Cylinder Head Gasket

October 16, 2007

Alright people, bought my ST185 Gt4 a few weeks ago. Took it out for a run at the weekend and the cylinder head gasket went. Have been quoted £800-£100 to get it sorted but my mate and i fancy giving it a go ourselves. Done the gasket on his golf GTi no probs but not sure if we'd be out of our depth with the celica, heard they can be quite tricky to work on!? :wacko: If anyone has attempted this any info or pointers would be much appreciated. Cheers folks

October 16, 2007

Alright people, bought my ST185 Gt4 a few weeks ago. Took it out for a run at the weekend and the cylinder head gasket went. Have been quoted £800-£100 to get it sorted but my mate and i fancy giving it a go ourselves. Done the gasket on his golf GTi no probs but not sure if we'd be out of our depth with the celica, heard they can be quite tricky to work on!? If anyone has attempted this any info or pointers would be much appreciated. Cheers folks

Hi mate,

Sorry to head bout the HG goin! if you dont mind me asking, what were your symtoms before the HG went pop? i am having problems at the mo and i am worried that my HG might be on its way :( also where did you go to get quoted that amound for the work? i think your right, the gt4 engines are very complicated according the most mechanics ive spoke to - i went to toyota dealer in glasgow and they said "you know you would be best taking this to an import specialist it will be a lot cheaper and also cuz all our import manuals are in japanese!" so ive been on the lookout for an import specialist local to glasgow and also forums for help too. im sorry to hear about the HG but let us know how you get on if you decide to do the work

good luck!

October 16, 2007

Well the problem was that my water pump or a hose coming from it was leaking really badly. And because i had no water in the system the thermostat in the engine wasn't giving me a correct reading and it ended up over-heating without me knowing. Didnt have many signs to be honest, you would normally get white smoke coming from your exhaust if the gasket was cracked because of the water getting etc. but as it was dry this never happened. When i figured out it had been over-heating it was too late and the damage had been done. Im pretty new to this but i reckon it went somthing like that. Got quoted that by a place in Forfar, D.A REID. The guy has had a few Celicas and he has worked on for a few years. Think i might just let him have a go at it. What makes you think yours is about to go? Hopefully it will be somthing less expensive

October 16, 2007

Well the problem was that my water pump or a hose coming from it was leaking really badly. And because i had no water in the system the thermostat in the engine wasn't giving me a correct reading and it ended up over-heating without me knowing. Didnt have many signs to be honest, you would normally get white smoke coming from your exhaust if the gasket was cracked because of the water getting etc. but as it was dry this never happened. When i figured out it had been over-heating it was too late and the damage had been done. Im pretty new to this but i reckon it went somthing like that. Got quoted that by a place in Forfar, D.A REID. The guy has had a few Celicas and he has worked on for a few years. Think i might just let him have a go at it. What makes you think yours is about to go? Hopefully it will be somthing less expensive

yeah i have a leak also that the previous owner couldnt find, and ive had it looked at since ive had the car and we reckon it might be coming from the heater matrix valve - prev owner replaced rad, water pump, not sure about the thermistat tho and that the over heatin did a little damage. anyways im loosing engine coolant and its over heated with me twice, only seems to be during transit, but had pressure test and the guy said it seemed to be ok but there was a leak comin from that heater matrix. so my worst case scenario is that the head is cracked or warped. i dont have the "mayonaise" in the oil and i havent noticed white smoke from exhaust, ive also noticed that the turbo aint been spooling as fast as i think it should, like it seems to struggle to get to full boost sometimes (around the + mark on dash). dont know if its all related. i just dont trust my themistat reading at all, even thinkin about installing guages inside to read more accurately i.e. a number that the temp is at rather than somewhere between C and H!

my parents live in kirriemuir, and my grandparents used to live in forfar for years, grandad used to be a mechanic and a few of my other uncles too, i recognise the name of that garage you mentioned im sure they have mentioned them before.

have you heard of these guys in perth? http://www.awdmotorsport.co.uk/ supposed to be the bomb when it comes to jap cars. if i cant get mines sorted in glasgow im going to go there, actually a relative of mines that runs the place. is ur 4 an import?

sorry thats a bit of a post and a half!

