I just discovered a blown head gasket on my 96 5vzfe with 166,000 miles. Was very low on coolant and started to overheat but never redlined. After I added coolant I got some white smoke from the tail pipe on the first three startups and then it went away. No coolant on the dipstick, but I do have some white gooey residue under the oil cap. Coolant is clean. It seems like it is only leaking coolant on cold starts, occasional rough idle (which started about 6 months ago, but I never looked into it) for a few seconds and everything smoothes out. Drives great, if I hadn’t run low on coolant I wouldn’t have suspected a thing.

After doing a bunch of searching I have decided that I am going to go ahead and replace the Head Gasket. I Plan on doing Timing Belt, and Water pump as well.

I found a couple good head gasket threads over at ultimatetoyota.com. http://www.ultimateyota.com/index.ph...6&topic=7462.0
And http://www.ultimateyota.com/index.ph...6&topic=2241.0

I’m a novice mechanic, but I will have an experienced mechanic guiding/lending a hand when I start this project.

I’m trying to make a list of everything I am going to need, and that’s where this is getting a little tricky.

I have an fsm that I found online (1996 to 2002 Toyota 4Runner Repair and Wiring Manuals.rar).

I have access to a wealth of tools, including a torque wrench.

I’m trying to figure out exactly the tools and parts I am going to need. I want to procure everything beforehand to try and minimize setbacks once I get going. I am going to try and get everything OEM from toyotapartsales.com

So far I know I need:

head gaskets
valve cover gaskets
manifold gaskets
Throttle body gasket
Head Bolts
Timing Belt
Water Pump
Accessory Belts
Spark Plugs
Service Bolts
Crank Puller?
Wrench set/ Torque Wrench / ?
Coolant/ oil/filter/hose plugs/wd40/brake cleaner/?

Now for some questions.

First of all, what am I missing from my list?

Is there any specific tool I should make sure I have?

As far as the gaskets go, should I just get an overhaul gasket set? How many extra gaskets is that, and should I change them since I have everything apart?

I am assuming the heads are in good shape, but plan to have them checked/resurfaced. Any recommendations for a good shop in the Sacaramento, CA area?

Thanks for any advice.

 

The overhaul gasket set is the way to go and is what I used last fall. It's generally cheaper than buying individually.

Since your are in there and if they haven't been changed, you may want to add both idler pulleys for the timing belt, the timing belt tensioner, and cam and crank seals.

You'll need to make up a tool to hold the crank pulley. There are several designs here and on the Toyota forums.

PB blaster works great for freeing up nuts and bolts. Soak everything liberally before removal. Exhaust and manifold nuts can be tough.

 

Thanks for the reply. I've added the timing tensioner, idler pulley, camshaft seal, and crankshaft seal.

The fsm says to use new head bolts, but from talking to the toyota tech on the phone and from what I have seen in the forums, it's seems to be OK to use the old ones. New ones run about $14 a piece including the washers, x16 that is not cheap so I think I will just use the old ones.

Maita toyota uses 'Del's Auto Parts and Machine' for their machine shop work. Haven't called them about prices yet.

Damn, this is getting expensive....

 

I'm doing the same thing on my 22re right now.
I think you can get ARP studs for less than that if you go that route. After taking a look at my head bolts, I didn't even want to bother trying to get all the carbon out of the threads to try for an even torque across all the bolts.

I bought a cheap gasket kit, but I bought an OEM head gasket from They're decently cheap and no tax in CA.http://www.toyotapartsexpress.com/

I'd make sure you have access to torque wrenches that haven't been thrown around, are set to their lowest torques when not in use and you'll need at least 2 wrenches. One for the high torque things and one for the low. Go to the costco automotive section and you can buy a big bag of lint free towels to wipe everything down and have a lot of rubbing alcohol and parts cleaner to clean everything. Make lots of labels and take lots of pictures. A buncha sharpies, masking tape and sandwich baggie goes a long ways when it comes time to put it back together. Good luck man!

 

I did some more searching on the head bolts, and after rechecking the FSM, it says to only replace the bolt if it is damaged/deformed or will not meet torque spec. So I think I should be good with the original bolts.

Thanks for the advice, I have bags, rags and markers ready, didn't think of the rubbing alcohol.

Going to try and buy all the stuff tomorrow. hopefully start this project in the next couple of days. I'm already spending more than I want, but I want to do everything right. Is there anything else I should be replacing while I have everything torn apart?

 

does anyone know if when installing the waterpump with factory gasket, do i also add gooey sealant goop to the gasket? i am doing a water pump sorry for thread jacking.

google darn motor swap

thanks, good luck!

 

Beyond having the FSM printed out (you'll probably have dirty hands and not want to clean up every time you need to reference something) and having a tap for the head bolts is really helpful. Just thread it in by hand until you are absolutely sure it's not cross threaded and then sink it to the bottom. It will make getting your head bolts back in a whole lot easier.
I can't really speak to specifics because I am not working on the same motor, but these are the general things that were helpful to me during this project.

 

Oh, I also replaced the thermostat, since the HG blew, I figured it probably needs a new one. It can't hurt anyways and they are cheap.