grill
Remove all vacuum piping and mark up if you dont know how to put them back
Remove plug leads from cylinders
Remove cat/decat from turbo
Remove EFI pipe off turbo
Remove oil feed and return from the bottom of the turbo
Remove turbo
Remove exhaust manifold
Undo power steering bracket as the head doesnt come off with it attached
Remove injector plugs and the harnass running along them
There is one plug which goes down to the knock sensor and its a blue wire, I have snapped one before so now I cut the wire by injector 1 and re-join later.
Take off rocker cover

Turn crank pulley until the timing mark on the crank pulley matches up to 10 on the plastic casing near it.
Check to see that the 4E mark on the exhaust cam is pointing to 12 o'clock and the punch marks line up opn the cam holder.

The intake cam has a hole running through the pulley you need to put a 10mm bolt through the hole so when you take the tension off the cam it doesnt spring back and loose its tension, remember to remove the bolt later!

Now remove the cams carefully and lift them out remember they need to go back in exactly as they come out.

There is a long bracket running from the inlet manifold down to the back of the block which can be a bastard to get off. (This needs to be undone)

Undo the headbolts

Check that everything is disconnected remember there are some vacuum pipes behind the inlet manifold which can be hard to get at.

You should be good to lift the head off now, remember to clean teh head and block surface before you re-fit the head.

Ive probably missed some things out but thats the jist of it.

Thanks mate thats brilliant, just one thing. Do I not need to remove the cambelt?

Brilliant advice Dave, unbelievable it all came from memory lol

Dave