Been through it and yes, it is expensive. The head on my 2004 is now the freshest part of the engine. If you're in the Southeast Massachusetts area and still broken, you can have the entire car for less than what that valve job costs. Just took it off the road in December. I'm new to the forum, if there's a market place I'll post it with some pics.
Is the engine crankshaft rotating when you try to start the engine ?Originally Posted by gearhead1
Wyr
God bless
I've done a few of these. 04-08 are easy compared to the 09 and up. Complete valve/gasket kits are on ebay for under $100. Yes, all 16 valves and gaskets for about 88.00. Take the head off, clean it. Replace the valves. I use a bit of grinding compound and lap the valves by hand before installing (another 9.00). Add another 50 or so for a timing belt/water pump kit and you'll be good to go.
You will have a few bent valves but replace them all. Pistons might have a tiny scratch but should be ok.
88.00 valves and gasket
14.00 antifreeze and distilled water
9.00 valve lapping compound and short piece of rubber hose (for the twisting)
20.00 valve spring/keeper removal/installation tool (ebay)
40.00 timing/water pump kit
10.00 water pump wrench (ebay) for adjusting belt tension (really makes the job easy)
Add a weekend or two and a case of beer and she'll be back on the road.
60.00 or so to have the head resurfaced/cleaned at NAPA machine shop
Before pulling the head or timing belt, remove the starter, while it’s off, inspect mounts, nose cone, flywheel and bell housing At least remove and bench test it, but that’s not always a sure thing. Just replace the starter. They’re cheap. Depending on your state, some you pull scrap yards may be open.
Great advice, at the time I hadn't even considered doing it myself....I carried the head in to a local auto machine shop and was floored when I picked it up and owed the man $1K+, about twice what he quoted me when I dropped it off. While crying at him he knocked $100 off his labor but I still left a trail of tears back to the house. And I bought the timing kit, gaskets etc. from RockAuto myself. The kicker: within a year they started leaking and I had to have it done again. A bigger name, farther away shop took longer, charged less and now years later it still runs great. BTW: I'd read the head bolts are torque-to-yield (single use), you didn't mention them, do you reuse them (it's so tempting!) or just forget to mention them?
Do NOT reuse the bolts! They are torque to yield. This means that you stretch them when correctly installing them. ONE USE ONLY.
Agreed. As I said, tempted, but always bought new. Thanks for confirming.
Finally got around to doing some work on it. Its hard with a 10 month old baby at home. I removed the lower timing cover, the engine mount, the harmonic balancer (finally got the crank bolt lose), and the broken timing belt. I removed one of the tensioners or idler pullers (cant remember which is which, I removed the one on the right), but the one on the left cant be removed unless I remove the cam gears.
Next step is removing the cam gears, inner timing covers, water pump, and the remaining idler or tensioner pulley. Now how do I removed the cam gears without breaking anything or causing more damage? Im trying to set myself up for the best possible solution when it comes time to put it all back together. Also, with regards to the timing marks on the cam gears, does it matter right now when taking off the gears where everything is lined up?
Last edited by gearhead1; 05-19-2020 at 12:01 AM.
Yes, the crank shaft was rotating when I was diagnosing. I used it to remove the crank bolt with a breaker bar. So the crankshaft is definitely rotating.
Thats a good idea, but wouldnt it be easier to remove the starter with the head off?
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