JspecSC3

iTrader: (4)

Yes there is. You can pick up a little bottle at your local mechanic shop. They reccomend that you put it in your oil and run it for a day before you bring your car into service. Then they turn off the lights and turn on their ultraviolet light to spot the leak.

I currently have some of these symptoms you guys are talking out. Well actually Ive had them for about 6 months now. The temp goes up and down but not dramatically. The motor has about 265k miles on it. I think I should start planning for a headgasket replacement also.

qmanlexus2

From what I been researching you will see a grayist color floating in the coolant and a smell of gasoline and air bubbles. What I think I have is a slight leak or a small breach in the gasket and I think the gases from one of the cylinders is leaking into one of the water jackets in the block getting in to the coolant causing the air bubbles. I am really pissed that Lexus told me that the head gasket was not blown when my mechanic and I had determined the car with a blown gasket before I took it to lexus and had told them to change it. The car is going back this week and I am really curious on what they are going to tell me. They charged me $700.00 to do a coolant change oil presure switch, pressure test and compression test. and also change spark plugs and wires which I supplied since i had purchased the original parts already and had them in the trunk of the car. They told me that they wanted to make sure this was checked before spending the money. I am feeling a case of miss dianosed BS. It sucks 5 months ago the stole my other SC that i had right out of my drive way. I bought this one to replace the the one that was stolen. I had that one for 8 years and it was mint. I never had a problem with it. Anyway Iwill keep you guys posted on the progress.

toykilla

Sorry to hear the problems. I had a blown HG right after I purchased my SC. I couldnt stomach the $$$ to pay someone else to do it so I ordered the gasket for $50 and tore into it myself. It took me a few weekends because as I got down into things I found this car had not been well maintaned so I stripped everything, cleaned up tons of leaks, and replaced whatever I could. The headgasket is a pretty big job, but in the end it was worth it for me to learn the engine and save a few grand I would have otherwise paid someone else.

qmanlexus2

Well I finally brought the car back for them to check out again after 1,200 Miles. The coolant tank had emptyed out but was still running cool with no problems. Where TF is the Coolant going was my question to them. They had explained that they had Did a Compression check and also done a Pressure test on the Radiator. When I pulled the car out of the dealership the first time I marked the level of the Coolant in the tank with a pen. It was a bit above the Full line an showed the service adviser and asked him why do I still have air Bubbles in the Tank. He said that they had just changed the Coolant and that all the air would Purge out. They had opened the Block as well to drain all the coolant and it still may have air in it. At this point gave I left with the dought that it might be air. I monitored it for that whole 1200 miles and noticed that the level was starting droping slowly on a weekly basis. There conclusion was It may a possible head gasket problem. At That point I knew they had got over on me and my 700.00 plus the Parts I suppled was gone. I* am really thinking of asking them for some money back due to the fact that I had called to get an estimate on a head Gasket job which they had quoted me 2k for. My and I mechanic had determined that already. They just had to do it but they decided not to and tell me that it dosent have a blown head gasket. At this point I will never trust them again and I am going to pursue thisnfurther with them to see what else they have to say and I want part of my money back.

qmanlexus2

Originally I had called the first time to get an estimate for the Head Gasket repair. They told me that lets do the tests first and determine if its bad so I agreed. I also asked them what about the dianostics time. What if its a blown head gasket am I going to pay for all this diasnostic time? They told me it will be included in the 2k

qmanlexus2

Thats where I went wrong. My instinks should have told me That I should followed my hunch to begin with. What would you guys do? What do you think I should do about it? I thought the Service adviser was a honist person but know I am doughting it

chanh55

How mmany miles do you have on the motor?

qmanlexusn

MY SC300 has 96K

2JZ_SC

All I6 Toyota motors have had a prolbem with the head gasket. The 7mg was one of the worst. A lot of prolbems were fixed with the 2JZ but not all of them. I'm just waiting for mine to pop so " Sorry honney, My head gasket poped. It will just be faster to drop this 1 or 2JZ-GTE in." . Sorry man.

qmanlexus2

I recently found a honist good mechanic that has a shop that he works out of on week nights and weekends. He specializes in MV11 Supras We removed the TB and performed a Compression test across all cylinders. We discovered that none of the Numbers from the test that Lexus did didnt even come close to what we recorded. Cylinders 4 was 98 & 5 was 113. I knew at this point that something was wrong. The numbers from the test were made up and the test was never done. I had a blown head gasket all this time as I had indicated to them from test done previously. At that point we did a leak down test. We confirmed all other doughts that I had were correct. I got scammed. WEll in the persut of Happyness i am going to approch Lexus on what happened and see what they have to say about this. How would you approuch this type of situation with Lexus?

qmanlexus2

Well I Just decided to take it apart with MY friend Brian the 2JZ Specialist. Brian works on Supras and has a private shop that he does this at night. I am attaching some picks of the progress. The Head is at the Machine shop and when it was removed it was not warped so It was sent out anyway to have it checked anyway. The most time consuming job is the Engine block cleaning which I have spent about 12 Hrs on. I am a bit disapointed that I have been asking for help from the Club and no one has responded for a while

qmanlexus2

Well Just to let you guys know The head gasket was changed along with new valve seals water pump radiator lower & upper hoses cam seals spark plugs. Car is running real good. The one thing that was driving me crazy was after doing this a few months later i was losing coolant again. I had used new stainless steel clamps. They has to be retighted a few times and then it was fine for a while. I started losing coolant again checked all the hoses and clamps nothing. Anyway now I am thinking the worst. Heater core. Well it turned out to be the heater control valve would leak only on start up and stop. The one thing That I thought wasa OK and never gave me any signs of leaking. It leaks from the screw that holds the little arm that turns it on or off.
I have found a replacement for the heater control valve. Since it leaking but not so bad I am waiting for warmer weather to make the fix. I found a heater control Valve that will work on our cars. I will update the post soon with my results.

scnatik

Let me know when you sell it.

scnatik

Glad to see it fixed.

Jschlegs28

QMan, Is there an update on what ever happened after much time had passed? I'm about to do my HG change. I actually have the PDF to do it too *yay*