2onthreeputt

I just did this on my 92. It wasn't too difficult overall...this forum was invaluable. The thing I stumbled on the most was making a tool to hold the cam sprocket so I could remove the bolt. That was a failure. I finally came across a post by toysrme that said to use the cam "hex" and a wrench to hold it while I broke it free with a breaker bar. That worked. Everything on the "back" cylinder bank is tough to get to, but not impossible. The whole thing including resurfacing heads, new cylinder head bolts, gasket set (from toyota), plugs, plug wires, and O2 sensors cost me about $1100. I spent alot of time cleaning my intake air chamber..lots of carbon. I also spent a lot of time waiting for parts...due to my own failure to plan. Good luck!

Folks, Just thought I'd pass along a bad experience I had with ADC Cylinder Heads (aka: Artisque Diversified) http://www.adccylinderheads.com/ . I ordered a pair of heads for my ES300 online shipped for $565...the price sounded too good to be true...well, it was. I ended up recieving only one head and it was the wrong part. The company did a real poor job communicating with me during the refund process. I ended up writing a bunch of letters, and contacting my credit card company to dispute the purchase. Every call to customer support went either unanswered, or they said they would call me back and never did. Anyway, I just wanted to share with the group.

Well, I changed my fuel filter and re-checked my ignition timing...this morning, the cold stumble seemed a little better, but not totally eliminated. I'm wondering if it might be one of the temp sensors....I'm going to date myself, but this thing runs exactly like a carbureted vehicle with the choke stuck open...kinda feels like it is running lean cold...once it warms up, it runs like a champ. (Before you rip my head off, I'm fully aware that my car doesn't have a choke...just trying to draw on previous experiences with my outdated mechanical "abilities"..) One thing I did notice..the theromstatic vaccum valve that connects to my vapor canister busted off at the nipple (the end that goes to the canister)...maybe that is it..but there is no real vaccum draw when cold..I checked it.

Here is the thing..I had the problem BEFORE I blew a head gasket a few weeks ago...so I did both head gaskets, had the heads planed, cleaned the crap out of my intake manifold and air box..cleaned my egr valve and every other little orifice and hole attached to the intake manifold (about 6 cans of carb cleaner)...new plugs, new wires, new O2 Sensors..new gaskets all over the place....and it still does it. I don't think this is the problem, but I'm going to change my fuel filter next as I think it's the original....maybe cold start valve??

Thanks for this post...I was about to rip into mine this weekend..you just saved my bacon ..I think I'll look elsewhere for my acceleration problem (when cold).

What does you temp gauge read? I'm no expert like some of the other guys on this forum...but I just did the head gasket (both sides) on my 92 (143K) and i did see a bit of reddening of the coolant, but my oil looked fine the whole time. My expansion tank did have some reddish crap in it as well. I kinda thought it was simply neglected as the car wasn't maintained very well by the previous owner. There was no skipping or engine noise at all....thing ran like a top..very smooth. You might be able to test it by taking a coolant pressure tester and seeing if the pressure in the cooling system immedately starts to rise...As a fleet mechanic, I also seem to remember we had these little strips that would test for combustion reminiants in the coolant... Anyway, with that kind of miles and the cast iron block/aluminum head deal on the 92/93's..I would think head gasket might be in order...I did it myself along with milling the heads, plugs, plug wires, full toyota gasket kit, O2 sensors, etc for about $1100 total..I also did both sides... Good luck man..

Not to hijack this thread, but I'm going through this very problem myself. Driving to work one day a few weeks ago and engine started "skipping" coming off the exit..thought it might have just been a plugwire or something. After work, it was tough to start...but I got it going. Started driving it home and noticed white smoke coming out of the tailpipe after a few minutes and the temp gauge started climbing pretty quick. Immediately pulled over and had it towed home. I took off the front head and the middle cylinder (#2?) was all nice and steam cleaned! Gasket was torn right through to the coolant chamber. Actually, the seal for #1 wasn't looking so great either...looked like the ring around the piston for the gasket was torn into an oil chamber. Anyway, took both heads of and sent them off to be milled. Ordered a new gasket set from a lexus dealer and got new head bolts, plugs, plug wires and O2 sensors. I plan to start bolting everything together this weekend. I'm into it for $600 so far. Pistons look good....cylinder walls look nice. The thing was running like a top before this. I'm going to take some pics and post them during the re-assembly. The timing belt was recently replaced and the water pump looks brand new. Oh yeah: It's a 1992 ES300 with 141000 miles...