1ZZ-FE Warped Cylinder Head Success Story + 5 yr, 25K mi update; Head milled 0.012" & it worked out!
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- Опубликовано: 2 окт 2024
- In this video I tell the story of a 1ZZ-FE rebuild which involved a rather warped head, that required 12 thousandth's removed. Despite the warped head, the aluminum block was still square within spec. I did the rebuild about 5 years ago in 2013, and since the rebuild this engine has run well for over 25K miles (rebuild at 196K; over 220K at time of video).
I hope this video was helpful for you. Thank you for watching, and good luck with your repair!
Please post your 1ZZ-FE rebuild comments and experiences!
Video summary:
- I did a partial rebuild (removed head and pistons, didn't remove crankshaft) on this 1ZZ-FE engine from a 2006 Toyota Matrix that I bought for cheap as a no-start with unknown issues;
- there ended up being a few issues, but the main problem was a blown head gasket due to an overheat (overheat was caused by a disconnected electric radiator fan);
- the overheat was severe enough to significantly warp the cylinder head to the degree that the head required the removal of 12 thousandsth inch (0.012") of material to return it to flatness;
- despite this severe warpage of the cylinder head, the cylinder block was good and didn't require any work;
- I didn't use a thicker head gasket; I used the standard Ishino-Stone kit jhs-10477 (04112-0D173), which was excellent;
- I used new Toyota head bolts;
- everything worked out, and that was almost 5 years and 25K miles ago!
I'm not sure how much can be removed from an OE Toyota 1ZZ-FE cylinder head, but this video documents my experience. If you're working on Toyota (or other) cylinder heads, this document is useful because it lists cylinder head average height and minimum height by engine, according to the manufacturer specs. In that case of this head, Toyota doesn't state a minimum because they recommend to just scrap the head if it is warped, but the heads can be resurfaced/milled and often are:
innomach.com/images/IMS-CATALOG.pdf
I shot this video because I was under the valve cover to replace the Timing Chain Tensioner. Here's a full DIY for the Timing Chain Tensioner repair:
ruclips.net/video/axQIz8QEy_k/видео.html
I hope this video was helpful! Please post your comments and experiences in rebuilding these 1ZZ-FE engines so we can keep them out of the junkyard and get them back on the road!
Couple years ago I replaced a bad head on a 08 Mercedes e350 M272 engine with a used one from eBay. The head surface was glass smooth and checked out straight but I had it milled just to be safe. I was not happy with the result as the surface was now very "textured" so I feared the head gasket would not seal properly. I ended up sanding it down by hand (sort of) to get back the factory smoothness and it has been fine since. Was worried timing might be affected but it wasn't. I guess .012 off the surfaced is not enough to affect timing either on your Toyota.
Interesting! Thanks for adding that info : )
Good video. Did you find the valve cover gasket was thick enough to make the .012" height difference not an issue?
The valve cover gasket sealed just fine - but I did have to put a little extra RTV on those spots on the top of the head, under the valve cover gasket, where the head meets the timing case cover.
As for the head gasket - I used the exact "regular" head gasket which came with the kit, with no changes at all - I didn't use a thicker head gasket to try to pick up that "missing" twelve thousandths, though I considered it. After lots of consideration, consternation, and research and talking to people who know, and decided to just go with the factory head gasket...and everything worked out fine! Which was a HUGE relief! : ) She's been a great engine since!
Thanks for watching!
I see. BTW, you have a lovely voice.
Thanks for your complete details. I am in the process of rebuilding my 1ZZE-FE toyota corolla verso engine. Head gasket failed, radiator blowed and the coolant poured through the exhaust. Cylinder head is off from the engine. the block showing a warpage of 0.002inch between cylinder 1 and 2 . Can I consider it is within the spec and just resurface cylinder head?. Should I do honing as part of rebuild?
Oh man, I'm sorry that happened! According to the FSM, the maximum block warpage is 0.002", so that block is right at the limit, but within spec.
Have you been told by the machine shop how much the cylinder head needs removed? Seeing that the block is right at the limit, I would consider what the head needs removed before making a final call. And it's a hard call if the head needs a lot removed.
