llcoolpass

Need your thoughts on what the heck caused this? Is this common failure mode? Any thoughts, opinions, stories, comparisons of your own......

I didn't know of any symptoms, no overheating or small leakage [that I could 100% say, like for example white smoke while driving]. I downshifted into 3rd gear to pass a truck, hit 65 and I put it into fourth, then noticed the tach go quickly to 5000 RPM [not the engine in real life, audibly or tactily] then back to umm I guess around 3000. Then, I put it into fifth as I eased off the gas and began figuring my options. I couldn't understand how the clutch could have slipped, but that's all I had to go on. Then it ran bad [within about 5 seconds] and ran worse and worse, and I barely made it up the off ramp I quickly had to decide to take that happened to be there, and then came to the stop sign, in neutral engine was like 450 RPM running poorly, and I gave it gas... reminded me of running on only a few cylinders..... and had enough power to smoothyl use clutch and get across this busy road and pull to the shoulder, where I immediately turned it off. Had to tow it. Noticed no coolant. Got home, checked for where the cool would go when I added water to fill neck. Noticed no leaks right away. Kinda puzzled me. Then I saw water coming out of slightly leaky flange [downpipe to catalytic converter]. Then a large frown took over my day.

Water pump, coolant, thermostat replaced April 30, 2008, so I pretty much doubt it was your normal 1990 through 1993 lexus/toyota es 300 /camry V-6 "overheating" leading to headgasket failure.....unless it was from previous overheating....
Something had bent the headgasket combustion chamber sealing ring on the middle [cylinder 4]. Note, too, that coolant was getting into cyl #2, 4, 6 [particularly #4] but the back [RH] head had none. Now I have two or three theories:
one that there was a leak from wear and tear which finally ended up casuing a lot of exhaust gas to instantly blow through to the coolant jacket.
two that coolant got into the intake port through some kind of Lower intake manifold gasket failure.
three that there was ignition issue [perhaps the tachometer explained by this??] that caused detonation or slight hydro lock or something?

llcoolpass

Additional pictures will be added here as they get uploaded:

http://s69.photobucket.com/albums/i7...e%2030MAR2009/

JSM1284

Just a common headgasket failure.

llcoolpass

common? like common for these particular cars? why did the ring bend like that.... and do you think the block and head will be good to go for another headgasket or would need work done? and did the tach blip because the coolant affect the spark... or was it the opposite [the spark issue caused the HG failure]? or do you suppose I am "thinking" about this too much??
thanks for checking this out JSM

the stuff here soudns familiar but the ring bend 'weird' compared to the photo. i guess my num 1 question is why did the tach jump

Anyone else

03 ES

have heard/seen numerous headgasket failures on the 3vz-fe motor....was/is quite common compared with the 1mz-fe
alot of that might have to do with the cast iron block/aluminum heads combo, as head gasket issues plagued all early toyota V6 engines, esp the 3VZ-E on the early V6 trucks, and the 2VZ and 3VZ in the camry V6 and ES250/300 models.

sorry to hear about your car man

llcoolpass

but what I want to know is [in my car], was this HG wear and tear, a detonation event, or overheat [previous[a year ago or more]] from which the damage finally was too much for it to work anymore...........

and in this failure mode where the circle [grommet? combustion seal?] bends every which way like that, should a technician worry about whether the surface gets irrepairably scored, or do the vast majority of 3VZ-FE with this [failure mode] work fine with just a clean up of the old gasket material and a new gasket installed?

and thanks it happened literally the day after I was fired so ....
rofl anyway, so I will eventually [when the $ comes] do a full project with this car , or I will go and do either of my other two favorite car projects [540i twin turbo, Q45 twin turbo , MX-3 or 626 turbo] and buy a 2nd vehicle[most likely a stick shift 4cyl or 6cyl nissan truck] to be better prepared next time . I had to walk miles through wildnerness just to get to a phone...sigh

llcoolpass

I had just gotten gasoline, full tank, at walmart/sam's club, that morning, so im wondering if i had detonation due to bad gas or something

03 ES

im sure it was just a HG failure and not overheating...
the 2az-fe 4cyl in the camrys has a habit of overheating and pulling the head studs out of the block in the rear of the engine, causing coolant to run out of the space between...it gives the illusion of a BHG, but with worse results (warped deck, etc)
id assume it was just a gasket failure, and it can be repaired as such.

llcoolpass

CorLexusES, I hope you're right. I wonder if everyone who did the HG on their ES or camry agrees.

but i'm worried that if I don't do the RH bank head gasket too while I'm already up to this point, it may go out.......
it takes a long time to get to this point.......
and the rear is harder to work with than the front.....
going to take me even longer to put it back together [thanks to Torque figures]......

I had a head gasket set lieing aroudn that I bought on ebay a year ago. Due to my $ situation, I can' spend money [though I want to] on a headgasket mod like you describe, though believe me, I would do that, especially if I were turboing it. This car is going to be my appliance until the $ comes in at some point.

JSM1284

What I think casused the bending of the ring, is when the gasket failed at the water port, that ring was very hot from combustion, The coolant sprayed onto it cooling it down very fast, and caused the metal to bend. Had a very similar failure on a 3.8L Thunderbird.

llcoolpass

what about the tachometer event that preceded the rough running....?

mmatheny

Hey - be glad it was the front bank and not the rear one! That would be a *****!

llcoolpass

but there is some damage to the block, NOT the head from that messed up ring on the head gasket..... sigh, im going to attempt to put it back together and pray it lasts a decent amount of time.

Gerson

iTrader: (1)

As a tech, I would suggest pulling the engine out and have a machine shop inspect for any damage. If its repairable get it rebuilt and take your time so it can be done right. A company called Cometic can make custom headgaskets for any car. Much durable compared to the cheesy Fel-Pro, or just go with genuine Toyota gasket set, if your just doing it for daily driving and not high performance. Its up to u...

03 ES

if i was in your shoes id be shopping a new motor...
it would prob be cheaper to buy a used engine than to rebuild the one thats in there if youre looking for long term reliability....
but if youre looking to repair the current one, a machiene shop should inspect the engine and advise on what actions to take