Cylinder head symptoms

[bigmike]

What are the main symptoms when a 3.0 td has a cracked head? Do they pressure up the cooling system, overheat or is it something that can go undetected for a while before letting go?

[Albannach]

What are the main symptoms when a 3.0 td has a cracked head? Do they pressure up the cooling system, overheat or is it something that can go undetected for a while before letting go?

Overheatng causes the cracked head, not the other way round.

[bigmike]

That was quick! Thanks. I probably put the question in a poor way. I meant how can you tell if the head is cracked, on the 3.0 version? Does the crack go into the water jacket and cause pressurisation? I realise that overheating causes the problem in the first place and is to be avoided.

[DaveHMS]

Mine was blowing coolant into the expansion bottle & chuffing out a lot of whitish smoke when up to temp. When the head was lifted it was cracked between the valves on pots 2 & 3. My own stupid fault - I new the rad was weeping coolant before I took a thrash up the M40 & didn't notice the temp gauge going into the red.....

[mrkrss]

My 94 KZN130 is in the toyota shop at the mo, with a badly cracked head. I think the head was cracked before i bought it around a year ago. Since I bought it, I have had a few issues with minor overheats. And that was after having put in a brand new 4 core radiator. Apparently, if the gasket and/or head are leaking, cracked or blown, not only can it pressurise the cooling system (apparently mine was doing this but I couldn't tell), but supposedly if its exhaust gas getting through, it can cause the coolant to heat up causing engine overheating too. I'm convinced that it was the cracked head that was causing my engine to overheat, but until I get it back, I won't know for sure. So I think it can be either heat that cracks, or cracks that heat. Funny how it went for a year, including several longish trips, and multiple trips towing a double float, with no bubbling, no water in the oil, no "normal" symptoms of a head or head gasket problem, and the only reason I found out was because it had a leakdown/compression test done on it. And I have probably spent around $1200-$1500 on radiators and transmission coolers thinking that the hot running was due to these.

[stormforce]

I have been doing long trips with my truck and towing upto 3.5t and a couple of years back i had the temp through the roof and atf warning light on.
Ever since on long trips i have had the temp rising alot and had the atf light on a few times but i done a complete service last week and since that i did a 700m trip towing 2.4t and on the way home the temp climbed a bit and when i got home and allowed to cool i had to put about 3l of coolant in and also about 1.5l in Wales before i left there.I have been getting a fair bit of white smoke on start up over the last 3 months and now i am certain the head has gone as i get some white smoke while driving every so often.I got a spare head at the workshop which i will test and then fit that if its ok

My 94 KZN130 is in the toyota shop at the mo, with a badly cracked head. I think the head was cracked before i bought it around a year ago. Since I bought it, I have had a few issues with minor overheats. And that was after having put in a brand new 4 core radiator. Apparently, if the gasket and/or head are leaking, cracked or blown, not only can it pressurise the cooling system (apparently mine was doing this but I couldn't tell), but supposedly if its exhaust gas getting through, it can cause the coolant to heat up causing engine overheating too. I'm convinced that it was the cracked head that was causing my engine to overheat, but until I get it back, I won't know for sure. So I think it can be either heat that cracks, or cracks that heat. Funny how it went for a year, including several longish trips, and multiple trips towing a double float, with no bubbling, no water in the oil, no "normal" symptoms of a head or head gasket problem, and the only reason I found out was because it had a leakdown/compression test done on it. And I have probably spent around $1200-$1500 on radiators and transmission coolers thinking that the hot running was due to these.

[_cj_]

my 3rd gen - temp seemed ok most of the time - more white smoke in the morning than was usual but not loads - sometimes difficult to start, it felt the starter was jammed but after a couple of seconds it would catch. The big give away was pressurisation of the rad

Regards,

alex