As for honing the cylinders - it is my limited understanding that the early 1ZZ-FE's could be honed because they had cast liners, and that people honed them with good results. Here's a description of the early 1ZZ-FE's:
www.engine-specs.net/toyota/1zz-fe.html
BUT, at some point Toyota changed and went with an MMC "liner-less" block design, and as a result the newer 1ZZ-FE's cannot be honed (it causes damage since there's no "liner"). Here's a document that briefly discusses this, for reference (see page 2):
www.mr2.com/files/mr2/techinfo/Random%20FSM%20Data/1zzVS2zz-2.pdf
And this site is outstanding and also discusses it:
toyota-club.net/files/faq/04-01-10_rem_1zzfe_eng.htm
That's really about the exact of my knowledge on the matter - I don't know the exact years when this occurred, or if it was staggered over different years in different markets, but I remember researching it at the time and determining that my particular 1ZZ-FE shown in the video (USA-sold model year 2006) should not be honed. So, I didn't hone the cylinders.
You've probably see this excellent rebuild video, and his engine is indeed the earlier (1998) 1ZZ-FE, and he honed the cylinders:
ruclips.net/video/A595LR4SQpI/видео.html
You can see the liners in his video at this timestamp above, so perhaps a visual inspection of your cylinder bores would be helpful for your final decision.
The only other tip I can give is perhaps to send an email or a phone call to Monkey Wrench Racing: they specialize in 2ZZ-GE rebuilds, but they likely know a lot about the 1ZZ-FE platform too:
www.monkeywrenchracing.com/
I hope that helps - good luck and post back with the results of your rebuild! : )
Thanks a lot for your information. That is a wake up call for me on honing. Regarding the cylinder head, it will be machined this weekend. The feeler gauge and the precision ruler is not showing more than 0.002". Hopefully the machine shop will confirm the same thing. It is an end of 2003 year car. Part of repair, I am also going to replace the piston rings. Thinking of making extra hole as well.I have investigated my cylinders and can confirm that my cylinders are lined with cast iron. To double confirm I have used a magnet and that attracts on the lining surface. Will keep you updated of the outcome 👍. Thanks once again @@L35inColorado
What did you think a realistic milage a person can get out of the 1ZZ-FE? Currently have an 06 1.8 with 154,000. 3K oil changes with filters. I drive highway speeds daily 70+ & was also wonder what software or literature do you get all the torque specs specifically for our engine?
I'm sorry that I missed your comment - as far as the life of the 1ZZ-FE, they are GREAT engines. It is not uncommon for them to reach over 300K miles: in fact, for the models that have the digital odometers, the odometers stop at 299,999 miles, and there are plenty of 1ZZ-FE's (Corolla's, Matrix) with the odo "stuck" at that value because these engine just keep on running! You're doing the right thing with frequent oil changes - keep that up, and your engine will serve you well.
As mentioned in the video (I think), I got that Matrix with a blown head gasket at 196K miles. I rebuilt it, and now it's got well over 220K miles. I wouldn't hesitate to drive it anywhere - it is very, very reliable.
As far as the literature/FSM (factory service manual): you can buy a two-day pass from Toyota at the Toyota TIS site and have access to everything you can imagine. You can also find hard-copy FSM's on ebay, and there are some pdf's posted on some sites, too.
I hope that helps - thanks for watching! : )
I'm sorry that I missed your comment - as far as the life of the 1ZZ-FE, they are GREAT engines. It is not uncommon for them to reach over 300K miles: in fact, for the models that have the digital odometers, the odometers stop at 299,999 miles, and there are plenty of 1ZZ-FE's (Corolla's, Matrix) with the odo "stuck" at that value because these engine just keep on running! You're doing the right thing with frequent oil changes - keep that up, and your engine will serve you well.
As mentioned in the video (I think), I got that Matrix with a blown head gasket at 196K miles. I rebuilt it, and now it's got well over 220K miles. I wouldn't hesitate to drive it anywhere - it is very, very reliable.
As far as the literature/FSM (factory service manual): you can buy a two-day pass from Toyota at the Toyota TIS site and have access to everything you can imagine. You can also find hard-copy FSM's on ebay, and there are some pdf's posted on some sites, too.
I hope that helps - thanks for watching! : )
My 2006 Corolla has 410,000 miles on it. It hit the 299999 limit 5 years ago but I keep track of extra miles with one of the trip odometer. She runs great, but it's time to change the timing chain tensioner and valve cover gasket to stop oil leakage. Best car ever, love Toyota!
I have a 2002 Camry with the 2.4 and its a total beater car and I used head gasket sealant and drove it for 4 years. I bought it from a mechaniac and assumed he was competent and honest! LOL.... It finally gave out and I overheated it once. I hand sanded it and this video has been helpful because I am at .011 gap where the head meets the timing gasket cover. I sanded the head and the block. Thanks for sharing this info because its been difficult to figure out how to determine total material that has been removed from the head - especially for those owners who but a second hand car and not sure of this history. I will add to this comment when I get it back together and test it. thank You!
