After completing this job, you realize why a shop wants the $ they do to do it. Well done, sir!

Must be that million mile bulletproof Toyota quality we've been hearing about.

you did the right thing buying the kit, i found half my bolts stripped too. I then removed the block and had the bolts drilled and coiled for about $120, so i decided to do a ring job. i then replaced the crank bearings, all the seals, and had the same work done to the head. It runs great now, i would do the head bolts again but never the crank

I gotta go this job on an 03 camry my brother bought for $300. The car has only 90k miles on it. I think ill just pull the whole engine out for easy access. Thanks for the video now i know that to expect. 👍

Wow glad to know it's alot more in depth than just a head gasket. Thanks for the heads up

Damn! I have a 2004 Rav4 with a coolant leak. In researching, I've also found that sometimes it's a cracked head... It has 240,000 miles and is in fairly good shape other than the antifreeze leak. I've changed many head-gaskets over the years. One time I bought a 1987 Mazda pickup that was leaking but I noticed someone had already changed the head-gasket. It was a $2000 dollar truck that I got for $200... So I took a chance. Sure enough, they didn't torque the head right. Those older first gen aluminum heads had to be re-torqued after they had been warmed up. Some of the head-bolts were just over finger tight. I put over 150,000 mile on that truck. BUT, after watching your video, I don't have the stomach to go through all of that. After 6 years and 80,000 miles, time to find a different ride. And I do like mechanicing. But I'd rather spend time building something like this ( kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ncCfqriCu9q6pWw.html )rather than going bananas over a vehicle that will still only ever be a tired beast at best. Thanks for posting. Very helpful...

Did this with mechanic friend years ago on 2002 Camry 4 cyl at 195000. When torking down, 4 of the 10 bolts were obviously compromised. Drilled and tapped all 10 with timecerts kit. After much googling and YouTubing I realized this was fairly common issue of bolt thread failure for this and similar year model engines. Too bad it didn’t fall under recalls. Held up for another 50000. After low engine issues I had crate engine installed. After 100000 on this engine we had same problem. Ugh. (But you must know my daughter and her lackadaisical regard for checking fluids). Blown head gasket. Oil like coffee and leaking like a Sieve. So I started to break down today so far only alternator and valve cover removed. This is certainly a major job for non-mechanic. I got nothing but time on my hands right now. Taking things apart probably fine but putting it back together again not so much. Long shot that I could get it running again but it’s going nowhere like it is now. It all sounded so familiar again as you described your ordeal. Impressive that you only did it in three or four days. With help of the mechanic it took me about an hour to drill out each hole especially with the blowing out constantly. Kudos to you

You're a genius, thanks. So many garbage videos online but this was great. Only helpful info here, nothing frivilous. Thanks

Good job sir well done. I see a camry on marketplace and the person is asking $1800 mechanics special with blown head gasket. Now I know what it involves I definitely would not even pay half of that. It has 231k miles on it so probably has the exact same issue. That looks like a lot of work and hassle I am not sure I could do all that just a above average backyard mechanic but tempted.

Wish you could have taken the time to do the how to. I have worked on Honda's but never with Toyotas. Until now, that my wife let the car re heat and I think she warped the head. She has a 2004 which I think will be the same thing as yours. But taken the whole thing a parts and trying to figure out things to get everything apart is the tedious part and time consuming. I got your email from a previous comment. I hope you don't mind if I drop a line or two to ask about things If I get stuck. I think it will take me longer as I can only work on the car at night. Oh yeah, thanks for the time you put to make the video. Really thank you for that.

I have a 04 camry. 280k miles, pretty sure I have this issue. Thanks for showing me this is above me😢. I do not look forward to used car shopping

Now try doing a Subaru head gasket replacement and you instantly understand how much better Toyota's are designed.

I've ran into the same issue with the bolts before ! Came up with tacing a cable to the top of the bolt and wrapping it on a metal rod so as I turned the bolt I could apply force pulling up on the rod which pulled the bolt upwards !!! Of course replaced bolts ! But it worked very easy!!!

