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i bought this car used when it was 3 years old with 75K miles on it. I put on only 30K miles in the 17 years I owned it before installing the new radiator and screwed it up. I replaced the radiator, test drove without bleeding air, within 3 miles radiator hose was blown out. Temperature did not show high or red line during the 3 mile drive. I clamped the hoses back on, the car was driven lightly for about 1,000 miles within a year, no indication of problems, then it overheated again twice. The last time the engine would not start. The head gasket was compromised before, leaking cylinder air into the coolant line into the radiator and blew out the hoses within 3 mile drive. My bad mistake.
I thought its engine was original but when cylinder head was removed it looked like previous owner had tried to stop leaks with chemical additives that gummed up coolant lines in the block. Also the VVTI valve cap had 2 mounting flanges broken and the bolts were missing. This spot was leaking oil before. So the cylinder head had been repaired before.
After spending about $2900 on parts and mobile mechanics' labor, the cylinder head was resurfaced, 2 valves replaced, and installed. No more oil or coolant leaks. Oil looks normal without the milky coolant mix. I have been idling the engine with Prestone' radiator flush for about 6 hours. Engine idles with valve tapping sound and an odd but not loud, knocking. It vibrates a little and can be felt sitting in the car. It was silky smooth before the overheating. Coolant is dirty with reddish iron rust particles. Will drain out radiator and block and refill. The mech said to let engine idle to break in, no driving or revving.
The mech left out 2 x 14 mm nut, likely bolt the intake and exhaust manifold to the head. near the firewall. Also a few wires were not bolted down and hoses incorrectly routed. I need a few pics of a fully assembled cylinder head to figure out how things should go together and what bolts /nuts/ fasteners were missing. . Any bro with a 2JZ-GE engine please help me with pics on both intake and exhaust sides of the head. That would really help me fit everything together to prevent interference.
Thank you very much for your help.
If I had known the cylinder head had been repaired before, I may have gone with a remanned engine for $4,000 parts and labor. i understand 2JZ-GE engines are scarce and may been abused. .
Before sending the head to the machine shop, I checked and found no shim under the valve cups.
According to the mobile mech, machine shop replaced 2 valves, all valve seals, polished valves seats and adjusted all valves. I checked the edges of the head near valves' seats; very little material was shaved off. Look at the pic he sent me after repair. The head was polished like new.
He said the tapping noise is typical of rebuilt heads; some driving would smooth it out and noise would go away. I will give it a try but I am pretty sure the valves need adjustments. If it does not go away I will ask him to shim them. He used to be a Lexus Master Mechanic. He knows his stuff. Now he tunes exotic cars for big money. He's more reliable than others, but still bolted down a few parts in the wrong place.
The clips on radiator's hose are weak, squirting coolant after a test drive. Potentially they could get loose and overheat the engine on long drive. I ordered them on line from LEXUS.PARTS.COM, picked up after a few hours at a local dealer, only $6.50 each. Man, $6.50 clips destroyed my engine.
I flushed coolant twice, looked red and muddy. Changed oil and filter, looked very black after 2000 miles. No more oil and coolant leak. Will be driving it locally to check and prevent any more problems. Reman 2JZ engines are old now and scarce, not sure if they are all good.
Removing the cylinder head is not difficult, just a lot of bolts, nuts and wiring harness to get out of the way. With a few more tools I could do it myself with some time and patience. I have other 4 cyl cars with smaller, simpler 2ZZGE all alum engines, one with 350K miles, still running smooth and strong with orig engine and xmission. If it ever has head problem, I can remove and take it to the machine shop, make sure they do it right. Would be a .good project.
Thanks for your infos.
Originally Posted by FrankT
If you want a smooth running motor, it is not too late to adjust the valves, just a bit MORE DIFFICULT and costly than my suggestion on post 39.
