head gasket ?

[barm]

So I was driving along at highway speeds and lost power. I found that I lost compression in cylinder 1 & 2. The Car was using no oil, there was no oil in the antifreeze or vice versa. Spark Plugs came out clean and cylinders look good and clean through plug holes. Engine was rebuild 60k ago. Car was running as close to factory as possible. No pings. No cylinder miss. No warning of any type, car as never ran hot, have used full sin oil since rebuild, oil changes always came out clean. Removed valve cover everything looks good from the top. All valves fully open and close with proper valve clearance. The only thing I can come up with is that the head gasket blew between cylender 1 and 2. Any other opinions? Thanks
Adam

[xirdneh]

i think you nailed it

[barm]

Well I'm going to pull the head. Was thinking of using SEALED POWER for my gasket set, might have the head remilled as well. This will be my first time doing this. Any tips or suggestions? Gasket preferences? Gasket sealer?
Thanks
Adam

[dlb]

forum member petros wrote a guide that also covers some modifications to the head gasket that he likes. you can choose whether or not you want to do the modifications but it's a really great guide overall. here's the link.

https://tercel4wd.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=6059

[barm]

Thanks

[Petros]

Odd it would fail like that unless it was not installed properly. If the head gasket is blown you have also lost a lot of coolent, was the coolent level low? There are a few other things that can cause loss of power in two cylinders, but for most the head has to come off to fix, make sure you inspect the condition of the exhaust valves when the head is off.

I would not was money on a full gasket head set, just order a new head gasket and perhaps the exhaust head pipe gasket. Either use a factory Toyota head gasket, or a Fel-Pro. There might be other good brands but I have not found them, most of the aftermarket head gaskets are junk.

And as DLB pointed out, follow my procedure in the link above, it is easier to fix than you might expect, and if you follow the procedure you will improve the durability of the installation.

[marlinh]

I think you can have a head gasket fail and not get antifreeze contamination. It just depends on where it happens.

[barm]

I'm pretty sure it was an auto zone or outer cheap gasket set. Surprised it lasted 60k from what I read in the post. The person who did the rebuild I'm sure used cheap gaskets. My other tercel rebuild lasted only 800 miles before the head gasket blew, he used toyota the second time. But yea unlike the other one no cross fluid contamination. But the two cylinders are a little cleaner so it might of started seeping right before it blew. I ordered the gasket from Toyota today.

[Petros]

if two adjoining cylinder had low/no compression, I can not see how it is possible to not have coolant leaking into the combustion chambers. The peak pressures during combustion is some 2000 psi, even without a spark it will reach 180-200 psi, the cooling system only runs at 7 psi. So combustion pressures get into water jacket when the gasket is failed, and than on the next stroke blows back into the cylinder.

Sometimes it is not much leakage, but enough to clean off the top of the piston (i.e. "steam clean" it). there was another thread on this recently with pictures, the water vaporizes and actually cleans off the carbon build up on the pistons. If it is really badly blown you will get coolant out of the spark plug hole when you crank the engine, but it does not take nearly that much to have a bad head gasket.

A cheap head gasket and/or careless installation will result in a not very durable head gasket. This engine has a more sensitive head gasket than most cars, even for Japanese cars with Al heads, but when installed properly they will be very durable, especially with the recommended mods in my thread on the subject.

[barm]

The radiator was a little low and the rez was to the brim, cylinders 1 & 2 look cleaner in the plug holes and so did the plugs from them. But the car was running perfect until I lost power, from the ping I was getting I was sure I broke a valve or rocker arm. I will know for sure when I pull the head. If it checks out I will definitely do the mods in the guide that is posted. any more tips are greatly appreciated. I will post my progress and findings. Could be a couple of weeks till I have the time to do it. Thanks for the support

[Petros]

You can have the head off in about an hour, two at most. And the whole operation takes 3 to 4 hours, presuming nothing breaks and you have no frozen/stuck bolts that could break off.

One thing that can also cause this is to have burned the exhaust valves and a piece breaks off. not likely it would happen on two adjoining cyclinder, but anything is possible. So when you have the head off carefully inspect the exhaust valves.

[peculiarodor]

Hello,
I have an 88 tercel sr5 with 68,000 mile on it. The following was done at 63,390:
spark lugs, new CLUTCH, FUEL PUMP, WATER PUMP, TIMING BELT and tensioners, camshaft seals, pcv seals, valve cover gasket, crankshaft oil seals, belts, oil and coolant, plus the labor associated with all this. wjlee did an oil/filter change, transfer case and differential oil change and smog just before selling to me. My issue, however, is this:
-The car kicks out some white smoke on cold start in the a.m., then will high idle with some more white smoke until i tap the accelerator, then she runs fine with no smoke as long as it's not the first a.m. start of the day, BUT....
-On warm starts she doesn't start well. Needs to turn over a bunch to get going.
-She's burning some oil and looks to be seeping a bit of oil from the head gasket towards the backside closest to the firewall.
-Engine temperature is fine. It fluctuates but never gets above midlevel and the aux fan cools it right down and I have taken her up plenty of steep and sustained grades.
-There is no evidence of oil in the coolant and the coolant level has remained normal and unchanged.

Is this a blown head gasket? (god, i hope not).
If so, what can i expect to pay for a mechanic to do the repair?
I have already put over 2000 miles on her but would really love to avoid putting money into the car right now, so soon.
thanks again!

[Petros]

welcome to the list!

Your head gasket is likely just fine. All cars put out some vapor in the morning until they warm up. If you are not losing coolant from the radiator, than it is likely just normal condensation in the exhaust system left over from the previous days driving.

head gaskets never leak oil, the oil is almost certainly coming from the valve cover gasket, or from a few other easy to fix places. The valve cover gasket is an easy replacement, first you might try snugging down the valve cover bolts to see if that stops the leak. NOT TOO TIGHT, you can damage the cast aluminum valve cover (which have seen cracked because of over tightening).

There also is a "half moon" rubber plug at the back of the valve cover gasket for the cam bore that can also leak. A new one comes with the valve cover gasket set, install it with some sealant and it should stop the leak. The other common places for it to leak is the o-ring on the distributor, and also the fuel pump gasket. they leak and will run around the gap at the head gasket making it look like it leaks oil. the fuel pump is also easy to fix, use lots of sealant on both sides of both gaskets. the distributor o-ring is also fairly easy to replace, the problem is you have to remove the distributor (easy part), replace the o-ring and than get the distributor installed correctly so the timing is proper. If you are not confident using tools that you might want to have someone else do (not really difficult, there are procedures on this forum to walk you through it if you want to give it a try).

Doing it yourself will save you a lot of money.