We have been in the process of putting new rings on ours... We didn't pull the timing cover but that one bolt on the timing chain guide was a pain to get out and even worse to get back in. We had to use an ease out on 2 of those head bolts too, same mistake with not using the right 12 point bit to begin with. Luckily we didnt have and thread issues though... We are a link or two out of time, because I apparently got the only 2 azfe made without any different colored links, but that's way easy to get to and redo than what we started with lol

THANK YOU...for sharing. Nice repair...you should be receiving a life time of cold drinks from your son after this repair :)

Great video sir, you wouldn't happen to still have this kit by any chance, I know this video is 5 years old and probably already sold it.

Actually since I'm mechanically inclined and the video you made covered everything I would need to see to knock one out. Saved the engine for another 200,000 miles.

Interesting. Mine will be a very long comment as I will illustrate the challenges I am facing. Great video although I would have preferred see how you went about the disassembling process like others have mentioned. You state at the end this is not for the novice and that is exactly what I am when it comes to car mechanics. I do work as ATM Field Engineering which is a mechanic as well but for even more complicated machines than cars, parts are smaller and there is not so much grease and grime involved and that is that about skills set; that said, I am ready to take on my wife's Toyota Corolla 2004 Blown Head Gasket replacement and in the process will be replacing several other parts as well. Her car has a history of rolling hell; we blew the original engine 5 years ago driving it without oil; we never knew it was burning all the oil and by the time the lamp came on it was too late as we were driving back from a vacation trip from California and the car just blew a rod climbing the infamous hill after passing Baker. Family slept on the road, towed to Las Vegas next day to find out after our mechanic opened what had happened; then engine had to be replaced at the cost of $1000.00 for the engine and $700.00 labor. I drove to near Tijuana to buy the engine from a junk place right in the border; that engine is the one we now are having issues again; it was certified 62000 miles Toyota Corolla 2003 at the time we swapped, now car odometer reads 122000 miles on it but the original engine had a little over 80000 when it blew. In any case, I went to our "mechanic" this guy have been servicing this car for the last years; he does the oil changes, he installed shocks and struts and the engine swap I mentioned; he have been seen the car several times since it have been with an engine light on; he told us it was a compression issue most likely a failing gas cap; we replaced the cap buying one at the dealer but the light kept coming in, finally and without me knowing, the oil lamp was coming in intermittently and also the temperature gauge was hitting the top! by the time wife tells me and we take it again to our secretive mechanic who never mentioned any of this, he did the front brakes and inspected the issue "in depth" after I showed him a printout from the code machine from Autozone with codes P0300 showing random misfiring in cylinder one, then he comes and tells me I got blown head gasket as he found water in spark plug one; he tells me "you need another engine" AGAIN???? yes, sadly by the time all is said and done it is better to just swap the engine and the price is the same we paid years back BUT this time he has a "buddy" who does engines reconstructions and we would buy an engine from him. Did it sounded sketchy to you? so to us and then I discovered this guy never fixed our car; he swapped an engine but the car have been keeping at burning oil and overheating, just this time we did not drive it long enough and hard enough to seize the engine! So silently and with a smile, like it is done in the Mafia, we "fired" our trusted mechanic, no more of him he will never put a hand in any car I own ever. We can not afford the parts and labor, we can not afford another car, leaving us to have to fix this one and that is where I come into place as a novice. The overheating and oil burning may be caused by a series of components failing over time. Toyotas are known, I am told, to be very sensitive once the oil drops certain point and they are known for overheating if not watched carefully which is our part of the blame here; that said and since I really do not know what the real issues comes from, I think we may have a coolant issue; car have never done a proper coolant replacement before; there is not hot air coming from the vents as heater is not working, possible pointing to a bad thermostat so since I have to open the head all the way to the block, including taking off the side cover, I will be replacing the water pump, oil pump and thermostat from the side; the head of the badly burned out engine originally which I kept in my garage on an engine mount, was sent to a machine shop, inspected, resurfaced, cleaned looking like new and re-assembled with the valve done and I actually expended 3 hours disassembling the VVTi gear box for in depth cleaning of all the gunk up oil on it and assembled back together after oiling it. The timing chain I am using back the original one this time because these go for 300000 miles without having to be replaced. The price I paid for work in the head was $200.00 for almost all done on it, except the cleaning of the VVTi gear box. For the engine I also have new spark plugs, VVTi control valve, new bolts for the head, new gasket set, new serpentine belt as the one now makes a squeal noise at start, then I also have a new radiator, radiator cap and radiator hoses. We feed the engine with synthetic oil. The coils were tested by our trusted mechanic to be working ok but I may use the original ones I have on the original engine. The head in place right now in the 2003 engine that was installed in this car years ago I can not determined for how long my wife drove it overheating but it was long time. After I remove it, providing I do not strip out any of the threads!! which is what I am afraid it could happens, I will send this head for repair as well and will have it as a spare, just in case we did not learned the lesson. Just in parts alone and little gimmies my costs are already more than $1700.00! but I am making sure the issues are taken care of. Only time will tell if it is a failed enterprise or if I am capable of fixing this car and have it rolling for another 150000 miles! -- The car had as I mentioned front brakes done, rear adjusted recently, cosmetically is ok, not bend or dings, the clutch is ok still, has performance rims and tires which makes it look trendy, a deep engine bay detail and a deep inside detail will bring it to life. In its current state, Toyota dealer offered $300.00 for trade in and our trusted mechanic said he would have buy it for $800.00 - If I succeed with the repair and cleaning once done it is around the $4-5K range. It is a Toyota after all! I have to mention, I also own a Toyota Tacoma which is sitting next to this one in the drive way; it has 228000 miles on it, engine never been opened or work in, also standard, it has not run for the past couple years but I will never sell it for as long as I can hold on to it. With my project, once I open the engine, I hope i do not have to use a kit like the one you show here and I am also hoping the block is in good shape. I was told these blocks before 2014 are all made of cast iron instead of all aluminum as the modern ones are now. We have a Town and Country with lifetime warranty from Mopar and just recently already had the engine replaced because of a bad bearing and it only had 60000 miles when they did it! so that right there gives me hopes for this Toyota and that i am doing the right thing instead of going with the offer to just replace the engine again. Thanks for reading this long post and thank you for your video!

