Head Guru's read on....

[wibblywobbly]

I finally decided to let a garage do all of the labour intensive servicing on my Surf. It had sprung a huge coolant leak after the Speedflush had cleared the crap out of the system, so it needed a new waterpump anyway. Just in case anyone is interested, this is what it cost, and to honest I reckon it is pretty reasonable!

Investigate leak
Check timing
Adjust rear handbrake
Pressure test
Renewed water pump
Renewed timing belt - Genuine Toyota
Renewed all drive belts - OEM
Renewed air con belt - OEM
Renewed PAS Belt - OEM
Flushed coolant
Replaced coolant
Labour 3.5 hours at £35 an hour

£276 inc VAT

I now know that all I have to do is get the injectors checked , and it should be as good as it gets. It seems like a good price to pay for peace of mind?

Cheers

Rob G

[marky]

what about an oil & filter change

[gemini]

what about an oil & filter change

and diesel filter

[marky]

and diesel filter

and Air Filter

[wibblywobbly]

I said labour intensive!!!

I replaced the oil, oil filter, air filter and fuel filter, rad cap and thermostat myself.


The best bit is yet to come. I have just spent all of this money, drove it tonight for the first time......and I think that the head has blown?!!!

Coolant pouring out of the expansion tank, heaters are cold, and it's blowing out of the exhaust as well. The strange thing is that the radiator is cold, and nothing blew out of the rad cap when I took it off.

It was pure luck that I had 4 litres of diluted coolant in the truck that was there from before I took it in for the pump to be fixed, or I would still be 3 miles from home.

I am now trying to figure out whether I can get anything out of the garage, I asked them to do a pressure test, and it is shown on the invoice?

This truck was running fine(ish) before the Speedflush, I warned others against putting it in and then did the same myself...and what happens!!

Of course I could sell it, £2500 would be a bargain for someone????

Damn Damn Damn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[gemini]

I replaced the oil, oil filter, air filter and fuel filter, rad cap and thermostat myself.


The best bit is yet to come. I have just spent all of this money, drove it tonight for the first time......and I think that the head has blown?!!!

Coolant pouring out of the expansion tank, heaters are cold, and it's blowing out of the exhaust as well. The strange thing is that the radiator is cold, and nothing blew out of the rad cap when I took it off.

It was pure luck that I had 4 litres of diluted coolant in the truck that was there from before I took it in for the pump to be fixed, or I would still be 3 miles from home.

I am now trying to figure out whether I can get anything out of the garage, I asked them to do a pressure test, and it is shown on the invoice?

This truck was running fine(ish) before the Speedflush, I warned others against putting it in and then did the same myself...and what happens!!

Of course I could sell it, £2500 would be a bargain for someone????

Damn Damn Damn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

bet you they havent got the airlock out when they refilled it

[Koi]

I replaced the oil, oil filter, air filter and fuel filter, rad cap and thermostat myself.


The best bit is yet to come. I have just spent all of this money, drove it tonight for the first time......and I think that the head has blown?!!!

Coolant pouring out of the expansion tank, heaters are cold, and it's blowing out of the exhaust as well. The strange thing is that the radiator is cold, and nothing blew out of the rad cap when I took it off.

It was pure luck that I had 4 litres of diluted coolant in the truck that was there from before I took it in for the pump to be fixed, or I would still be 3 miles from home.

I am now trying to figure out whether I can get anything out of the garage, I asked them to do a pressure test, and it is shown on the invoice?

This truck was running fine(ish) before the Speedflush, I warned others against putting it in and then did the same myself...and what happens!!

Of course I could sell it, £2500 would be a bargain for someone????

Damn Damn Damn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Would fill it up again and bleed it properly, can you be sure the garage bleed it properly after fitting the pump.
Opened both front and back heaters to full, top up with coolant, replace cap start for a minute or so, remove cap refill and so on til it wont take no more, i doubt it.
So i would do this first, if it was an air lock the air would expand and push out loads of coolant. This would be my first port of call.
I know you say its blowing out the exhaust but i would still try the above first, for none of the heaters to work & the rad to be cold it must hav lost a lot of coolant or wasn't filled properly in the first place.

[wibblywobbly]

Would fill it up again and bleed it properly, can you be sure the garage bleed it properly after fitting the pump.
Opened both front and back heaters to full, top up with coolant, replace cap start for a minute or so, remove cap refill and so on til it wont take no more, i doubt it.
So i would do this first, if it was an air lock the air would expand and push out loads of coolant. This would be my first port of call.
I know you say its blowing out the exhaust but i would still try the above first, for none of the heaters to work & the rad to be cold it must hav lost a lot of coolant or wasn't filled properly in the first place.

