After 120,000 miles my 1994 ES300 has blown the head gasket. It seems I have a choice of repairing myself, or scrapping the car!! The quoted cost of a garage repair is more than the value of the car!!
Apart from this one fault the car is immaculate and I should be very sad to see it go.
There must be somebody out there who has had this fault--- What was the resulting action taken??
I know Steve had a Windom at one stage which was losing water at Brooklands----was that the same problem ?
Anybody with any advice please
Thanks roger H

It is very rare for a 1mz-fe to blow a head gasket ,only 92-93 models had that problem.

Not sure what you really want to know as you already know the problem and how much it should take to fix it.
BTW gettign a new 1mz-fe engine is not going to be easy from a japanese wrecker as they did not use it in 94 but only in later years after an inital redesign

Thanks for your reply. I suppose I was hoping someone may have replaced the gasket themselves and could point out any snags to doing this at home.
OR
Maybe they knew of a mechanic ( or garage ) who could do the job at a more realistic price than a Lexus agent.

Why is it that as soon as someone mentions head gasket, people stast to gasp? Providing nothing else has been damaged, get the gasket yourself and do it. Tedious job but not difficult.

I also own two Lotuses which I regularly have to strip down and rebuild so am reasonably capable but I remember the difficulty I had trying to tighten up the rear cam cover on the ES and wondered if there were any other difficult areas that I can be prepared for on a cross mounted engine that is canted backwards towards the bulkhead. I imagine the Toyota Camry has the same problems since it shares the same Haynes manual.
As you will know Haynes manuals make everything sound so easy---if so easy, why are Lexus agents so reluctant to take the job on?
Is this another "grey import" excuse?

Probably.....a head gasket is a h/gasket,if you've done them b4 it shouldn't be a problem.The car is off the road so you've got time

roger... my windom also blew head gasket.... cost £1200 apprently

Steve i think most of that cost would be labour where as if you could do it yourself you will reduce the cost quite a bit.

ADL-Blurprint make a head gasket set for the Wisdom, so thats a help in getting the parts cheaper
Vehicle model code....MCV 20, Engine 1MZ-FE,
.......VCV10, Engine 3VZ-FE,
both share the same head gasket ,part no ADT 36288.

Gasket price really isn't too much of an issue and I would rather have the quality Toyota ones, the main cost is the labour of removing/replacing the heads and getting them checked for warping and skimming.

would be a shame to see you scrap her roger.. thats a fine motor.. and rare.

Ok fellas you've convinced me!!
I'll wait until the weather gets a bit warmer then make a start on the job. thanks for all your encouragement.
roger H

thats good mate

what were the symptoms??

Steve,
The coolant system was getting pressurised and water was being expelled from the filler cap.
Has had new w/pump-- thermostat works ok--new radiator last year so all is in good order.
Local garage tested the system and confirmed gasket failure. they are quoting about same price as yours was.
I see there was an es300 for sale on Ebay for £510 recently!!
roger H

Hi everybody,
Since I had my 92 es300 i used to come to this club everyday.
The point is that I had the same problem of head gasket, I got a choclate oil. That means water is getting to it too. I also need to replace timing belt. So doing the head gasket will solve them all "Hopefully".
I did the plugs for this car a week ago. So support me guys to do the heads "2", Please anybody can guide me through the proccess. Or at least let me know the right source of knowledge to do this job.
Ill be working on it during the weekends So I dont care about the time, but getting the job done. My car is very nice and I like lexus very much.
Please guys reply and support me

[B]

I was very lucky ---- got my gaskets from an acquaintance who works for JEMCA Croydon--------£120 approx. Then I looked around locally for a mechanic and found one who did the job for £300 (cash).