I've been told by some toyota mechanics in my neighborhood that the blown head gaskets are due to the waterjacket design (there are no water jackets on the outside of the #1 and #6 cylinders). They claim it is an engineering flaw that they have simply tried to solve by designing new gaskets.


I just recently rebuilt my engine as a result of all this drama. Since I am a student, I refused to pay the $200-odd for toyota head bolts, so I bought Felpro head bolts, all of them for $42! An old welder across the street from me claimed that these bolts must have been built to spec since they sell them for the 3VZE. Also, if you torque them all down properly, what could be the problem later. Do they yield differently over time???

Alright guys, did I screw up with the Felpros??? I'd hate to think I bought myself a new gasket job in the near future. The Toyota dealer sure tried to make me feel concerned about it when I refused to buy his bolts at $13 a piece!!!


Drew

 

"My goal is to overhaul the top end this summer, put it back together, and not worry about it again - ever- Johnstra"

I had the same idea had the heads overhauled, one year later blew the bottom end, now it needs a new engine or rebuild. Be careful it's would be a waist of time and money if the same thing happend to you. (imho) Think about it strong top end and a weak bottom end whats gonna give. Just food for thought. good luck!

 

You really think it was the changes made to the top end that caused the bottom to go? I'm not planning any mods, just check out the heads, clean everything up, valve job, new gaskets, and back together.

-john

 

BTW.. the bottom end of a 3.0 is a rock.. You almost never hear of bottom ends going out. If you had good compression on the motor prior to the top end don't even worry about the "new top / old bottom" deal, a lot of motors you are 100% correct. But the block and pistons on the 3.0 are very nicely designed.

You have to use OEM or the higest aftermarket headgaskets, this should be a no-brainer.

And back the the head bolts. What do you mean by "slotted" and removing them with a screwdriver?? There is no way in hell you can remove head bolts witha screwdriver!! In fact, I am not a huge guy and when I tourqe the bolts I am really laying into the breaker bar to finish the sequence. You torque them to 33ft lbs followed by a rotation of 90 degrees and then a second set of 90 degree turns on the bolt. Zyes, the start torque spec is low.. But it has to be in the 150-180 range for the final spec. You are not going to remove that with a "slotted screwdriver"

 

Slotted *STUDS*, not bolts. I want to replace the bolts with head studs in order to get higher and more even torque on the heads. The reason they need to be slotted is just in case you do need to remove the heads again. They won't come off with the studs in place, so they need to be slotted so you can remove the whole stud.

Make sense?

 

Oh yea.. you did say that they were studs didn't ya.. You could also double nut them like Toyota does with the upper waterneck.

 

I've heard that there's not enough stud to get 2 nuts on it when the head is on. I don't know if that really is the case, but I figure if I can get the slotted, then I can be sure they'll come out.

 

Has anyone looked into metal head gaskets? I'm not sure if they make them for the 3VZ engines or not, but that would solve the problem for sure. That is what is the preferred type of head gasket on forced induction street/mild race engine (full race are usually use copper rings). I had a head gasket blow on my Celica years ago.....I went with the metal gasket and haven't had a problem since.

 

Regarding the bottom end, that is what happened. Now if the bottom was going before I did it, is possible and by replacing the heads blew it. I am just going off what happened to me, so the chance is there. But I am no mechanic, just thought every angle should be considered.

 

I have not found or heard of any metal gaskets for the 3vze. I did find a web site that sells graphite head gaskets for our engines http://www.goodgaskets.com/toyota.htm. Myself, I don't know anything about graphite gaskets. Anyone think they're worth looking into? They only want $113 for a full gasket set!

 

I've only used OEM Toyota head gaskets when I've had to rebuild. No problems. Would you really use an aftermarket product on something so crucial? I heard Fel-Pro bases their designs on the first generation gaskets/seals, and doesn't update their designs to keep up to OEM revisions of certain parts. That's why I try to stay with the manufacturer line of seals/gaskets. Also, stay away from DOA studs - they aren't made right, and aren't as strong as the factory head bolts. Do a search on here, and you'll find a few dissatisfied people who tried to use them! I think it's the way that the bolts are torqued down that leads to HG failure. I believe Engnbldr replied to a post on this, and he laid out a very good plan for torquing the head bolts in multiple steps.

 

Does anyone have the link to the special 'torquing' procedure ??

Signed - doing head-gaskets after the Factory Recall has reportedly been done on a '91 3VZ-E...

 

http://www.toyotapart.com/3VZ-E_CYLI...T-EG98-002.pdf

 

That's the ticket KooolR. Thanks.