2002 2.4 Head gasket repair journey

[BigNev]

Heck of a job you're into there mate!

Good luck with progress, I'll keep watching out for updates!

[Michael Brown]

Very good pictures again and your updates on what you are doing. Fingers crossed you will be successful and have Alphie back on the road in no time.

 

Good Luck

[crazymac680]

Day 13 - 2 hours

So I spent a lot of time waiting for parts. When I was ready to install the head bolts. I realised that the new ones didn't come with washers and I'd thrown away the old😂.

Didn't want to risk buying something similar and decided to ask Toyota. It was about £2.50 per washer but £28.99 delivery! I emailed asking them if they could get me a better deal on the delivery but after 3 days I had no reply. So I ordered from Amayama. It took about 3 weeks but only cost £16.90 inc delivery! Great service. I spent the first hour checking that my holes were clear or debris and oil. Then confirming that my holes were deep enough. 

Gave the head and block a final clean. 

Fitted the gasket and head. 

Greased the washer and thread of each bolt with engine oil. 

Torqued to 30 - 42- 55 - 70. In the order in the images. 

Final 90 degree turn in the same order. 

Feel like I'm on the home straight. Time for bed now. 

 

[crazymac680]

Day 14. 2 hours. 

Another successful night regardless of the 40mph wind and showers. Luckily mostly sheltered by the house. 

Put the block to TDC.

Cleaned up the camshafts as there was some rust starting to form in the followers. 

Oiled all the surfaces.

Installed the camshafts and torqued the bearing caps to 9nm for the small ones and 29 for the big one. 

 

[Michael Brown]

Keep up the work you are doing Daniel, fingers crossed you will have Alfie back on the road again soon

[MonsterS]

Ah i see the problem. it's a 2.4 not a 3L.

[crazymac680]

1 hour ago, MonsterS said:

Ah i see the problem. it's a 2.4 not a 3L.

🤣 Yeah most of the work was removing the timing chain cover

[crazymac680]

Day 15. 2 hours. 

Another good night. Slow and steady progress. 

Cleaned up the timing chain cover. Getting it ready for gasket sealant. 

I had to drill out 2 studs from the cover. Tonight I installed 2 helicoils to keep the bolts the same size as the originals. 

I really struggled to remove the crank oil seal. I had to very carefully cut it with the hack saw. The new one went in by hand. 

I then dialed in my timing marks and installed the chain guides. 

Tomorrow I'll hopefully clean up the engine and install the timing chain cover. 

 

[crazymac680]

Day 16. 1 hour. 

Cleaned up the block in preparation for the timing chain cover.

Noticed the pink powder around the bottom of the water pump. So decided to replace it. Very easy to remove. Just 5 10mm bolts. 

 

[crazymac680]

Day 17

2 Hours

Felt like big progress today. I've been dreading using silicon gasket but think it went pretty well. Started the day with a failed attempt to remove the exhaust bracket bolt with my new induction heating tool. Looks like I'll need to weld the bracket back together. 

I needed to jack the engine up quite high to get the timing chain cover above the power steering pipe. I did a few test runs to make sure I could get the cover onto the engine without ruining the gasket. I installed the water pump first but then removed it as I needed the extra space. 

It says to install the cover 3 min after applying the sealant. It took a bit of study and preparation to get my head around all the different sealant widths. 

Cover on and all bolts torqued to spec. Timing chain tensioner and water pump next I think.

 

Edited March 16 by crazymac680

[BigNev]

Absolutely superb job you're doing there, especially with the outdoor aspect!!

[Monksey]

Hi crazymac680 , brilliant job I must say unfortunately I am going to have to tackle the same job on my daughters alpha 2.4l 2006, I have worked on cars alot and feel confident on the job a bit concerned on the amount of siezed bolts you had to deal with on you job. I am just wondering if you have managed to get a workshop manual as I find it difficult to find one mainly for all the torque settings. 

Kind regards, 

Bob.

