Head & Block Photos; Share your diagnosis please

[Roads.zx]

Pulled the head off 1995 5SFE (overheated/blown gasket). 155k with 50k since last overhaul. Coolant was present in No's 1,2,& 3 but may have been due to spillage on removal. Puzzling was rusty water pooled on top of #4 cyl. Rusty water appears to come from bottom right #4 cyl coolant hole.

Photos include with and without gasket










Thanks

[rusty9]

thats an engine alright.

what was your question again?

[MR2Jedi]

Looks like cylinders 1 & 4 got really hot. I'd have a good look at the exhaust valves in those cylinders.A vavle grind, new valve seals, resurfacing and and a Vat bath is definately in order.
Visually, pistons look OK. If I was in your place, I would go ahead and pull the block, vat, deck,hone and ring it, since you have it broken down this far.

[4Cyl'erThriller]

+1^^

[PortugalFocus]

As stated above, cylinders 1 & 4 got pretty hot. The valve are super burned.

What did the plugs look like when they were pulled? I'd do a complete rebuild if I was you. With the head off, remove the block as well and have everything hot tanked. And rebuild it from there. I've seen a few rebuilds where people put NEW heads on an old un-rebuit block and it runs like garbage. If you wanna do it right spend the money and do so. Good luck and I hope you labeled everything as it came off.

[Roads.zx]

Labels? Car ran well before blown head gasket / overheat. I know it would be the right thing to do and you make it sound easy; but pulling the block and finishing the job would be another major undertaking for my novice talents and weak wallet. Plus no hoist or stand.

[moddifier]

the head needs to be checked for softness . if the head is soft the head bolts do not stay tight when you released the head did the head bolts on the exhaust side seem a little loser than the other side why was it rebuilt 40k ago was it through over heating .the block needs to be checked for straightness across the head surface . if dollars are a problem then it may be possible to just replace the rings but it is a must ,that everything is inspected the bearings may be ok to reuse as they have only done 40 k but rings cannot handle excess heat they to will go soft and it will just burn oil . hope this helps sometimes its not possible to spend a heap of dollars to do it right but it is possible to make it good for what you need .

[73sport]

Just curious from those who posted here (except op), how many of you have taken "healthy running" engines apart? As in, do you know what it's supposed to look like???

For those who remain, how many engines? And how about oil burners and blown head gaskets?

Answer is . . . ?

[71Corolla]

I've pulled apart engines that looked way way worse than that. Burnt pistons, valves that looked like someone took a blow torch to them. If he doesn't want to spend much money on it, just clean up the head as much as you can, soak the pistons with some Seafoam for a day, clean up the block surface as much as possible and put it back together.

Otherwise, pull the block and do a proper rebuild. There is absolutely no point in doing a job halfway.

[Roads.zx]

I'm taking head to machine shop tomorrow; perhaps they'll add some thoughts on the subject. I've updated the mileage numbers after finding old invoice; it's 52k since overhaul.

To answer some of moddifier's questions: the engine was rebuilt due to oil sludge problem; there does not appear to be any current indications of sludge. Note: the head gasket previously blew while under warranty. All the head bolts appeared to release with similar pressure; however, with respect to the exhaust, all exhaust component bolts were loose. Exh manifold bolts seemed a little better than hand tight but all three Cat connections had backed off; progressively less as you go away from the engine.

How is a block tested for softness? If the block is soft wouldn't I need to get a new core?

I'm doing this myself because with the current blown head / overheat I don't want to be throwing good money after bad. I thought that if I could identify the cause of the overheat / blown gasket I would feel better about putting some money into it; four years ago it seemed like a better idea, now I'm not so sure.

[73sport]

Machine Shop = Good Choice

#1, #4 are the best looking, most normal of the bunch. That is how a "near properly tuned" engines exhaust valves should look. I am not saying the valves are fine. However the color is fine and it is normal to have tan to light grey soot color.
Burned valves can have cracks or holes burned through them like a blow torch cutting the edge of steel plate. Those do not like they're burned but you can;t see that until you pull them and inspect them unless they're real bad burn completely through the top.
>> Cylinders that are not firing, not building compression, not making heat (like #2, #3) look like #2, and #3. Folks remember the intake is being cooled by fresh air/fuel charge. The exhaust is flowing 1500+ degree gases over it.

It looks like the center two holes had oil pushing through them but its hard to tell but water will look that way if ran and shut off not to far after the gasket blew. Was it an oil burner?

As for the block and cylinders, yes, heat can kill rings. Once the tempering is gone and they loose there elasticity, they crack. Q? Was it driven for a while with no coolant? Just because it got hot, doesn't mean they are done and lost all they're tension. But without a compression test, you won't know anything. The beast you can hope for is to look as the cylinder bores. An engine that got real hot can score the cylinder bores, rings and pistons. If any of these look scored you should reconsider what path you need to follow.

As for exhaust bolts being loose, unless a mechanic owned the thing, that is not all that uncommon. Exhaust manifold gaskets compress over time and will get loose. THis is not a concern. However, the blown head gasket is. You implied it had a warranty, so that implies someone intended to stand by their work. They could have missed something, but the blown gasket could have been for many reasons.

Have the head checked by the m/s and look the blocks bores over for scoring, look the blocks head sealing surface over carefully.

Report what you know and best of luck going forward.

[71Corolla]

Originally Posted by Roads.zx

the engine was rebuilt due to oil sludge problem;

Knowing that, I would personally be very reluctant to put any more cash into this engine.

[Luckynumber5]

Make sure you drain your oil real good as soon as you can, you dont want to let water sit in the oil pan. Any pics of the head gasket?