I sat in the truck for an hour waiting for it to cool down, the expansion tank was still steaming. I gingerly removed the rad cap expecting it to blow big time, but nothing? Felt the rad, and it was cold. One thing that I did notice when I topped up the coolant was that instead of just filling it up and it stayed full, it just kept dropping, so I had to keep pouring more in.

It was the exhaust steam that has me worried. How else can coolant get into the cylinders??

Thanks for the advice though, keep it coming!!

Cheers

Rob G

[Koi]

I sat in the truck for an hour waiting for it to cool down, the expansion tank was still steaming. I gingerly removed the rad cap expecting it to blow big time, but nothing? Felt the rad, and it was cold. One thing that I did notice when I topped up the coolant was that instead of just filling it up and it stayed full, it just kept dropping, so I had to keep pouring more in.

It was the exhaust steam that has me worried. How else can coolant get into the cylinders??

Thanks for the advice though, keep it coming!!

Cheers

Rob G

These things take an age to cool down after a run, do it all from cold in the morning. The exhaust sauna is worrying, it could well be the head if they never filled it up properly and its driven half empty and pushed out what little coolant was in there, then this may well have cracked the head or damaged the gasket.
These motors take time to bleed and in the past watching mechanics (not all) fill up a cooling system, well they fill the bottle up to the line job done.
I would also question where they filled the Surf up, bet you a tenner they filled up the expansion bottle and thought hey that didn't take much???
Would take it back to the garage and see what they got to say for themselves.

[marky]

it was ok before it went into the garage

[carl]

Just had mine done, by a Toyota mechanic, sure fire well to tell if the head or head gasket has gone, is to remove the expansion bottle cap, but keep the end of the hose immersed in the coolant, if you can see air bubbles coming out of the tube, like blowing through a straw, then its air, returning to the bottle, and the only way is via the head, and if there is moisture coming from the exhaust that is another definite sign. I had both of these when I drove mine down for the repair work to be done. Sorry!!

[Andy W]

Just had mine done, by a Toyota mechanic, sure fire well to tell if the head or head gasket has gone, is to remove the expansion bottle cap, but keep the end of the hose immersed in the coolant, if you can see air bubbles coming out of the tube, like blowing through a straw, then its air, returning to the bottle, and the only way is via the head, and if there is moisture coming from the exhaust that is another definite sign. I had both of these when I drove mine down for the repair work to be done. Sorry!!

Just out of interest, how much did the job cost or was it warranty ?

Andy

[carl]

Just out of interest, how much did the job cost or was it warranty ?

Andy

The total I paid was £1250, but I had a friend at work who new a Toyota mechanic, who does work in his priavte time, he charged me £20 per hour, and got me all parts at list minus 15%, including a new head for £724, but he also found a few extra things on the way down, wrong air filter fitted, original cambelt needed changing,valve oil seals had been leaking, allowing oil into the combustion chamber.Also my supplying dealer had fitted a conversion mph sticker on the sppedo, but managed to jam the needle, so it never went past 40mph! So i was more than happy with the deal, and I learnt a bit about these cars as well! He reckons that if I have got that lot done at his dealership it would have been almost £2000 in parts alone!! Gulp!! He also used the original toyota red coolant as well.

[wibblywobbly]

Quick update

I rang the garage today and I am taking it back in tomorrow. I will act dumb and see what he says.

My theory is that they never got rid of an airlock, the coolant obviously wasn't circulating or the rad would have been hot too. I also figure that as the temp guage is fine until I do more than 30mph that the gasket has gone. The increase in heat is expanding the head and allowing water into the cylinders. When it cools the hole shrinks and it reseals.

The big plus point that I have is that I asked them to pressure test the head, and they have stated on the invoice that they did, and that the only leak was on the water pump. I am so grateful to this forum for that bit of advice, as I would never have asked them to do it otherwise.

As they have stated that they did the pressure test then they have proved that the blowout can be due to the work that they did. If they didn't pressure test it and just took a gamble then that is their misfortune.

If the worst comes to the worst I may agree to a replacement head if they pay all of the labour charges (although it may just be the gasket, the head was fine before). Does anyone know what the parts are likely to cost, Roughtrax is next door!!!

Cheers

Rob G

[gerry mann]

headprices for wibly wobbley

1 new head gen with bolts head gasket set gen head gasket and a free cam belt £600 plus vat delivered the lot 07836288198/01725552008