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happy 4afe top end
Just wanted to post a feel good toyota shade tree job. I am an IT nerd with tools. My girlfriend overheated her Geo Prism and blew the radiator and head gasket. I only payed 500$ (93 geo prism with a 4afe toy engine) bucks for the car 4 years ago with 90,000 miles on it. I was going to junk the car (it had 120,000 miles on it) but said what the H*ll I'll pull the head. I have never done a head gasket before, especially a double overhead cam but understand the concept. I decided to replace eveything remotely related to the top end when I went back in. Example: water pump, tc pully,valve seals. After manufacturing a crank bolt tool and removing a butload of parts I got the head off. I saw where the gasket failed in the lower left hand corner. Then used a metal straight edge to judge the surface of the aluminum head. It was bowed in the center i think .005 too much. Brought it to an awesome machine shop in Stuart fl. where the guy asked me how many miles are on the motor and explained that if I did a full valve job that the piston scraper rings would not survive the increase in compression and that toyota made them out of a very flimsy material for mileage purposes. If I was just going to try to get more miles out of it to just surface the head and compression test it. He did that and said there were no cracks. Anyhow to make a long story short i followed all the torques specs, cam alignment specs, etc. in the manual and the car runs like new. 140,000 miles now. Toyotas are great! And can be worked on by most knukleheads.
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