Recently had a problem with my 120 1kd, drove all towing a Jayco, stopped at the info centre, on restart it was running rough, sounded like it was chuffing air out of the snorkel??? black smoke, white smoke, terrible noises. Cancel trip to national park, luckily a van park nearby. Call RACQ, can’t diagnose properly but thinking cracked piston. Workshop can’t look at it for a week, offered to tow us home under our ultimate care plan. Ok 600kms in a tow truck and my other half has a bad back… arranged tow for 2 days time and an early start. On the way out of town we pass a local the Toyota dealer??? What the? RACQ didn’t mention them as an alternate and I didn’t think to look. Anyway back home after dropping off at workshop for diagnosis I am reading all the pradopoint notes and googling and getting depressed that the Prado is going to need replacement engine No.2 !!! Car has done 360000 rebuilt engine 120000km. Workshop checks injectors and seals all seems fine, sent injectors for test, all test fine. Head scratching. Replace engine, buy used from wreckers, buy new from Toyoster, rebuild ?? Which way to go…
Online consensus seems to be do not spend money on finding out the pistons are cracked just fix. Local curious mechanic who has looked after the Prado deems it wants investigating further. To keep costs down he will work on it sporadically. Anyway head comes off and he calls me to come see …..blown head gasket between cylinders 2and 3. Pistons and bore look fine, oil clean, can’t locate any other problems, what was root cause?
send head off the be crack tested and machined. Report all looks ok. Machine head, replace all gaskets, new head bolts, new timing belt and tensioner ( to be sure even though they had only recently been done) new injector seals, clean, put back together, test run, 5 weeks later and $3500 lighter the Prado is on the road again, good as gold. Still none the wiser why the head gasket went though..thanks for reading, just thought I would share.
Online consensus seems to be do not spend money on finding out the pistons are cracked just fix. Local curious mechanic who has looked after the Prado deems it wants investigating further. To keep costs down he will work on it sporadically. Anyway head comes off and he calls me to come see …..blown head gasket between cylinders 2and 3. Pistons and bore look fine, oil clean, can’t locate any other problems, what was root cause?
send head off the be crack tested and machined. Report all looks ok. Machine head, replace all gaskets, new head bolts, new timing belt and tensioner ( to be sure even though they had only recently been done) new injector seals, clean, put back together, test run, 5 weeks later and $3500 lighter the Prado is on the road again, good as gold. Still none the wiser why the head gasket went though..thanks for reading, just thought I would share.
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