Another Lex Joins My Stable...92 Es300

[landar]

Just bought a '92 ES300 because, apparently, I am a glutton for punishment. I own several Lexus LS's but this is my first ES. I bought the car with my son after he saw it listed on Craigslist. We know there are issues but do not yet know the complete extent. However, it does run reasonably well, paint looks good, the tranny shifts smoothly, the A/C works and brakes seem fine. We paid $600 for the vehicle. The car is also a rust-free California car which is rare for where we live in the Indiana rust belt. That's one of the main reasons we went ahead and shelled out the $600.

The previous owner is a grad student from Notre Dame and did not want to take the car back to CA with him because....he claims it has a blown head gasket(according to his mechanic). I guess I can believe that as I see whitish smoke come out of the tailpipe. I also see coolant dripping on the ground right beneath the main crank pulley so I am thinking the water pump is leaking as well. Probably needs a timing belt while at it.

Anyone have suggestions on how to verify the blown gasket or narrow down the search? I am hoping it is a gasket and not a cracked head or block. I am also thinking a leakdown test on each cylinder might show the guilty cylinder. Thoughts?

[1990LS400]

Randy, I think you need an intervention.

I doubt if you are going to be able to tell if its a blown head gasket or something more serious until you removed the heads. Whether it's a bad head gasket, cracked head or block, I don't think a leakdown test will tell you which it is. There certainly is a lot of "plumbing" in the engine compartment on the Toyota/Lexus V6 to remove. Just getting at the rear cylinder bank looks like a challenge - I don't even what to think about doing much on our Camry V6.. I assume you've replaced head gaskets before. If you haven't it's not a big deal if you have the time, the tools and are methodical which I know you are. But it sure looks like there are a lot of small parts to keep track of as you remove them. The last car I replaced the head gasket on (and a variety of other parts) was a much simpler early 70's Fiat 124 Spyder. It was easy except I had some nuts and bolts left over - car ran fine for another year or two until my friend sold it so the leftover parts must not have been very important.

If you are going to keep buying old Lexus cars, make the next one something unusual - maybe an SC300 5-speed manual.

[landar]

Hey Jim. You found me. ^_^ Yeah, the last thing I need is more headaches and cars to work on. I certainly can and have tackled tough problems such as this. I just felt really bad for the car. It was like a "rescue" pet. Rescue it from this clueless student and give it a good home and some TLC. Primarily, it will be my sons daily driver and we can make it a "father/son" project. So I tell myself.

I did some searching on this site and see that a JDM used engine can be had for about $800 (shipping would probably put it closer to $1000). So, worst case (cracked block) we go that route. Else, its a tear down. There must be some good tutorials on tearing down an early 3.0L ES300 engine out there but I have not found them as of yet. I will keep looking. Thanks for the advice.

[landar]

Ok, here is my latest theory. This guy drove the Lexus with a leaky water pump and enough of the coolant leaked out that the engine overheated a time or two which took out the head gasket. So now it needs pump and head gasket repair.

[landar]

So far, I have removed the intake "chamber" (as Toyota calls it...I call it a plenum) and the spark plugs. The one plug is wet with what appears to be coolant. It is cylinder #6 (LH bank) which is the head toward the radiator.

[landar]

Intake manifold is off along with one valve cover. Next job is to remove the timing belt and cams. Gotta remove the cams to get to the head bolts. DOH. Hey....how does this thing go back together? Hello? Helloooooo out there?

[CORZRYDE]

From my experience, lay out the pulled parts in the order they're pulled. Basically, you're placing them on a clean surface in the order they will go back in. Should still look like the internals of the head in their proper location once everything is pulled.

Now, since it's a Lexus & a little complex, I'd take pictures of each step, write mental notes down, etc. Last thinng you wanna do is forget how to put Humpty-Dumpty back together again

Goodluck with your father/son project, can't wait until my son is old enough to work with me in the garage!

[landar]

Cam sprockets are now off, next up is pulling the cams on the LH head and then the head itself. Need to buy a "service bolt" to lock the two gears in the exhaust cam first. Its coming along, slowly.

[landar]

We clearly determined that the #6 cylinder (LH - drivers side cylinder), gasket was blown. I understand that this is the most common one to blow out. A new gasket is installed, new timing belt, water pump, thermostat are all back on. Intake installed along with plenum. Just a few little things to take care of before it is "show" time. Yikes. Soon it will be the moment of truth. Turn the key. Stay tuned... ^_^

[landar]

Finally turned that key last night and....KABOOM! :o just kidding :D She's alive!

After sputtering for a few seconds, the engine came to life and ran nicely. We did discover a hose that we had missed reconnecting and had a coolant leak around the thermostat area. Snugging the bolts some more fixed that.

At first, the engine did not seem to want to idle so I kept the RPMs in the 2k range to keep from stalling. I took it for a spin around the subdivision and when I got back it began idling correctly. The battery had been disconnected for weeks as we performed surgery so it might have been the computer relearning.

Then the heart attack phase. We noticed a lot of steam coming out of the exhaust. Crap. But the engine seemed to running fine, no misses, nothing. So I took it for more driving, all the while keeping an eye on the temp gauge. It was holding perfectly. After a while, the steam quit coming out. I think it might have been leftover coolant in the muffler and exhaust system from before and just need to be super-heated to be expelled. Anyway, thats my theory and I am going with it! :whistles:

So, this Lex is back on the road (after a lot of work). whew.