You rolled the dice with proven long-term success! Back in 2018, did you do compression testing? Just curious if all 4 cylinders were low or only some cylinder?
I am sure you must have gone through many diagnosis to arrive warped head conclusion !
No, I didn't do any initial compression testing because at first it wouldn't even crank. When it finally cranked and started, it made it very obvious that it was a head gasket by producing enough white smoke to be mistaken for a steam locomotive! Here's the backstory on this one, if you're interested:
When I first saw the car, the owner said it had overheated while he was driving and his shop told him it was a head gasket failure. The owner had bought this Matrix new, so he had a great history on it: all the records, and he was super consistent getting oil changes done at 5K miles. He'd never had an issue with the car.
The owner told me that a shop had replaced the alternator a few days before the engine overheated, but the shop denied any connection between the alternator job and the subsequent overheat. They told him it was a head gasket failure, and the block was likely warped so he'd be better off replacing the engine for something wild like $3K.
He felt suspicious of them, because even though he didn't know about cars, he found it hard to believe that it was "just a coincidence" that his engine overheated a few days after they'd worked on it. He decided to replace the car instead of dropping $3K, and bought a new Camry. He battled with the shop for a few months, but they denied any wrongdoing; he gave up because it was too much trouble and headache to deal with them, so he decided to just cut his losses and sell the car for cheap to get it out of his life.
By the time I saw the car, it had been sitting on the street for months. It was no crank, no start. It's my understanding that head gasket failure is rather uncommon on these engines, and they'll typically at least crank and start with a blown head gasket. So I was suspicious of his shop's claim that it was a head gasket...until I started poking around in the engine bay and found that the electric radiator fan was disconnected!
Then a possible explanation surfaced, which was simply that the mechanic disconnected the fan to remove it while working on the alternator, then forgot to plug it in after the job. The owner told me when the repair had occurred, and I looked up the weather: it had been during a severe winter cold snap.
My guess is that things were okay for those few days running with the fan unplugged simply because the owner made only a couple short trips and it was during an a winter cold snap here in Colorado; he would have been running the heater on high and the outside air was very cold, so the engine was kept cool enough without the radiator fan spinning.
But that is a tight window on these little engines and weather changes quickly here, so within the week, the weather warmed up, he drove for a longer errand, and that is when the engine overheated due to no fan. (It's not uncommon here in Colorado to have temperatures swing 40 or 50F within a week during winter, from 15F degrees on Monday to 60F degrees on Friday). That's my best guess, at least - I know for a fact that the fan was disconnected, because that's what I saw. I asked the owner if he disconnected it, and he laughed and said he doesn't know anything about cars, and wouldn't even know how to disconnect it.
So, seeing the disconnected fan and hearing his account of the overheat, it now sounded reasonable after all that there was a head gasket failure. But that didn't explain to no start condition, because typically even with a blown gasket, these engines will start.
So I continued looking over the engine and found some other strange things - not the least of which was a completely missing crankshaft position sensor!
The CPS was gone - just gone. It was probably sitting on a bench at the mechanic's shop. So there's the answer for a no start.
I told the owner that I'd swing by the junkyard for a CPS, then come back and see if that would at least get it to start, and he agreed. So a couple days later, I swapped in a used CPS and was able to get it to crank, and eventually to rather turbulently start.... and it immediately put out enormous clouds of stinky, asphyxiating white "coolant" smoke. It was parked in a residential area so I didn't want to keep putting that terrible smoke up for all his neighbors, so I didn't run it long. But it was apparent that the head gasket was blown and coolant was getting into the cylinders. So, I didn't need to do a compression test after seeing that mess! I didn't even need to use a compression leak detector, which I had brought with me.
The owner was happy to see it start up again, but he'd washed his hands of it months ago. He said he only wanted one car, he loved his new Camry, and he just wanted the Matrix off his street and out of his life. So he sold it to me for $700.
I had it towed and got to work removing the head. The head gasket was blown at least between three cylinders (that's it at 2:40). I used a straight edge and feeler gauges to inspect the head for flatness, and that's how I determined the head was warped.
I removed everything from the cylinder head and took it to the machine shop. I asked them to remove only what they must to get it flat, and said that I didn't have a minimum height value but it was off an interference engine. I was surprised at how much work it needed!
