Steve-O
New Member
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2011
- Messages
- 33
I now have my 100 back after nearly 11 months at the mechanics!!
My cruiser started playing up last winter and after taking it to a local friendly mechanic it was discovered that the compression on most of the cylinders was well below spec. I then took it to an engine specialist who after removing the heads reported that the left bank had a crack which he thought was unrepairable. Well it's taken me (and him) quite a while to source a suitable replacement head, I discovered a company in Florida "Clearwater Cylinder Heads", that had 2UZ-FE cylinder heads refurbished and ready to send out. These cost me about £450 each including shipping and tax (I eventually bought both sides left and right) which when you consider Mr T wants £1500 for just a bare casting seems like great value especially when you consider the ones from Clearwater come with valves, seats, springs, cams, buckets and shims all built up (just need the shims checking and adjusting). Unfortunately I also needed a new radiator and battery too but at least I'm back on the road in time for winter.
The reason for failure at 170,000 miles is most likely down to a combination of things, yes my car has been running on LPG and this has been for around 100,000 miles and about 7 years, it also has had coolant leaks an a few occasions that needed attention one was a radiator that needed replacement and the other was down to a couple of hose fittings, I have also had to sort out the starter motor which meant that the inlet manifold had to be removed, I'll admit that I did not replace the gaskets with new and I may have introduced an air leak, now any combination of these things could have contributed to a cracked head. On inspecting the heads there is definitely some valve seat recession and I think that if I had the valves re-shimmed and adjusted two or more years ago that I may have achieved a few thousand more miles before the eventual day of failure came.
The LPG kit was already fitted on my car when I bought it 6 years ago the kit is a singlepoint injector system with a Leonardo control unit and a Romano vaporiser.
It has needed a new vaporiser and an emulator unit. The car is going to an LPG specialist next week to have the controls set up to match my rebuilt engine.
My next project will be to sort out the suspension, I will be going for an Ironman kit and will be looking forward to a comfortable ride once again.
I hope some of my experiences will help a fellow 100 owner, I have been getting some great info from your posts on the suspension.....I may have some questions Later
Steve
My cruiser started playing up last winter and after taking it to a local friendly mechanic it was discovered that the compression on most of the cylinders was well below spec. I then took it to an engine specialist who after removing the heads reported that the left bank had a crack which he thought was unrepairable. Well it's taken me (and him) quite a while to source a suitable replacement head, I discovered a company in Florida "Clearwater Cylinder Heads", that had 2UZ-FE cylinder heads refurbished and ready to send out. These cost me about £450 each including shipping and tax (I eventually bought both sides left and right) which when you consider Mr T wants £1500 for just a bare casting seems like great value especially when you consider the ones from Clearwater come with valves, seats, springs, cams, buckets and shims all built up (just need the shims checking and adjusting). Unfortunately I also needed a new radiator and battery too but at least I'm back on the road in time for winter.
The reason for failure at 170,000 miles is most likely down to a combination of things, yes my car has been running on LPG and this has been for around 100,000 miles and about 7 years, it also has had coolant leaks an a few occasions that needed attention one was a radiator that needed replacement and the other was down to a couple of hose fittings, I have also had to sort out the starter motor which meant that the inlet manifold had to be removed, I'll admit that I did not replace the gaskets with new and I may have introduced an air leak, now any combination of these things could have contributed to a cracked head. On inspecting the heads there is definitely some valve seat recession and I think that if I had the valves re-shimmed and adjusted two or more years ago that I may have achieved a few thousand more miles before the eventual day of failure came.
The LPG kit was already fitted on my car when I bought it 6 years ago the kit is a singlepoint injector system with a Leonardo control unit and a Romano vaporiser.
It has needed a new vaporiser and an emulator unit. The car is going to an LPG specialist next week to have the controls set up to match my rebuilt engine.
My next project will be to sort out the suspension, I will be going for an Ironman kit and will be looking forward to a comfortable ride once again.
I hope some of my experiences will help a fellow 100 owner, I have been getting some great info from your posts on the suspension.....I may have some questions Later
Steve
