puzon23

Hi All,

I continue with my "fun" project of getting my auction purchased 2003 TL running. At this point I have the heads out because I determined that the head gasket was leaking by bubbling my coolant. Anyway... the question is on the service limits of the heads. In the service manual it states that the limit is 0.002 of an inch. Does that mean that the 0.002 feeler gauge cannot fit under the straight edge or does it mean that the next level up (0.00025) cannot? I found one spot in my head where the service limit one fits through (it's tight but goes through) and the next level up does not. Do you guys think that the gasket will seal that or not? If I don't want to go the machine shop milling route, do I have any other options? Are there different gaskets that would work better in this situation or maybe some sort of sealant that can be put on the surface of the head and engine block to "help" the gasket seal better? I searched high and low and there are so many different opinions out there that is really hard to make sense of them all.

Anyway, the reason I'm asking is because I really do not want to put a ton of money into this car as this is just a fun project for me to learn things so if I can fix it up and maybe drive it for the next 10k miles or so or maybe even less, that would be good enough for me to be frank. Hope someone can give some advice here.

Thanks!

Jon M

I take it that the gap on one head is .002 measured using a straight edge across the head. What about the block? Is the block level at the same point or is it off there too? Use your straight edge on the block and see how much space is there. If there is a gap it could add up greater than the tolerance. I do not remember if you can get a gauge in if you put the head back in place and then check the gap.
Normally I would say a sealant is for temporary repairs but there are so many new materials on the market I hesitate to yeah or nay.
In any vehicle that is 20+ years old and many miles there is bound to be some warpage, I would expect some in any brand or engine.

puzon23

The manual states that you can have up to 0.004 on the engine block and 0.002 on the head. I would assume that it means that it is 0.006 combined. Otherwise it would not make sense to me and the manual does not state any max on the two combined. I checked the block and it is 0.004 so in the correct tolerance. It's just the head that is out a little bit...

Jon M

Since the manual states the max on both sides it would only make sense to me that any one spot cannot exceed .006. As you are worried the heads are out of spec if you check them together the total may not be at the point you are concerned about. To me if the total is not exceeded then I would expect the OEM gasket to work without any extra sealant.