But as described in the video, that 12 thou cut really de-railed my mindset, and I doubted that things were going to work out. I got advice from some experienced people to "just put it back together", so I did. And happily, everything worked out : )
One thing I should have mentioned in the video is that it took quite a while to clear the coolant from the exhaust system. I removed all the coolant from the cylinders when I had the head off and pistons out, so I didn't have any coolant in the engine. But there was enough coolant in the exhaust system to cause significant white smoke for the entire break-in idle/coolant bleed and high-idle period (over 30 minutes), then occasional smoke while driving for the first 10 or 20 miles. Then, everything cleared up and there wasn't any more white coolant smoke.
So that's pretty much the story! It was fun job, and I'd like to do it again. I largely followed this excellent video and the FSM, with a few differences:
ruclips.net/video/A595LR4SQpI/видео.html
Sorry that this reply is so long! I've been meaning to do compression testing on this engine because I'm curious what compression (psi) is now with the milled head; I know that the milled head increases the compression ratio, but I'm not sure how that translates to compression in psi. If I do that, I'll record and post a video : )
Thanks for watching, and thanks for your comment!
@@L35inColorado Appreciate the details so I can connect the dots & even relate to my own experience. Your methodical approach to re-construct the "crime scene" where Matrix repair shop disconnected the cooling fan then causing the overheat is truly out of this world !
Similar happened to me: we had a Lexus 3MZ-FE 3.3L, after repair shop changed thermostat, the engine temp was near "H" zone by just idling. His diagnosis was cooling fan control module defective. I told him give my car back and I will diagnosis myself b/c this can't be a 'coincident' (similar to your Matrix alternator-replaced-then-overheat). I spent the night and notice the upper & lower radiator hose remains super hot & super cold but should have similar temperature when t-stat opened. I bought a new t-stat myself and asked him to re.install. Problem solved. It's these scenarios putting auto repair industry in such a bad bad bad reputation.
Your crankshaft position sensor explanation solved the question I was about to ask 💯. It's strange how can CPS simply disappear by itself? We have a W203 M112, the CPS went out in 2022 and luckily OBD had P0335 code which points to defective CPS. Did your matrix throw any OBD code? Not sure if your M113 ever replaced CPS, but it's good to become familiar where it's located b/c you can repair by feeling it not seeing it (impossible to access)! The M112 CPS symptom was scary: car keeps cranking and can't start, or car simply shuts down while driving.
Your Matrix muffler must have lots of bends/crevices/curves where old coolant was depositing then slowly burned off, I would be super scared seeing white smoke while driving 😅
@@Brian_L_5168 Yes, I agree that shops who are so quick to say "coincidence!" are a problem and give good shops a bad rep: in my opinion, if an issue happens immediately following a repair, the repair process should be assumed as the cause of the new issue until proven otherwise - not the "coincidence" magic wand. Great job on your diagnostic work with your thermostat!
It is true that sometimes there really are coincidences where a totally unrelated failure can occur following a repair, but it is statistically rare (especially when its not an "unrelated" part, and when the car is otherwise well cared for). Even something that might appear to be a coincidence could be part of an undiagnosed "cascade" (for example, undiagnosed event 1 caused failure A; failure A was repaired but now failure B appears because it was also caused by event 1, so in the very least the repair of A was incomplete).
Regarding the M112/M113 crank sensor - yes, I've replaced two (I remove the driver's side wheel to do that job). Those are so hard to reach! I'd like to do that repair from above, but I don't think my arm is long enough or something -- those are just ridiculous to access, even with the wheel removed!
Those do tend to throw a code on the MB, as you know. And I don't mess with that code: as soon as I see it, even if only as a pending, I replace that sensor because it would be very scary for the driver to have the engine shut off while driving. Luckily, when it failed on my father's, he was parked and it just wouldn't start. When it failed on my sister's, she told me "there's a check engine light" and when I saw the code I told her not to use the car (didn't want it to shut down on her!) and I was able to get the part that night and swap it in.
As for the Matrix, it threw a bunch of codes after I got it to first start up - all kinds of misfire codes, probably a CPS code, and others. I was using my own Rav4 battery to run that Matrix when trying to get it start on the owner's street, so after I decided to buy it, I removed the battery from the Matrix so I could put it back in my Rav4 to drive home, and that cleared all the codes on the Matrix. I didn't start it again until after the rebuild, and at that time there were no codes.
And about the coolant: I thought "I'm gonna have to replace this catalytic converter" for all the smoke it put out! But so far, so good. Coolant doesn't evaporate, so it has to be burned up, I guess, and what a stink that is! : ) Oh the smell is just so bad! Haha
Your analogy of event 1 causing subsequent failure A,B,C,etc... Is pure gold, learning something new everyday, thank you 👍
@@L35inColorado You are very detailed. I respect that.