Need help fixing camry 92 engine

[sanengo]

What is required in order to replace the cylinder head gasket of a V6 camry? I have the Haynes repair book for my car and they removed the engine in order to replace the gasket. Is that a hard job? I don't want to spend $2000 at an auto shop to get this fixed.

And if I am going to remove the engine, is there any other things I should do for the sake of all the work I'm going to put into it already? valves? camshaft? header? cylinder heads?

My car has almost 100k miles and the only engine part I remember having replaced was the timing belt, which cost me a fortune.

[Strider327]

If you plan on doing such a major job. You should have the head ported and polish as well by a machine shop and change all gaskets cause you gonna have to anyway. It'll get your moneys worth plus be more reliable in the future with less to no problems of this happening again. Probably run you around $1000 at most. That's including labor and parts.

[sanengo]

Ok, I just purchased two engine gaskets, a set of 6 bosh platinum 4+ spark plugs, ractive spark plug wires. I hear changing the Y-pipe will give good power gains, anyone know where I can find one for my particular camry?

Thanks.

[ProMan]

If you need to get the engine out, you better have proper equipments. And if you are not well experienced with cars, I would suggest you to have someone experienced do the job with you. Because it's not an easy task. You have to get everything right when you put it back together -- cams, seals, timeing belt, bolts torqued correctly, etc. And you won't know if you do it right until you finish everything and try to start the engine. If something is not happy and the engine won't start, you may need to do it again.

Again, you definitely need proper equipments -- car lift so you can raise and lower the car easily (jacks may work but it's not convenient at all), engine hoist so you can raise the engine out of the car, tools - some may be special tools, torque wrench so you can torque all the bolts to the specs, and, locate a machine shop to check the cylinder head for you.

[sanengo]

Thanks for the reply, yeah this is going to take alot. A friend of mine is a mechanic and he agreed to help me with the tools, but I'd like to learn some of this too.

I have a set of torque wrenches and various other tools because I worked on bikes before. I'm not completely unhandy as I used to build and mod computers (watercooling etc)

What do you guys suggest I clean my throttle valve with? I'm sure once I get my engine out I'll need to do lots of cleaning, can someone give me a list of things I should check out?

[yoji6365]

It might be alot cheaper and faster to buy a used JDM engine and have your friend help you install it.

[Brian R.]

Originally Posted by sanengo

What is required in order to replace the cylinder head gasket of a V6 camry? I have the Haynes repair book for my car and they removed the engine in order to replace the gasket. Is that a hard job? I don't want to spend $2000 at an auto shop to get this fixed..

They removed the engine since they needed to remove it to show you how to remove the engine in the previous section. It is easier to remove a head, and get pictures of how to remove a head, from an exposed engine than from one in an engine bay. You don't have to remove the engine to remove the head. Haynes definitely doesn't say that you have to remove the engine to remove a head. I think you've misread their procedure.

Originally Posted by sanengo

And if I am going to remove the engine, is there any other things I should do for the sake of all the work I'm going to put into it already? valves? camshaft? header? cylinder heads?.

Since you only need to remove the head, put in some new accessory drive belts and a new timing belt, a new timing belt tensioner, new water pump, new factory-recommended spark plugs, and replace any hoses that look even slightly questionable (particularly ones that have one end that is hard to get to).

Originally Posted by Strider327

If you plan on doing such a major job. You should have the head ported and polish as well by a machine shop and change all gaskets cause you gonna have to anyway. It'll get your moneys worth plus be more reliable in the future with less to no problems of this happening again. Probably run you around $1000 at most. That's including labor and parts.

Don't port and polish the head - for any reason. If you only remove one of the two heads, which is reasonable to fix a leaking head gasket, you leave it alone or the cylinders under the modified head will have different characteristics than those under the unmodified head and the engine will run rough. Even if you are removing both heads, there are better things to spend money on for performance than that. Don't waste your money. Leave the head alone unless you have bad valves. Then get a valve job.

Originally Posted by yoji6365

It might be alot cheaper and faster to buy a used JDM engine and have your friend help you install it.

Certainly, don't buy a used engine just because you have a leaking head gasket unless the leak has totally trashed the engine. As a matter of fact, if it comes to that, don't buy a JDM engine for a Camry for any reason unless there are extenuating circumstances. Stick with the exact engine that came with your car to keep alot of headaches out of your life. Particularly since you live in California.

I hope you haven't yet removed the engine or you've figured this out on your own, unless you are looking for a hobby.

[Brian R.]

You certainly have a way of endearing yourself with only one post to enhance your reputation...

[sanengo]

This is sort of an old post but I did some research and replaced the gasket a few weeks ago. Only took a torque wrench and a new gasket . Thanks Brian for the help.

Camry runs fine now. Did the ACIS mod and really smoothened out its power curve.

BTW, Brian you misquoted me. The third quote was by Proman, not me

BTW2, I have a Japanese built camry and the engine should be JDM. It has japanese written all over it.

[Brian R.]

Thanks for pointing out the misquote. I fixed it in my post. (Actually it was strider). Don't blame it on Proman, he was actually giving useful advice. I finished posting it around 4:00 am, so I wasn't totally awake.

Glad you figured it out on your own. If your car was built for the US market (even if it was made in Japan), you should use an engine built for the US market to replace it, not a JDM engine. If your car was made for the Japanese market, then you need to use a JDM engine.

I didn't consider it an old post since some people procrastinate a while before undertaking a project of this magnitude (replacing an engine or whatever).

BTW, if you have a really good description of how to perform that mod, you should post it.