I read the Toyota bullet on this repair TSB-0015-11 you don't drill out both the front and back corner head bolts,, you only need to do the 6 bolts in the middle front and back.

Time Serts ,are the only way to get r done 💯

The previous generation of Toyota's 2.4L was a freaking tank. Except for the oil pump gasket developing a leak about every 75-100 thousands miles, as long as the owner takes the time to do scheduled oil/filter changes, he'll easily get 300,000 miles on it. The oil pump isn't really that big of a deal, however. Since it and the water pump are driven by the timing belt, changing all three at the same time at 75,000 will virtually eliminate oil pump leak issues.

I have 3 of these Camrys. Believe me when I say you would have saved 3 or 4 hours if you just pulled the engine. You could have also changed out all of the seals and gaskets on the engine and done the piston and rings upgrade while you were at it in the same time it took you to do the head gasket with the engine in place.

I finally found my problem..the head cover gasket was bad and was leaking oil on my spark plugs and was getting a misfire thank goodness it was just the valve cover gasket I had to replace...btw nice tho

Nice DIY brother! I know you saved yourself a mint in shop expenses!

I like videos like this. You did a real thorough job on this repair. Awesome job.

Weld that 10mm allen or your torx socket to the top of the bolt head and be done with it.

$200 for the kit would be fair $450 is robbery...other than that this was a great video...takes a lot of balls to tackles this job

Good shit! Thanks for saving me a headache 😃

Go figure i watched it 2 years to the day is when I watched it.

Bro, you’re a champ! Thanks for this!!!

Eric O at South Main Auto shows a video of using it.

To be avoided. Thank you Mr. Canary. I actually find the Nissan Truck based models to be a surprising best, as far as ease of making those high mileage preventative repairs and repairs - Toyota is a nightmare (in spite of reputation) and Ford and GM are recurring bad dreams..

Mr jo daddy bitting off more than I can chew cool vid THX

If the head bolts would have been replaced and retorqued at 140,000 miles, do you think that would have prevented the stripped threads at 200k miles? The Cressida had the problem of head bolts not being tightened at the factory causing blown head gaskets. Thanks. Great video.

I believe all head bolts are what they call torque-to-yield. In other words, replace them on every job. Apparently the timing chain guide and tensioner were ok. Btw, was that after work or all day for 3 1/2 days?

