expecting the worst!!

[yoshie]

As usual,jump in with both feet!
If the ballon blows up in 10 seconds or so its not expanding water or air is it!! It shows that gases are passing into the coolant chambers,which is what happens on these heads as you well know!!

Utter shite.
That's both feet.

[Sancho]

is it a big job - swapping a head over??
I'm quite handy with the spanners.
Who's the man for heads - "stevo"?
what can expect to pay - all in - doing it myself?

Oh, jesus....

Stevo does genuine Toyota heads.
Roughtrax do AMC pattern heads.
Milners do ???? heads.
Ebay does heads made out of old KitKat wrappers.

That list is pretty much in order of how much they cost. You get what you pay for and the only one that you should definitely not go for is the ebay option.

If you're a competent mechanic, take your time about it and ask questions when needed, conventional wisdom is that you should be able to do it yourself relatively easily. I fulfil none of those criteria myself....

[jaky cakes]

is it a big job - swapping a head over??
I'm quite handy with the spanners.
Who's the man for heads - "stevo"?
what can expect to pay - all in - doing it myself?

[s car go]

Forget the balloon, totally usless as an indication of anything other than to prove heated air expands, but wtf that has to do with anything I have no idea.

As usual,jump in with both feet!
If the ballon blows up in 10 seconds or so its not expanding water or air is it!! It shows that gases are passing into the coolant chambers,which is what happens on these heads as you well know!!

[yoshie]

If you got bubbles,you already know the heads cracked!!
Other tests:-gas snif or a balloon stretched over the rad cap(cap off)
Sorry mate!!

Regards

Mark

Forget the balloon, totally usless as an indication of anything other than to prove heated air expands, but wtf that has to do with anything I have no idea.

[s car go]

If you got bubbles,you already know the heads cracked!!
Other tests:-gas snif or a balloon stretched over the rad cap(cap off)
Sorry mate!!

Regards

Mark

[si tate]

Sounds like the head to me, same thing with my mates, his ran fine apart from lots of White smoke & coolant hoses were as hard as concrete due to gasses building up.

[jaky cakes]

Hiya folks - not been around much recently due to baby / wife / work.....

Just been giving the truck a monthly once over - found the oil level had dropped off the dipstick and coolant level dropped dramatically as well. topped up both - 2litres coolant and same for the oil.
I've noticed just recently how smokey (white) the truck is when pulling away from traffic lights after ideling for a few mins, also lots of white smoke when starting hot.
no signs of water leaking nor oil. dipstick/filler cap clear of emulsion. no loss of power.

EDIT - just ran engine with expansion bottle lid pulled to one side - lots of smallish bubbles( pea sized) in coolant - esp' when revving.

Head cracked? gasket gone?

Come on guys - tell me as it is - is she fcuked?

any ideas - other tests???