Head Gasket - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

Grayguy · 06-05-2006, 08:14 AM

So my mom called me the other day to tell me her 96' 5sfe camry was smoking, leaking oil from the front of the block, and smoking. I had her limp it home. there seems to be oil in the coolant over flow, and some kind of sediment. Also, the oil level is very high. It doesnt' look milky at all though, very black. So I assume it's a head gasket. But, the car ran fine today (it's sat since last tuesday.) It didnt' smoke, it sounded fine, no warning lights...head gasket right?

Dave's · 06-05-2006, 08:27 AM

With it cold, pull the radiator cap and check your coolant. (Or you can drain a bit) You could also drain the oil as it sounds like it needs changing anyway. Maybe it wasn't driven long enough for the head gasket to leak as bad as the other day. Does sound like the gasket but only more checking will determine it for sure.

mazdaverx7 · 06-05-2006, 08:29 AM

what you need to do is a compression test. that will tell you for sure. you wil also see coolant on the block around teh head when the head gasket goes. you will have coolant in the oil, but more than likely, you'll see the oil in the coolant. other than smkoing and leaking, how does it run?

Grayguy · 06-05-2006, 11:56 AM

that's the funny part. It didn't smoke from the exhaust today, and when this happened last week, the car got really got and smoked from under the hood. When i started it today it sounded/ seemed jsut like my car. My mom said there was oil on the front of the block and it ran down to the exghaust and burnedm, but it looks pretty clean (relatively speaking) on teh front of the engine. thats' why I'm a little confused

mazdaverx7 · 06-05-2006, 06:47 PM

maybe someone overfilled the oil?

***eyeball96*** · 06-05-2006, 07:04 PM

Hairline crack in the radiator!

marc780 · 06-05-2006, 09:09 PM

Quote:

had her limp it home. there seems to be oil in the coolant over flow, and some kind of sediment. Also, the oil level is very high. It doesnt' look milky at all though, very black. So I assume it's a head gasket.

Yes i believe it's the head gaskets leaking BUT since it seemed to fix itself for a little while, there's a chance that the head bolts may just be loose!
So i would get a torque wrench and try retorquing them, you have nothin to lose.
Just be sure to use the correct sequence. I think when retorquing just loosen the first bolt or even remove it and clean it, put drops of engine oil on it and torque it. Then do the next one like that. Don't loosen them all at once, do them one at a time.

Doctor J · 06-08-2006, 03:27 PM

The head bolts on Camry engine are torqued to yield, additional tightening may cause a bolt's head to break off later.

marc780 · 06-11-2006, 04:13 PM

Doctor J whats that mean exactly "torqued to yeild"

Doctor J · 06-12-2006, 09:58 AM

Any material has some elasticity properties. Some you can stretch, like the rubber band or spring, and then when you release the tension, it goes back to its original shape. But if you tension them too much, the permanent deformation will take place. In this case it means that the material had sustained plastic deformation, or its Yied point has been exceeded. When the metals are bent, for example, the applied force must overcome the Yield strength of metal. The head bolts, that are tightened to the extent, where they started to experience the plastic deformation are called to be torqued to yield. If the material will be stretched even more, it will break. It means that applied force had reached the past tensile strength. The head bolt material (alloy steel) has Yield and tensile points very close to each other, so once the bolts had reached yield stage, relatively little additonal force is needed to break them.Torque to Yield is used to provide better clamping force to to the head and better torque retaining ability, so the bolts will not need to be retorqued from time to time. Widely used on bi-metal engines, they usually replaced after head R&R. Camry engine is one that uses such bolts.