22re Amateur head gasket job, stuck at intake manifold
 

First off, I am by no means a mechanic. I wouldn't even consider myself an amateur mechanic. I'm just a guy with a truck, a wrench, and a repair manual I don't understand, hoping everything works out.

So I started losing coolant a few months ago, got to the point where it was almost all drained within 10 min. of driving. No leaks under the truck, no visible leaks in the engine bay. Lots of coolant draining into overflow, and with the rad cap off it just bubbles continuously out the top. Lots of white smoke out the tailpipe also, along with the telltale sweet smell. I do not have coolant in the oil as far as I can tell. It looks normal. I have decided to begin work on dis-assembly to the head gasket. I hope I have not misdiagnosed this...because I'm too far in now.

Anyhow, the point I am at now is the dreaded hidden allen bolt through the thermostat housing. Which is now completely stripped out. I cannot get it with a vice grips, and I would prefer not to remove the injectors although that would allow me to access the bolt with some bigger vice grips.

I am wondering if anyone can tell me if the bolt is actually threaded through the housing, or only the part that goes into the head. I would like to just cut the head of the bolt off and slide it over, then remove the remaining shaft after I get the manifold off. I am afraid to cut it though, as I do not know whether it is threaded inside the thermostat housing or not.

I would remove the fuel rail but I can't seem to figure it out. The manual basically lists one step : "Remove the two bolts and pull" But it appears a bit more complicated than that. There is a smaller bolt blocking one of the larger bolts and some sort of HUGE nut on the bottom that would appear needs to be removed also to allow the small pipe to slide out of the way of the bolts. Maybe a picture would help clarify, I am just rambling now

it doesnt go throught the housing, I didnt reinstall mine after my rebuild. you should be fine to cut it. after you remove the manifold you can remove it with vise grips if you want to put in a new bolt.

Thanks, that's just what I was hoping to hear! I was starting to bum on this project because once I hit the lower section of the intake everything got way more complicated.

It appears I'm going to have to figure out that other bolt either way, maybe you know if this is what I have to remove to get that pipe out of the way? I had a wrench on it earlier but it wasn't budging and I was afraid maybe it wasn't supposed to come off.

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stop there. don't take off the fuel rail

okay just unbolt the intake from the head, its like 6 bolts, 12mm. its that simple... please don't undo that big bolt lol it'll never seal properly after

yea dont need to undo that part you have circled!

same thing happened to my HG, no oil/coolant mix, was just busted at a water jacket, if you've been driving it for a long time with a blown head like it sounds you have :facepalm: get the head milled no excuses, get a straight edge and feeler gauges and check your block where ever the break in the head gasket is, if its out of spec (find it in the repair manual) pull the block and get that resurfaced as well.

I was planning on getting the head checked regardless, by someone who isn't me, and knows what to look for. I really didn't drive it much, I bought a different truck and this one has been sitting. It didn't really start acting up until after it was sitting a while, only driven occasionally and as soon as it started losing coolant like that, I stopped driving it. Hopefully all is well :/

As far as that big bolt goes, is there a way to disconnect it at the other end of the line then? I kind of wanted to remove the whole manifold from the bay to clean it, but I suppose I'd probably have to remove the fuel rail anyways then. It would probably be best to just leave it be.

I just got the allen bolt cut. Spent about 20 minutes with a sawzall blade held with a pair of vice grips >< Too dark now to keep working so I guess I'll have to wait til tomorrow to pull it off

:think: Why wouldnt it seal properly afterwards? I've reused the copper "gasket" before...it never leaked. Yes, it makes a mess to open, but if you do it RIGHT (placing a cup or something underneath) you wont end up with much or any dropped fuel.

Also I rotated one of the injectors a little bit to get a better angle at cutting the bolt off, and I started to smell gas. Now I'm worrying I've awoken a terrible beast by disturbing the 28 year old seal :shocked: From what I understand they are supposed to be able to rotate but...now it's worrying me.

Yes, they should be able to be rotated; thats how you remove them :P. Yes, you probably have awoken a 28 year old beast :lof:. You need new injector seals. They can be found at NAPA/Oreilley's/CarQuest/AutoZone or your dealership.

Damn. That makes cutting the allen bolt pointless now that I'm going to have to remove the fuel rail anyways >< I could have just taken the fuel rail off and got the bolt with a vice grips haha. Live and learn I guess.

Looks like I am going to have to take that big bolt off anyways now. It's REALLY on there though. Also I read in the manual that I was supposed to basically run the truck out of fuel before starting all this...which I didn't do. Does that matter other than making a mess?

more i don't want him to risk unnecessarily, also most gasket kits come with new o-rings if you're that worried. but you should be fine as long as its not dripping heavily when running. also thats good that you haven't driven it much, had me worried there for a minute haha, when i first saw smoke out my tail i shut off and got a tow home and started tear down.

it'll make a mess just don't have any fires or sparks near you when changing them lol

Injector seals are pretty easy right? Just put them on and pop them back in?

As far as the smoke...it's been smoking ever since I was old enough to drive...about 6 years. But it never lost coolant and the smoke was pretty sparse so I just assumed it was excess moisture or something. It got worse once it started losing coolant though, and started to smell sweet. So I'm hoping the smoking that it did before was unrelated because I drove it daily for about 5 1/2 years...
:eek2:


It was the first vehicle my dad ever bought, and it was the first vehicle I ever owned, so I'm pretty much willing to go through anything to get it running again

Posting your location isn't a terrible idea, in case someone is nearby and willing to lend a hand...

Hanserob.

Ive had the same exact problem as you. im currently all tore down and just in the parts cleaning stage.

if its just when you start the vehicle then its just moisture in the exhaust, also injector seals are just small O rings, use a mini standard screw driver to get them out of their groove and roll them off. totally understand the do anything to get em back on the road, my yota is my first vehicle even tho i haven't had him long like you have, but he's my baby lol. how old are you?

22. The yota is an 85 and my old man bought it brand new. It's a manual and I REALLY didn't want it, but he's such a picky ˟˟˟˟er I got sick of looking at trucks with him because he kept saying they were all junk, and I finally agreed to learn to drive it. Never regretted it. Up north here there really aren't many of them around. The salt on the roads in winter just DESTROYS them. Finally decided to buy a different truck because my girlfriend was sick of riding around in the yota, what with it being probably one of the smallest cabs you can find on a vehicle...and the manual locks and windows and everything.

My belief was that the truck would be like an old widow and once her husband left she would die...well that was the case. Didn't exactly die, its still driveable but I don't want to kill it driving with a bad HG

i really wanted a manual, but got a sweet deal on my 86 automatic tho, NO RUST so i couldn't pass him up, yea totally agree about the small cabs, my boyfriend isn't a big fan, but he can't complain since his truck isn't running at the moment lol.

don't let the poor ol' girl die tho, these truck are hard to completely kill anyhow