ok, i have my brother's 92 lexus es300 and he blew the radiator while driving down here to SLC about a month ago. it's been sitting here and i've decided to start taking it apart. but before i came to this decision, i had already replaced the radiator and it fixed the problem of antifreeze shooting out of it, but what concerned me was the green antifreeze dripping out the tailpipe and the oil looks the way i drink coffee.. tons of cream. so i figure it has a blown head gasket as well or perhaps a cracked head.

What i'm wanting to know is if it's possible to strip it down to the block, meaning taking both heads and the intake and whatnot without having to pull the motor? it's a 3.0 v6 so it's in their sideways for front wheel drive and one head is right there and i'm guessin the other is down towards the bottom of the firewall. *shrugs* i just need to figure out if it's fixable within a reasonable price because i'm looking to sell it right after that since he's giving it to me to have. lol. well... he has my 77 f-150 4x4 in trade for it. any help would be appreciated! i don't wanna have to call him up and tell him he needs to bring my truck back and walk his pos toyota home.

 

Well, being that you're in a forum now, I'm sure you thought of looking for Toyota and Lexus forums too, right? Unfortunately, that's all the help I can offer, but I know I hate it when no one responds. =)

 

oh i could care less if i get a response. i just start tearing it apart anyway. lol. either way it has to come apart whether it's just the heads or the whole engine. *shrugs* i don't wanna look for a different forum. i think the only thing i was hoping for was someone to say it could be done on a v6 whether it was a ford, chevy, whatever.

 

Haynes or other fine brand of book ought to tell the tale. Just go to Pep Boys or Kragen or other auto parts dump, tear the plastic off, and read the section about head removal.

Isn't this a Camry in drag?

Can't be that tough...

 

Yes it is a glorified V6 Camry. Those heads should come off without removing the engine. You will probably have to unhook the engine mounts all the way around and then jack (or pull) the motor to tilt it forward to get to the rear head. I will tell you, that particular motor (3VZ-FE) and parts are huge $$$$. They only used it for 92 and 93 and it a DOHC V6 . You may want to price some of the parts ie head set, timing belt, water pump, etc. You can buy another car for the price of a head. If it was me and I decided to fix it, I would have the heads checked out before I ordered anything for parts. Good luck and let me know what you do.

 

I don't know if this will help you or not but I remember that some of the Toyota v6's,and I think this is probably the same engine used in the Lexus during that era, had head gasket problems and there was a factory recall on them. I don't know if yours would be in this or not but it would not hurt to check it out.

 

well the car has 208,000 miles so i'm not surprised that it blew something after my brother stressed it out revving it high a lot. i just wanna get it to the point that i'd be able to sell it. i'll probably pull of the heads and get them checked and if they're ok then go ahead and just replace gaskets and whatever else looks like it might go bad after it's back together. if it's too bad i guess i could get an engine off of ebay, i've seen a couple of them for around $600 on there with a lot less miles. *shrugs* or i'll just put a for sale sign on it with a great big $500 on it and call it good someone's gotta buy that lexus emblem for a few c notes. if you get the low book value on it off of nada, it's worth 3,000. and it'd be in that condition with the motor running the way it was before which was great.

 

It can be done...a bit differently but it can be done

 

just have to figure out how to flush the block. that "cream" doesn't come off easy. maybe if you do get it running, a couple of flushes might work. *shrugs*