6G Celicas Forums

So my head is getting to that point where something is needing to be done. I am thinking about rebuilding it and then porting and polishing the combustion chamber and possibly milling the head for some light compression gains. Here's the question...What's more expensive, having the head rebuilt at a shop or buying a rebuilt head on ebay or somewhere else and then having a shop simply switch the heads? Thanks

I think both will be pricey. Why not rip the head off your self and take it to the machine shop?

You know I never even thought of that. But what about putting the head back on? I know how to turn a wrench and do light mechanical repairs but installing a head seems a bit technical with the order of bolt installation and torque wrenching to spec. Right? Or is it a lot easier than I think?

Well when you remove your head you're going to have to remove your timing belt. So while you're doing that you might as well do your timing belt, Belt tensioner, water pump. And make sure you get a new head gasket too. Yes you will need to torque the head down to spec.

Good to know, definitely will do all of that too. Since I'll be replacing the HG, should I go for a metal one? Also, someone mentioned using a "crush" gasket for their header when they replaced that. I do have the ebay header and used the one that came with it. Should I replace it with a crush gasket?

Oh yeah, do you know if the 96 GT 2.2 has a non-interferance head?

This post has been edited by 6G96GT: Dec 9, 2008 - 7:59 PM

if your doing head work.....rule of thumb...dont re use the head bolts....order new ones as they are designed to stretch and will not tourqe down to the required spec's

Yes the 5sfe is a non interference motor. So if the timing belt breaks you won't have to worry about any other damage.

The majority of the work involved in getting the head off is disconnecting everything around it.

Some tips if you decide to do it yourself:

- Before taking the cams out put a bolt in the threaded hole. I believe it's the intake cam (I know it is on the 7A, I can't remember if the 5S was the same) There's a spring loaded scissor gear that is a pain to get back where it should be if it unloads. One of the bolts from the timing cover should fit perfectly.
Notice the gears on the bottom cam that aren't lined up...


- The correct way to take the cam caps off is to take off the one on the end first, then go to the opposite end and work your way to the middle. The order for taking them off doesn't matter as much as putting them back on.

- If you take out the shims and buckets to do the valve seals, make sure to label the shims and keep them with their own buckets. They need to go back in the same place they were in otherwise your valve clearances will be all wrong.


- When unbolting the head start on the ends and opposite corners and work your way in. When re-bolting it back in do the opposite. First torque them to 36 ft/lbs, make a mark on all the bolts so you know the current orientation, then turn them all another 90 degrees again in order.
Removing:
3 5 10 8 2
1 7 9 6 4

Installing:
8 6 1 3 9
10 4 2 5 7

- Oil all the threaded ends on the bolts, they torque more true to spec when you do.

- Make sure you line the cams up properly or the car won't start, or start and run really bad depending on how far off they are.


That's all I can think of right now.

Once I pick up some new head bolts and install them, do I have to re-torque them down after about 500 miles or so? Or, will they be all set after the initial torque?




I'm just going to remove the cylinder head and then bring it to a machine shop to do the rebuild. I'm not that mechanically inclined to mess with cams and all but if I was, thanks for the detailed info and tips.

correct me if i'm wrong but i believe you still gotta take the cams off to get the head off?

I don't know and I hope not cause I really don't want to get that involved.

Correct, Cams have to come out and I just looked through what I wrote and you're still going to need to know all that stuff.

The only thing you may not need to know is the labeling of the shims/buckets because you don't need to take them out to get the head off but I would do it anyway just to be sure everythings where it should be when you go to put it all back together because they can come out easily and the machine shop or whoever you send it to will need to take them out.

This post has been edited by hurley97: Dec 11, 2008 - 5:26 PM

Anyone know how much can safely be machined off the head without worrying about piston to valve clearance or without getting a thicker head gasket. I thought I remember reading that you could take .020 but I'm not sure

Just enough to make sure it's flat.

Thanks for all the input guys, one last question on this topic...how hard is it to check the valve clearance?

Just to check them is easy. To adjust them it isn't really that hard, it's just really time consuming and really annoying. As long as you aren't putting in different cams and don't mix up the shims and buckets you should be fine, I would avoid having to adjust the valve clearance at all costs if possible.

Oh and one more thing, never throw away or mix and match the cam caps. The cam caps that go with that head need to stay with that head, I learned that the hard way and had to get another head instead of just using the spare one I had just because I threw out the caps for the spare one assuming I could use the ones I had already.

This post has been edited by hurley97: Dec 16, 2008 - 5:54 PM

Good to know, thanks for the information Hurley