L20 Head gasket

[720mike]

Hey guys. I have a 79 620 king cab with a L20 with the auto. (auto is a turd). I had 2 questions and i hope someone can answer them for me. 1. Why did the L20 have the intake and exhaust on the same side?? Its a pain in the ass to remove. (maybe its just me). I've had a few 720's with Z22's and Z24's and the intake was on the passenger side and i always had a header which was on the driver's side. 2nd. How hard is it to change out the head gasket?? I'm blowing white smoke and it smells of coolant. I bought a head gasket and am hoping it solves my problem. Thanks for any input or answers.

[Braden]

it is not a crossflow head like the z24 and z22 engines, it is there because it was designed that way i honestly do not know why the japs designed it that way, as far as your smoke and coolant problem you may have a blown head gasket but is there oil in your coolant? is there coolant in your oil? if you do replace the head gasket make sure that you check the head and block for truness otherwise you will keep blowing gaskets, you may want to consider a set of piston rings if it was smoking before the gasket blew

[Skib]

1. Why did the L20 have the intake and exhaust on the same side??

 

because none of the L series motors have cross flow heads

[720mike]

it is not a crossflow head like the z24 and z22 engines, it is there because it was designed that way i honestly do not know why the japs designed it that way, as far as your smoke and coolant problem you may have a blown head gasket but is there oil in your coolant? is there coolant in your oil? if you do replace the head gasket make sure that you check the head and block for truness otherwise you will keep blowing gaskets, you may want to consider a set of piston rings if it was smoking before the gasket blew

Thus far it never smoked before. I dont have any water in my coolant. I have another L20 i can put in but i would like to do a KA swap. Any suggestions

[Skib]

I dont have any water in my coolant.

 

I really hope thats a typo... :huh:

[720mike]

meant water in my oil. thanks

[datzenmike]

First of all, leave the intake and exhaust on the head when you remove it. If you find after it's off that the head is warped and needs to be milled it's way easier to get at the bolts. Make sure you lock the timing chain before you remove the cam sprocket ... if you don't know about this ask how it's done, or the timing chain tensioner will fall out. This add hours of extra work and is preventable.

[Buzzbomb]

1. Why did the L20 have the intake and exhaust on the same side?? Its a pain in the ass to remove. (maybe its just me).

 

It's practically impossible to get at a few of those bolts without a....Sears 12mm shallow U-socket. Spend $8 on this, and you will be glad you did. You can do as Datzenmike said and leave it all together and take it off, or you can also take it off with that socket. That socket is a life saver, IMHO.

 

How hard is it to change out the head gasket?? I'm blowing white smoke and it smells of coolant. I bought a head gasket and am hoping it solves my problem. Thanks for any input or answers.

 

I had some mechanical experience when I did mine, and mine seems alright so far "knock on wood" :) . It's not a "hard" job, but as you will find when you do a search and probably run across a few of my posts when I was a rank amateur at this, the success of this whole undertaking is VERY dependent on details like cleaning bolt holes, oiling bolts when torquing, cleaning the gasket surfaces, getting the chain on and off right, etc. etc. With the excellent resources here at Ratsun, you can pull it off. After you do a search, you will probably find more info than you thought possible about swapping out headgaskets.

[720mike]

First of all, leave the intake and exhaust on the head when you remove it. If you find after it's off that the head is warped and needs to be milled it's way easier to get at the bolts. Make sure you lock the timing chain before you remove the cam sprocket ... if you don't know about this ask how it's done, or the timing chain tensioner will fall out. This add hours of extra work and is preventable.

 

How do i lock it in place??

[izzo]

How do i lock it in place??

 

 

its easy. either goto schucks and get a timing chain tool for 10 dollars, its just a plastic tool with a rope on it, the tool goes down between the chain, behind the timing cover to keep the tensioner spring from flying out when you remove the cam sprocket.

 

you can also make a piece of wood to do it, you want it 1" wide on one side, 10" long and 1 1/2" wide on the top side. Drill a little hole in it at the 1 1/2" wide spot and run some twine thru it so you can yank it back out later...

 

 

pieca cake :D Hell, even the chiltons manual i have for my truck has the wood trick in it. good luck, theres a link in a post somewhere or other on here with that tool in it.

 

 

heres a pic, see the wood or tool would slide in between the chain. if theres nothing there, the spring in the tensioner will come out, then you have to pull the timing cover, water pump, oil pump etc to get that spring back in its place.