bansheebrofasho

hey i am thinking about changing the head gasket myself on my truck. how big of a job is it? is there any good forums or links on it? i am pretty mechanically inclined but never have changed a headgasket.. any help would be great.

bill buttermore

You can download a factory service manual for this engine from links given in a sticky at the top of this forum. Very helpful.

Head gasket r&r is not difficult, but the engine is complex. Take some photos of the engine from all angles before you start, and mark each piece that you remove. I used two sharpies, one silver for black painted parts and hoses, and one black for aluminum parts. There are an unbelievable number of hoses on the pass side of the engine and the order of assembly and disassembly can get tricky. You should not need to remove the #1 water bypass hose that runs under the intake manifold, but if you do, it must be installed BEFORE the cylinder heads as the heads will capture the rear metal stamping.

If your timing belt is new(er) and you will be reusing it, set the crank to TDC (0 degrees) and mark the belt (silver marker) at the cam sprocket timing marks and at the dot on the edge of the crank gear (not the timing mark). This will help a lot when you go to re-install the timing belt.

I used several egg cartons to keep the cam bearing caps clean and in order as well as the lifter buckets. Don't mix up the buckets and shims or you will need to adjust the valves when you are done.

Be careful when you undo the cam bearing caps. Before loosening any of the caps, turn each cam so that the lobes are making the least possible pressure against the valve springs. Do not loosen the caps when any of the lobes is heavily depressing a spring.

I had trouble with orientation of power steering brackets I had not marked when I went to re-install. You will need new intake manifold and plenum gaskets. Some silicone grease will help a lot on some of the rubber hoses, especially difficult are the air hose for the pair valve and the coolant hose for the throttle body.

Good luck.

toytech76

Too bad you dont live in cali. i can do those things in my sleep! One piece of advise...if you have the heads off to do the gaskets, do a valve job at the same time. Replace the exhaust valves with TOYOTA ones and grind the intakes. Have the machine shop pressure test and surface the heads as well. Its not too much more to do this so you need to do it right or it will come back and bite you. Parts you will need...

get a valve grind gasket set from toyota
6 exhaust valves
2 rear cam plugs
1 knock sensor wire
oil
oil filter
coolant
any belts,spark plugs,tbelt,water pump,thermostat you might need

take your time and do it right. The toyota gasket set has every gasket and valve guide seals you need