So sometimes you are reminded that crap just happens when you go tinkering with these old trucks. I have been trying to sort out the many exhaust leaks on my pickup. I removed the catalytic converter, down pipe, and the exhaust manifold. The problems arose when I removed the manifold. 9 out of the ten bolts/nuts came off like butter, 3 or 4 were far too easy to come off, but the rear, lowest most bolt at the cab was extremely tight. First off, I know I had leaks at the manifold, as loose as some of that hardware was, and it remains true that you are likely to develop loosening issues when you don't use studs/lock nuts as intended. There was an assortment of hardware used on this manifold. This issue happened because of one messed up thread on the bolt used in the rear, lowest mounting hole. The bolt must have just been hammered in when installed. I fought it all the way out and right at the end I heard a terrible snap and sure as ˟˟˟˟, there lied a big ole crack in the head, despite my efforts to remove it carefully. In trying to figure out what the void space I can see through the hole is, I'm pretty sure its the exhaust void for the EGR system.

My first thought is that I'm going to replace the cylinder head. But...I have been thinking about trying some other things first since I don't really have much to lose at this point.

Am I correct that it is only exhaust gasses in this void space?

Could I just block off the EGR system, delete it and get an aftermarket header that wouldn't allow exhaust gasses to get recycled back into the head?

All this is a waste of time if as soon as I try to torque the manifold down the rest of the aluminum just gives way, but for the heck of it I turned one new stud into the hole and it seemed to hold to the correct torque (which isn't much I know.) Putting 33 lb/ft to it will be a different story I am guessing.

What would you all do? Sucky situation, but ˟˟˟˟ happens I'm shown, time and time again. At the end of the day I'm pretty certain I'll be replacing the head, but I figured I'd see what you all thought, for the heck of it.

Thank you for the help.

 

Interesting, almost looks like it popped right along a casting line.
New head would be the best bet, but you already know that.
Could try getting it welded up, hole redrilled and tapped, not sure what the outcome would be. That area sees alot of heat cycling.

 

Thank you for your reply. I wanted to do a dummy check and see if there was anything I wasn’t thinking of but, she broke. Ain’t no way around it.

I’ve been trying to find the best place to get a head from. I looked at LCE first but from what I read it doesn’t seem like there is really that much performance to gain from just a “Stage 1” head. I mean we’re talking 120 HP here. I just want the thing to run smooth and quiet.

My plan is to get one of the AMC heads from Yotashop and a 268c cam from Engbldr’s recommended site, I think it’s Redline?

I’m going to tear it on down this weekend and see what else needs replacing in the mean time. I feel pretty stupid! Spent all last weekend with a polisher in hand trying to see what I could do with the paint just to turn around and break crap days later, haha. Guess she will have to shine in the garage for awhile.

Pictures included to make me feel like a little less of an idiot

 

Imho, your best bet is to get a bare head and transfer everything over. Valves, springs, retainers, washers, and cam. Especially the cam.
I don't think anyone has a better aftermarket cylinder head than the other guy, they all seem to come from the same source. Your used oem cam and valves(and assoc. hardware) will be infinitely better than the new aftermarket.

The only thing that would be better would be if you could find a solid used head that hasn't been resurfaced very much and isn't warped.

If you opt to try and repair keep us posted.

 

I bought a complete bolt on cylinder head seven years ago from RockAuto. It was ENGINETECH CH1072N.

 

I don’t disagree. My problem is I believe this motor has been gone into before and I don’t know if these are the original, or even OEM Toyota parts related to the cylinder head. I’m hoping when I pull it off today I can find some markings or something to let me know. I appreciate your advice. I agree, nothing can touch Toyota parts. I’m trying to stick with that with ever part I have to replace.

The fuel injectors has some damage. Seems like some have some sort of plastic tip on them? Others do not. I also had some cracked/split orings going into the rail.

All the vacuum lines are stressful as crap. Is there any proof EGR deletes cause head gasket failures? It’d be really nice to get rid of some of this spaghetti mess of lines and stuff. I always lean towards factory replication but it’s tempting.

 

I have been pondering deleting the EGR system since I got my truck in 2011, still haven’t done it I was just tooling around the forums and found this thread among others.

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f123...ng-egr-259029/

But I still kinda don’t care, I really don’t drive it much anymore so unless it fails I’m just gonna leave it.

Anyway good luck on your current head quest

 

Well now that I searched my curiosity kept going here is another thread where some arguments got going on the subject but a good read.

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...ed-egr-265581/

 

There's no obvious casting marks in an oem head or cam that make them easy to distinguish from aftermarket.
I could get a better idea if you had a valve out of the head. The edge/lip of the valve and the washer that sits under the valve spring are noticeably thicker on the CH#### aftermarket loaded heads than oem.

Not sure on the injector what is broken. I'd need a picture. As far as the o-rings for the injectors there are three different ones for each injector that should be replaced as a set. So you'll need four of each for a total of 12. Do not using any oil on these o-rings when installing, just gasoline.

 

Thank you for posting these! I've found a few but these are good info. I'm really leaning towards deleting it. I'm going to clean what I've got and assess it further but that's what I'm thinking. Thank you again!

Thanks for that info, I got the head off so I'll do some more inspecting tomorrow. From what I'm seeing it's looking like the pintle caps on the injectors. There were 2 with one half broken off and on the other two they're just missing. Wondering if they're in the fuel rail or what. The deeper you go, the more you find.

 

Love the last pic! Very artistic!

I deleted my EGR a few years ago. I was unable to clean the EGR to get it to function so I bought an aftermarket EGR. It wouldn't mate up properly to the pipe from the intake. So I bought block off plates and no more EGR. As of about 5 years ago, I don't have to have my truck inspected here in NC.

 

Haha thanks I couldn't help myself when I was about to walk out.

Appreciate the input! I think I'm gonna delete while everything is apart. Can't help but at least try it. I think it'll be fine. Prob go with a manifold that blocks the stuff off as well.

Waiting on parts so today figured I'd use some parts I already had. Shifter bushings were disintegrated into some plastic grease glue mixture. That was fun to get out. Used a vacuum to get as much as I could as I picked away at it.

 

I know this is a heated debate, but I'm looking for some guidance. I am trying to decide between going stock replacement and getting a cyl head from "yotashop.com" or going with a head from LCE. I have read some bad things about LC engineering which is disappointing. Does anyone have good opinions about them? I didn't start this looking for more performance but if I can benefit while I'm here, I'm all for it. Figure if I got with the yotashop AMC head, I'll get a 268 cam from redline. If I go LCE, I'll go with their street EFI cam. I'm more worried about reliability and fitment vs. all out performance here.

Thanks