Head gasket R&R on 1994 Camry 2.2L

[Johnny Montana]

Hello TNation,

I'm installing a new cylinder head on my 1994 Camry 2.2L

Have any of you had experience with pulling the cylinder head with the intake manifold/fuel rail left intact?

Seems like it would be faster than roughing up my hands trying to squeeze into the limited space to remove the fasteners for the intake manifold and fuel rail.

Any input?

Thank you in advance for your advice.

JH

[MTNiner]

Hey JH,

I don't know if you are still wanting input since your post is a few weeks old but I am replacing the hg on my 95 Camry 2.2L, 5fse now and saw your post so I thought I would reply.

The chilton manual says to remove the intake manifold and fuel rail before pulling the head, for the life of me I don't know how that is possible considering a few of the intake manifold to head bolts are impossible to reach unless you have real skinny arms capable of bending in unusual ways. Also due to the routing of the engine wiring harness you can't pull the head/intake manifold together without first disconnecting one end of the harness (either disconnect from the ecu and pull it through the firewall and disconnect enough to get past the intake manifold or disconnect the other end starting at the fuse box and battery and working your way back past the intake manifold), I chose the latter (huge PITA) maybe the former would have been easier? Anyways, once the wiring harness is out of the way, pulling the head with the intake manifold still attached was easy. I disconnected the fuel rail when doing the wiring harness.

Hope my experience helps, if you still need it. Let me know if you have any questions.

MTNiner

[Mister_Perkins]

Remove the front engine mount, and radiator, and flip the engine forward

[MTNiner]

That sounds like a way easier option, wish I would have thought of that this weekend. I'm nervous about getting the harness back in place with no shorts. Oh well, this will allow me to go through it, clean it, and fix any possible issues.

[Mister_Perkins]

If you dont pull on the harness, you wont short it out

[MTNiner]

Yea, that's why I said I wish I would have thought of your way last weekend when I pulled the harness... Next time I'll know.

[Mister_Perkins]

Originally Posted by MTNiner

Yea, that's why I said I wish I would have thought of your way last weekend when I pulled the harness... Next time I'll know.

One weekend late .. Too bad.

It will probably be OK. these harnesses are pretty rigid. they can handle quite a bit of abuse

[MTNiner]

I really hope so, I don't want to get everything back together just to find out I have a strange electrical issue somewhere... At this point I wonder if it's worth it to go over it while it is out? That seems like a big job, but maybe worth the piece of mind.