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blown head gasket on 3fz-fe 92 v6 camry! Tech Ques.

I determined my wife's camry had a blown head gasket after a leakdown test. I don't know exactly what originally caused this but I also found a crack in the upper plastic part of the OEM rad! Don't know if that was from the stress of an overheat or it caused the overheat due to a loss of coolant from that crack. :(

I ended up removing the affected front head and found the gasket blown as expected. Unforunately, I also found the surface of the block around the blown area had been pitted. Looks like maybe she had driven around too much with it.

My question is: Is any pitting at all on the block like this mean the engine is toast unless I remove it and strip down to the block so it can be sent out for resurfacing (or a new or used engine replacement), or is there any other realiable alternative like JBweld (please don't laugh. :), or some sort of in car repair on the block such as a mobile repair service that can repair pitting like this? Here is a picture of the pitted area:

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There is an area of around 0.15" maybe around the cylinder wall where there is no pitting.

Any help or opinion is appreciated.

thanks

davemac

Reply to
davemac
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Have you thought seriously about a new vehicle? I -might- clean the eroded area REAL well and deep, smear some JB weld into the pits, and quickly reassemble the head to the block. Drive to the dealer of choice for a new car.

Reply to
Philip®

I had the same damage to a Corona 18R motor. The original gasket had rust-welded itself to the block deck at the rear water-jacket holes. I had to power-brush it off using lots of pressure. When it was cleaned up it looked like your photo.

The only thing I did was to apply a hi-temp hardening gasket sealant (RollsRoyce or equivalent) to the new gasket. The car went on to clock up

40,000ks without failure.

The motor was 8.7:1 and thus should be roughly equivalent to cyl pressures of yours.

Jason

Reply to
Jason James

When I put the head on my 20 R, I used the orange color high temperature silicone gasket sealer from AutoZone on the head gasket. Not too much, just smeared it on both sides to assist in sealing. No probelms there either and it has been many miles. Was an iron block though, not aluminum, if that may make any difference. Head was aluminum. IIRC there were metal rings in the gasket right around the cylinders, to seal combustion pressure, so your pitting, if sealed by the gasket sealer, would primarily by subjected to coolant more than combustion gasses.

Reply to
Daniel M. Dreifus

The 18R had a Cast iron head which helped,...bullet-proof donk except for the cam chain tension. It never ran quiet, even with new chain.tensioners etc...seemed to be a function of reduced oil-pressure in an old motor I suppose.

That hi-temp silicone isn't cheap either!

Jason

Reply to
Jason James

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