Posted on the Toyota Club Forum...but no response...so....
Brought my 1997 (imported) Estima Emina in May 2008. Odd shocks have needed replacing and it has been a good (if not slightly thirsty) work horse for a family of 5. But back in June this year the expansion tank went pop! This cost =A3250 quid to replace (!!) but this clearly was the prelude to the cylinder head issues. Last month I got the tell-tell chuggin=92 at starting and the steam and blue smoke mix out the exhaust.
Now as everything else on the car is OK (body work is excellent), as I don=92t need this fix by =93tomorrow (got another car to use) and as I=92ve done clutch changes and removed cylinder heads in the past, a few questions to you great and good people.
1) I was thinking of dropping the engine and gearbox out to have the head off. Is this a good idea?2) Anything I should look for, in particular, when doing this job in general?
3) If the head is cracked, is there something I should specifically look at on the replacement head?Hope these are reasonable questions, any info you folks might have would be very helpful.
Steve