Great details in videos

it really helps thank you

This looks like a nightmare not for the average joe

Great challenge for you, bro! Every now and then a good puzzle helps you to think and focus. I'm wondering, I guess the head bolts a a bottoming thread. Also, is there a minimum thickness you can machine from the head surface, without valve to piston clearance issues? What about timing chain tensioner, did you replace them? How about syncing the overhead cams, are there alignment holes to hold the cams in place? Does Toyota offer a remanufactured head assembly complete? And finally, are there shims for the camshaft to the valve stems that have to be installed for specific thickness? Great video, man! Sorry for asking so many questions, but I'm sure I'll end up doing one, and I'd rather hear from and intelligent human being before I dive in. Thanks again!

I'm planning on doing this same job to my Camry what tools did you use to get the head bolts that where stuck out just in case I run into this same problem my Camry still runs fine no overheating but I know its leaking from the back because that black sponge thing on the intake is soaked with coolant

with the head bolts I'm assuming that they are stretch bolts. so need to be replaced every time. but when you pulled the bolts down to the correct tension. was it newton metres, foot pounds all degree angles stages

I have a question: Do you think the leak was due to the bad threads and not a breach in the head-gasket?

Great video. Did it still hold up with the timeserts repair?

Nice job!

Great vid I have to do the same repair ' anyone know where I can get one of these kits in west Australia , cheapest I have come across is nearly $1200 😭 and that's from the other side of the country!

Can i ask you one more question? What were the symptoms you were having? I know you said at the beginning that you change the valve cover and you noticed you were leaking antifreeze, was there any other symptoms?

Are those inserts just helicoils? I used them for my little race built 75 Honda civic for the head bolts and according to the info the helicoils can give it a higher tear out rating than the stock threaded block.

Great video. I am working on this right now and this video is the one that helped the most. I have one question though, how did you get the head alignment dowels back in after you drilled and tapped everything? I am worried that the dowel would be too narrow to do its job after making the hole wider. Ok, looks like the alignment dowel is much wider than the holes you will be drilling. It looked like it tapered inward when i first looked at it. A large screw extractor from harbor freight will pull it with ease. Harder to get the dowel off the extractor, lol.

Unbelievable job you did on this video. Very educational. I have the exact same year/vehicle and it has the same problem. In my case, its not worth doing this job on my vehicle. Too much work. I have a question for you. In your opinion do you think the bars leak head gasket sealer would work on this type of head gasket leak? I know it's not the right thing to do, but I can't afford to have the head gasket replaced. Any help you can give me would be appreciated.

Nice job .

jo daddy do you think its possible to take the head off wothout removing the timing cover? thanks very much

Great video thank you

Would I have the same problem? I’m not leaking anywhere I just keep finding oil in my spark plugs causing misfires.

Link to the supplier: wiseautotools.com/time-sert-2200-universal-head-bolt-thread-repair-kit-m11x1-5mm/

excellent!

So the car was saved?

nice work

well done.

Do you happen to know the part number on that time sert kit ?

You never said in your video where you bought the tool from cost $450

Good video, thanks for the info. Im doing the very same job on the same car. Can I ask how you got the serpentine idler off? There must be a trick. Thanks

Was the coolant leaking from the rear?

Any issues after the repair?

Are those engines interference or non interference?

Is that an interference engine?

good repair an hope you sale that kit .

well you did a great job I I just have one question you have the timing chain out why did you not replace it even if the car only has 30,000 miles on it because I have to go to again to change that time to when and if you have to just saying

Did you end up selling the kit?

Was it running hot???

It’s a ticking

That motor was burning oil after 130,000 miles why

Only a fool would pay $6,000 for a 2003 Camry, let alone pay $6,000 for a new engine. Well, unless the car had 30,000 miles and was previously owned by Scotty Kilmer.

dam! or darnit ..dadgumit..good save man..

This guy does an excellent job showing the repair process using the time-sert tool: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/fb51gqSomNfUZoE.html

How's it running?

Triple square 12 point, but...12 mm..? 14 mm..? Great vid otherwise...

yo gang...

when you realize you are not a mechanic.

Bs on the pic