 

[crazymac680]

Day 18. 5 hours

This morning after 2 hours work I was in a online meeting and my boss told me I was on holiday🤣. I was delighted to get out and work on the car in daylight. 

I started with the belt tensioner. It was a mix of jacking the engine up and down to get better access. 

The manual tells you to put the E10 torx in first but I found it best to install the pulley then the tensioner to the pulley and finish with the E10 torx on the bottom of the pulley. I couldn't make it work following the manual. 

I then did the water pump which was faulty straight forward. 

Alternator is a little tricky with the long bolt and hard to reach bolt underneath. 

Power steering pump really stressed me out. Really tough to get it back in position it's mount was really tight. Made harder be my air box resting on it's pipes not allowing it to fully enter the mount. Eventually managed to lift my air box and get a bit more slack and got it closer to position. Then I had to squeeze the massive mounting bolts in. Top one is the worst. Even with the engine fully dropped into the subframe. The top bolt didn't clear the inside wheel arch. Had to give it a couple of love taps with the hammer. Then use a wobbly joint on the ratchet to tighten it up, through the pulley.

Fitting the was tough. I really struggled to pull the tensioner with my tool and then use my free hand to get the belt on the pulley. I ended up fitting the on all the pulleys and putting it on the alternator last as it was easiest to reach. 

Air box went on ok. 5 bolts from the top. 2 from the bottom. The hard bolt is the one next to the throttle body. Mount the bolt to a long extension and socket and feed it in to the hole blind. 

Rocker cover was nice and easy. Installed it with the new gasket. 

New gaskets also installed on the air box and chain tensioner. 

Think I forgot to talk about that. 

I tried various tools to get the release switch on the tensioner but couldn't get it. Then seen a video saying it can be done by turning the engine anti clockwise. This worked. 

Really tough day but finished feeling pretty good 

Lpg rail and spark plugs next. 

I don't see how a garage could make profit on this kind of work charging under £2000? It's a battle🤣

 

 

 

[crazymac680]

[crazymac680]

On 3/17/2025 at 12:08 AM, Monksey said:

Hi crazymac680 , brilliant job I must say unfortunately I am going to have to tackle the same job on my daughters alpha 2.4l 2006, I have worked on cars alot and feel confident on the job a bit concerned on the amount of siezed bolts you had to deal with on you job. I am just wondering if you have managed to get a workshop manual as I find it difficult to find one mainly for all the torque settings. 

Kind regards, 

Bob.

 

Morning!

Good luck with the job when you get going. I'll got a couple of workshop manuals. One is for the RAV 4 with the same engine. Thats nice and easy to read but not everything seems to be in it. I've also got a Japanese manual that has everything but is a bit harder to use.

http://fsm.japanclassic.ru/toyota/2002.5_7a037_alphard_anh1,mnh1/x339/index5.html

Open in google chrome so you can use google auto translate. You click the 2az link on the left. Then click the top link on the right in blue. Delete _base from the address and then hit enter. Google should then auto translate the whole page. 

 

I spent quite a bit of time finding the right sized taps and drill bits. Much cheaper than buying a full kit. I'll give you a link to what I bought if you need it. Probably best to research it though as it would be easy to use the wrong size. 

[Monksey]

Thank you for the reply.

Had a look at my daughters 2.4 alphard, I think it is the head gasket blown but can't be certain, it doesn't over heat but does lose water with no obvious leaks , no frothing on oil cap but does appear to be blowing slightly white smoke out of the exhaust but no power loss .

 A mechanic has told her to try some steel seal in it first , not really expecting great results but it does state guaranteed permanent repair or money back , I will let you know how it performs. 

Keep up the good work you are doing  brilliantly.  👍

Kind regards, 

Bob.

 

[Gamith]

41 minutes ago, Monksey said:

Thank you for the reply.

Had a look at my daughters 2.4 alphard, I think it is the head gasket blown but can't be certain, it doesn't over heat but does lose water with no obvious leaks , no frothing on oil cap but does appear to be blowing slightly white smoke out of the exhaust but no power loss .