October 16, 2007

Well the problem was that my water pump or a hose coming from it was leaking really badly. And because i had no water in the system the thermostat in the engine wasn't giving me a correct reading and it ended up over-heating without me knowing. Didnt have many signs to be honest, you would normally get white smoke coming from your exhaust if the gasket was cracked because of the water getting etc. but as it was dry this never happened. When i figured out it had been over-heating it was too late and the damage had been done. Im pretty new to this but i reckon it went somthing like that. Got quoted that by a place in Forfar, D.A REID. The guy has had a few Celicas and he has worked on for a few years. Think i might just let him have a go at it. What makes you think yours is about to go? Hopefully it will be somthing less expensive
yeah i have a leak also that the previous owner couldnt find, and ive had it looked at since ive had the car and we reckon it might be coming from the heater matrix valve - prev owner replaced rad, water pump, not sure about the thermistat tho and that the over heatin did a little damage. anyways im loosing engine coolant and its over heated with me twice, only seems to be during transit, but had pressure test and the guy said it seemed to be ok but there was a leak comin from that heater matrix. so my worst case scenario is that the head is cracked or warped. i dont have the "mayonaise" in the oil and i havent noticed white smoke from exhaust, ive also noticed that the turbo aint been spooling as fast as i think it should, like it seems to struggle to get to full boost sometimes (around the + mark on dash). dont know if its all related. i just dont trust my themistat reading at all, even thinkin about installing guages inside to read more accurately i.e. a number that the temp is at rather than somewhere between C and H!
my parents live in kirriemuir, and my grandparents used to live in forfar for years, grandad used to be a mechanic and a few of my other uncles too, i recognise the name of that garage you mentioned im sure they have mentioned them before.
have you heard of these guys in perth? http://www.awdmotorsport.co.uk/ supposed to be the bomb when it comes to jap cars. if i cant get mines sorted in glasgow im going to go there, actually a relative of mines that runs the place. is ur 4 an import?
sorry thats a bit of a post and a half!

October 16, 2007

Yeah it is an import. My dad knows the guy that works there, says he's pretty good. Yeah apparently the head is alluminium and cand be skimmed or somthing!? Was gonna try to save myself a few quid that way. Have you replaced the matrix? Are you still driving the car? I would stay away from it until you've had it checked over properly mate, or you could do more than crack your head. Yeah the guages will def give you a better reading, i've just got the petrol, boost andoil pressure at the moment. Gonna get a decent temp gauge aswell. There are a couple of decent places to put jap cars up this way, shame my car broke dwn just outside of Forfar

October 16, 2007

Yeah it is an import. My dad knows the guy that works there, says he's pretty good. Yeah apparently the head is alluminium and cand be skimmed or somthing!? Was gonna try to save myself a few quid that way. Have you replaced the matrix? Are you still driving the car? I would stay away from it until you've had it checked over properly mate, or you could do more than crack your head. Yeah the guages will def give you a better reading, i've just got the petrol, boost andoil pressure at the moment. Gonna get a decent temp gauge aswell. There are a couple of decent places to put jap cars up this way, shame my car broke dwn just outside of Forfar

yeah the head can be skimmed etc - but if its cracked them the !Removed! has hit the fan. ive not replaced the valve bit yet im goin to see a guy tomorrow about the whole thing and hopefully he can tell me whats goin on - i will get that bit replaced though just in case. 50bux from toyota for a stoopid wee valve thing! i am still driving it just topping up the coolant every now and again the garage i took it into the 1st time said i was ok to drive it still...but of course im takin it easy i dont want to do more unnecessary damage. dude thats a long walk home if ur from the deen! :lol: were the after market guages u have difficult to install?