Head reinstall question

[Wibbit]

Hello guys,

I am most probably going to do a port n polish on the heads soon, but id like to know what is roughly involved in taking the heads off and importantly putting it back on with everything calibrated. I am guessing it'll be a bit involving as there are DOHC involved. Thanks

[88 LE]

I've never removed the heads on a 1MZ-FE (I'm guessing thats what you have since your sig says 1996), but I have on a 3S-FE, 5S-FE, and 7M-GTE. I'll take a stab at it though.

1. Unbolt the exhaust manifolds. The rear is hard to get to, so you can probably just leave it bolted to the head.

2. Unbolt upper and lower intake manifolds.

3. Remove the sparkplug wires/coil packs.

4. Remove the valve covers.

5. Remove whatever is bolted onto the heads (alternator, water neck, etc..)

6. Unbolt the 2 camgears.

7. Unbolt the camshaft bearing caps and remove the cams (4). Make sure you know where the bearing caps go.

8. Unbolt and remove the heads.


http://www.autozone.com/servlet/UiBr...3d8013e4a6.jsp

[Pineapple]

The hardest part is get timing belt out. Much easier with engine is out. Get a repair manual so you follow thw sequency to remove the head bolts to prevent head warp and have correct torque when put them back on. After valve job, you'll need to run the car for some milage then check valve clearance again. It take some time for valves to seat properly after machining.

[Luckynumber5]

there is a TON more to this than you can ever imagine if you have never done head work on the engine, its also more expensive than you think, you need a gasket set, you dont have to replace every gasket but its a darn good idea cause you do not want a leak anywhere, it will sound horrible, you also must have new headbolts, if you are doing a p&p go ahead and have the valves refaced, relapped and reset as well as replace the valve seals b/c if they go bad you will burn oil and to replace them you gotta do this all over again

for my 92 3VZ-FE the head work ran me:
$270 full gasket set from toyota
~$100 for the headbolts

keep in mind you wil have a harder time with the valves if you do them yourself b/c the springs are tiny and regular valve spring compressors wont work, if you are taking the heads to a shop call around a lot and try to go to a place that specifically says they do imports, really important cause you dont want to give your nice pretty toyota heads to someone who doesnt know a thing about them, i had to do a lot of searching to find someone but he did a darn good job!

[zoni]

the reason nobody rebuilds imports is because they last long enough AND when they do die, there are PLENTY of motors with lower mileage in the junkyards that are much cheaper than a rebuild. if you want to rebuild, i'd say use performance parts and have a custom engine shop do it. otherwise get a junkyard motor and use the heads (or entire engine) from that.

It IS easier to remove the heads with the engine out. Its less work than you might think to remove the engine & tranny.