 A mechanic has told her to try some steel seal in it first , not really expecting great results but it does state guaranteed permanent repair or money back , I will let you know how it performs. 

Keep up the good work you are doing  brilliantly.  👍

Kind regards, 

Bob.

 

Do you need to top up the radiator? On mine I could only make out the level looking from the offside, though my reservoir may well be muckier than yours. If it stands around a lot then condensation may be the issue.

 

[crazymac680]

2 hours ago, Monksey said:

Thank you for the reply.

Had a look at my daughters 2.4 alphard, I think it is the head gasket blown but can't be certain, it doesn't over heat but does lose water with no obvious leaks , no frothing on oil cap but does appear to be blowing slightly white smoke out of the exhaust but no power loss .

 A mechanic has told her to try some steel seal in it first , not really expecting great results but it does state guaranteed permanent repair or money back , I will let you know how it performs. 

Keep up the good work you are doing  brilliantly.  👍

Kind regards, 

Bob.

 

Get a head gasket test kit from eBay. Steel seal got me about 500 miles before it started losing water again. At least it got me back home. 

[Monksey]

On 3/18/2025 at 6:59 PM, Gamith said:

Do you need to top up the radiator? On mine I could only make out the level looking from the offside, though my reservoir may well be muckier than yours. If it stands around a lot then condensation may be the issue.

 

Hi Gamith, my daughter has just come back of holiday in scotland and it was then she relized it was using a significant amount of water, it had always been fine untill that trip. At weekend I am going to give it a leakdown test, pressure test , and a coolant pressure test, hopefully that will find the problem.

Kind regards,

Bob.

[crazymac680]

Day 18. 

1 hour. 

Just a quick bit of work today putting the drivers side engine mount and top mount on. Finally I can remove and seal my sump again. It needs sealed since I removed my timing chain cover. 

Got 2 oil filters and enough oil for 2 changes. I plan to do a quick oil change to remove anything that made it's way into the engine during the work. Haven't decided how long I should leave it yet. Tell me if you have any good logical reasons to change at 5 min or 1 month? 

 

[Gamith]

>change at 5 min or 1 month?

I am not an expert but personally I would:

1) Start by turning the engine over a few times, on a manual you could have it in gear, jack up a wheel and turn it but not sure how to approach that on an automatic.

2) As long as it turns freely start the engine and leave it to run for at least 10 mins until the oil is warm.

3) drain the oil and change the filter at that point - my guess is that whatever is likely to have been caught would have been caught by then.

4) obviously secure sump plug and refill with the proper oil

5) should be good to go - check for leaks would be the only advice, but I'm sure you would be doing that.

[crazymac680]

1 hour ago, Gamith said:

>change at 5 min or 1 month?

I am not an expert but personally I would:

1) Start by turning the engine over a few times, on a manual you could have it in gear, jack up a wheel and turn it but not sure how to approach that on an automatic.

2) As long as it turns freely start the engine and leave it to run for at least 10 mins until the oil is warm.

3) drain the oil and change the filter at that point - my guess is that whatever is likely to have been caught would have been caught by then.

4) obviously secure sump plug and refill with the proper oil

5) should be good to go - check for leaks would be the only advice, but I'm sure you would be doing that.

Yeah that sounds good to me. Get it up to temperature and then drain it. 

My big worry is that timing chain cover leaking. It was so complicated reading how to apply the sealant. Taking that cover off again would probably have me calling it quits🤣

[BigNev]

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for you mate!

Yes I'm with you both, no logic to my reason just old fashioned gut feeling.

Turn it over with the crank pully nut a couple of times, maybe spark plugs out if its too tough.

Then start it up and get it up to full temperature, with the heater on full heat, whilst checking on coolant levels and for any little weeps. 

Then drop out that oil into a clean pan so you can check it!

Edited 6 hours ago by BigNev

[crazymac680]

Day 18

1 more hour. 

Managed to get the sump off. 

Installed the air box. 

Tomorrow I'll try and prepare the sump surfaces for reinstallation.