2JZ uses buckets and shims, the shims are inside the bucket. Red flag to me saying it takes time for the valvetrain to quiet down, no it doesn't. There is nothing to wear in or settle valve lash is either correct or not. For all that is good and holy in this world please use Toyota Long Life coolant no substitutes, nothing that is supposed to be "just as good".
With new hose clips, there are no more coolant leaks. I revved it up to 4000 RPM on and off; engine is dry. Car idles and runs smooth, strong, no hick up or hesitation. Will just drive slow local trips to shake it down until I am sure everything is good.
The tapping noise seems to come from cyl 1 intake valve or one of the pulleys in front of the engine.
At idle it would tap about 3 to 4 times per second, 250 to 330 msec each. idle 900 RPM divided by 6 valves would be 150 msec.
Will see how it goes. I am only driving it about 2000 miles a year, so it may last 25 years, unless I screw something else up. If it breaches the head gasket again, I would buy a few more tools and take time to do it myself. This hot mech has a bad habit of bolting things together for convenience, not exactly for functions, clearance or shielding. I had to move a few things that hold hoses and wires away from hot or moving engine parts. But he's way better than other mobile mechs, some are clearly crazy and sloppy.
Yep. I use only Toyota's red coolant diluted 50/50 with distilled water. Cooling errors can be very expensive as in my case. .
Really appreciate the supports from you gentlemen.
No, not a very good idea.
The serpentine belt drives the coolant pump on this engine.
Starting without it = no coolant circulation through the engine -> localized overheating -> Hello, problems!
Only idle the engine a few minutes, before engine heats up, to confirm the source of noise.
The noise comes from only the front of the engine.
if the pulleys make noise, will replace them. If the tapping noise come from cyl head, will have the mobile mech remove the valve cover and machine shop redo valves clearances.
After Mobile Mech installed rebuilt cylinder head I flushed oil and coolant, bled the radiator, drove it around neighborhood, total lass than 20 miles.
There is a tapping noise from the head which synch with RPM. The Mobile Mech said all rebuilt engines will make some noise, which would go away if I use good 10-30 oil and drive it some time.
I took the car to a local known good shop. The old Mech is known meticulous, does everything right, not cutting corner. He put a stethoscope with a long metal tube to listen to various parts of the engine, found the tapping noise inside #5 cylinder head. I also heard knocking noise below the exhaust manifold but he did not, said, not rod knock, definitely something wrong with the #5 valve head on intake side, may be loose cam shaft cap or incorrect torque. He said to drive it 60 MPH for about 20 miles. If the noise does not stop the noise problem should be fixed, or it could damage the cam shaft, may even break it.
When bolting down cam shafts, Mobile Mech did not follow the sequence and torque spec in manual. He bolted them randomly, said they are not critical, only the long head bolts are. I suspect something is loos or not fitting right at Cyl #5 cam.
Mobile Mech is a very nice, solid guy, said he guarantees his workmanship 2 years 200K miles. He said willing to open up the head, but if he found no mistakes, he would have to charge me more money..
Sounds like 2 sources of noise, a slow, louder knocking noise from bottom of engine, below the exhaust manifold and in front below the Cyl 1. The second noise is lighter, faster, seems to come from Cyl head #5. Here's the video. Any advice will be appreciated:
The low tone noise sounds like it's coming from the bottom of the engine block. These can be connecting rod bearings or crankshaft main bearings.
Unfortunately, this cannot be verified without removing the engine or hanging the engine on the fender frame and removing the subframe.
Because the oil pan has two stages, and the lower one opens only a small part of the cylinder block.
And the top one has a lot of bolts and a sealing surface up to the firewall.
A higher tapping tone may be caused by problems with valve clearances or camshaft bearings. Can be checked without removing the engine in about a day.
I would recommend that you request a PLASTIGAGE bearing clearance measurement of all camshaft bearings (intake and exhaust) and recording all the results in the correspondence table.
Then compare this BY YOURSELF with the maximum clearances in the service manual and make your decision.
01-23-23, 02:25 PM
