llcoolpass

yeah technically, i just dont have time for that and $. i gotta have the car, ready or not, outta where I'm working on it by Friday [today] night.

the head is pitted from the metal thing. i hit it with some sandpaper to smooth anything out. i have the feeling my engine will work, at least for a while. i just need the $, then, I'm going to get a low mileage import engine [build it up], and a big turbo

JSM1284

I hope you didnt just use sandpaper in the one spot with the pitting, you will cause a low spot there and it wont seal. Use a straight edge and feeler gauge to check the deck and head for warpage.

llcoolpass

Your hopes are , thereby, fears. LOL I put a straight edge on the block and head. both were great. I did lightly sandpaper the 'damaged' part on the block to avoid any sharp spots messing up the HG. The HG is graphite and hopefully will withstand. My block has the number 2 etched into the surface. The ''damaged'' area was only slightly deeper, so I am optimistic that the HG can handle it....... for 6 mos. at least, until I get a new engine or car.

More pictures have been added to the photo gallery. Here are two relevant, trying to show [though hard to see] the damage spot:

mmatheny

That's strange - what could have caused that damage? Have the heads been off before? Looks like human induced damage to me! Right next to a water jacket to boot - you might have a hard time getting that sealed against leakage.

llcoolpass

well, i dont think they were off before. at least not this one, i have no 100% way of knowing without someone telling me or other evidence. the gaskets for the lower manifold and so on all look OLD and original. so it's most likely this is just the way it is.

what could have caused that damage? well jsm has a theory. read several posts up

could have been damaged from over heat. i witness engine get 'hot' but not overheat several times last summer when my connector was off [accidentally] causing the fans to not crank up when A/C was on. since I was on the highway for the vast majority of the times the temp went up, i was able to simply turn off the a/c and the engine promptly cooled down [using temp gauge on dash]. I don't know if that is the main reason, and i doubt it is. This car is very old. It may have been abused by a previous ownersi n the sense that it was subject to heavy duty. The previous owner towed a 12 or 15 ft little boat to florida from new jersey, and back a couple times per year, for three years. Maybe he did something improper as far as gear selections or tow load or w/e. who knows. it's probably just normal wear and tear... i mean plenty of people have had HG failures on much newer ES 300 with lesser mileage, in the 1990s. I [well, my car] made it to 2009. All i know is I'm hopefull my Head gasket will last a while.

The hg leftover material was very caked on there. Very painstaking process. Took couple hours and 10 razor blades.

Torqueing the head was easy and relatively painless. Puting the head on was a little bit of a fiasco [oil would pop out of the hole and then i'd have to clean the head mating surface over and over until i decide to jam paper towel on the topside above the holes causing the most issue of leakage]. But after torqueing[in SEVERAL passes to be accurate], to all of 25 ft*lbs [lolololol], the next part where you turn the bolt 90 degrees, then 90 degrees again [only for the 3vz engine, the 1mz has a dif torque procedure, interestingly enough]...... that was hard~! massive amount of pull required for that. felt like at least 80 foot lbs judging by the pull i was doing on the 18" breakerbar I used!

mmatheny

I had to get the head on a 95 Altima resurfaced - similar procedure, and yes, that last "twist" you thought you were going to break the bolt off! Is it running yet? This IS the front bank, correct?

llcoolpass

mmatheny,

I used to own the same car.

Not yet, working on it right now.

Yes.

llcoolpass

Headbolt loosen and removal procedure 3vz-fe update to the factory service manual (FSM) which has a typo / scan error. I updated it for anyone else for their convenience. I cross checked this procedure with four other japanese V6s [whose FSM was not so errored] and the 1mz-fe 1997 V-6 procedure, whose installation procedure [pattern] was the same as the 3VZ-FE .

mmatheny

That head was a BIT** to get off wasn't it! had to disconnect the darn intake manifold at the bottom! Messed up my lower back bent over that thing for so long!

llcoolpass

if you're talking about the es 300, my entire back from my butt to my neck is very aching right now, and I'm not even done, im still putting the intake manifold together. taking it apart and putting it together, while having to bend over it especially since im outside on a driveway, it's killer..... you can sympathize!

mmatheny

Nah, talking about the 95 Altima! You said you used to one of those also!

llcoolpass

yeah so in that car i didn't have to do the head gasket, but i know about it...... usually they had more intake manifold gasket and exhaust manifold gasket issues... head gasket was not a common problem on those cars..... but they had Al-alloy head iron block design like the es 300 I have so it's not wonder that eventually it busted a head gasket.

92ES5sp

Yea; im familiar with Altima intakes. Not exactly the most fun in the world. Bummer about your 3vz; hope you get it running right. The rpm spike you describe is kinda weird and I dont have an answer for ya. Did you do both heads or the just one? Im actually kinda surprised that a) it blew up a little too early imo; and b) you didnt at least have the heads machined; at least for piece of mind even if you measured them. But if money is tight then i know where you're coming from. Just talking to you a while back it seems that you not the kinda tech to cut corners and etc. Either way good luck and hope all works out and I dont have to tell you how rare your car is. I got about 130K on my 3vz; no issues yet and running great P.S. I would replace the knock sensors too.

mmatheny

it wasn't a head gasket that blew - the guy before me drove it with a busted radiator, and warped the head! Got the head resurfaced for $35!!

llcoolpass

ran it safely, didn't drive it around yet, did a compression test after rnning it for like 30 sec [battery only], purrs, compression test: about 180 psi for all three, the middle one ,due to stress the rings experienced [my theory] , had less compression than the others by a tiny amount[3 or 4 psi], held the compression for a long time though- so no leaks or sealing issues, yet........