Head Gasket Scope Creep

[LostinSpace]

Hello all! First post here

Picked up a 2010 Yaris with 185k on the 1.5l for a really good price, auto unfortunately for now. Purpose of the car is to be a reliable daily with good MPG. Possibly tasteful mods in the future.

There is a small bubbling of air in cooling system, I did do a head gasket dye test and it passed with no change. My understanding is that there is pressure in the cylinder leaking past the head gasket into the cooling system.

From doing some research I have come to the conclusion that it will be easier to just drop the engine since the timing chain cover has to come off.

The engine runs great so I have no worries that the motor is healthy, would it be better to consider buying a junkyard motor with less mileage and swapping it in? I have one local to me and would run about $450.

Anyway I was hoping for some suggestions of preventive maintenance items that would be easy to do while I am in there.

My current list is as such:

Head Gasket: 1111521091
Valve Cover Gasket: 1121321011
Crankshaft Seal: 9031125032
Thermostat
Water Pump
Oil Pump Seal 1: 1149721010
Oil Pump Seal 2: 1215121010
Toyota Genuine Seal Packing (FIPG) 103 Liquid

Thank you in advance!

[sh0rtlife]

imo grab the wrecker engine and toss it in and go...then you can tinker and rebuild the OE engine at your leisure...its how ive always done it

[Neinris]

Or... Find a Scion xD and go with a 2ZR engine. Since yours is currently an automatic, you'd find plenty of xD's auto. Make sure to grab the PCM/ECU, the engine harness, and if you're lucky a mid-pipe intact.

[remcafee]

thats weird, head gaskets are never an issue on these engines, i would make sure it is for sure that before motor swapping

[LostinSpace]

Originally Posted by remcafee

thats weird, head gaskets are never an issue on these engines, i would make sure it is for sure that before motor swapping

I also thought it was strange, I was hoping it was something simple but no luck so far. I think my current plan is to pull the head off in the car before swapping motors. If I can clearly tell that the head gasket went bad I will try replacing that first and send it.

[LostinSpace]

Update:

Decided to first try doing the headgasket since I opened up the valve cover and the engine looks super minty for the mileage, started on it this weekend.

First hiccup was finding out that the head bolts were 9mm 12 point triple square, yes you heard that right, 9mm, not 8mm or 10mm. Went to half a dozen stores trying to find the set/bit with no luck, ended up having a buddy in town that saved the day.

Second hiccup was getting the timing chain correct and in time. Probably took it on and off almost 20 times. It kept skipping 1 link every full rotation, but finally got it after 5-6 hours of pain. Not sure what exactly I was doing wrong to cause this but I was following the service manual.

Going to finish it up this weekend hopefully

[LostinSpace]

Update:

She runs! Drove for around an hour and no issues so far, flushed out coolant with distilled and use some new cheapo 5w-30 and did a flush of that as well.

Going to start dailying so that I'm confident she can make the 1000 mile trip to WI and back in less than two weeks.

[LostinSpace]

Update:

Still no issues, no hiccups during the trip to WI and back. So far put around 2000 miles on it so far.

Have a check engine light for a misfire on cylinder 3. Swapped spark plug, and coil pack, and still on cylinder 3. I also tried running a fuel injector cleaner with no such luck. Next test will be to replace the fuel injector on cylinder 3.

[sh0rtlife]

did you swap 1 and 3 or 2 and 3?
1/3(bank1) 2/4(bank2) are grouped so you need to swap from "bank 2"
would also reccomend swaping the injectors around befor replacing

royal purple full system cleaner, run some in a tank once or twice a year and youll be pleasantly supprised...a friend pointed me out to that stuff, and ive never bought into the idea, but...ive not had to rebuild a bike carb since starting using it..if it can keep my bike carbs clean then injectors on something used daily is easy

[LostinSpace]

Originally Posted by sh0rtlife

did you swap 1 and 3 or 2 and 3?
1/3(bank1) 2/4(bank2) are grouped so you need to swap from "bank 2"
would also reccomend swaping the injectors around befor replacing

royal purple full system cleaner, run some in a tank once or twice a year and youll be pleasantly supprised...a friend pointed me out to that stuff, and ive never bought into the idea, but...ive not had to rebuild a bike carb since starting using it..if it can keep my bike carbs clean then injectors on something used daily is easy

I did not think of this but thankfully I swapped 2 and 3 so I do believe the test still proves. I might give that Royal Purple a shot before replacing the injector. Thanks for the suggestions!

[matt4x4]

Lots of space in there, backup engine if you want to keep the car then it would seem like a logical option, as long as its not to hard to rebuild, hopefully no fancy, specialized, expensive tools or take it out yourself and hand it over to a rebuilder. PRobably lots of videos showing you what to do. But need the space, and need time and need tools or spend more.

[LostinSpace]

Originally Posted by sh0rtlife

did you swap 1 and 3 or 2 and 3?
1/3(bank1) 2/4(bank2) are grouped so you need to swap from "bank 2"
would also reccomend swaping the injectors around befor replacing

royal purple full system cleaner, run some in a tank once or twice a year and youll be pleasantly supprised...a friend pointed me out to that stuff, and ive never bought into the idea, but...ive not had to rebuild a bike carb since starting using it..if it can keep my bike carbs clean then injectors on something used daily is easy

Update:

Turns out it was due to a bad injector, bought a used OEM from eBay for $15 and slapped it in and rough idle and check engine lights all went away! So far no other issues, next thing on the list is to figure out why the airbag light is on