Rep Power: 51

Hi there. Been reading the stickys. My 2003 seems to have the symptoms. All the fans work, lines good, new OEM thermostat. Bleeding the coolant for over an hour never stopped bubbling, especially after giving it some revs. Fluid level
rose under revs. Plenty of vapors/steam coming out of the funnel once it was hot. Heater wasn’t super hot, and went kinda cold when switched to the windo defogger setting. Never spiked the temp gauge but went above mid a few time on a test drive. After about 15 miles with the AC on and driving kinda hard it percolated coolant out the reservoir and all over the place.

Do I even need to do the pressure test to confirm this is a head gasket? Everything else on the car is in such good shape!

 
Rep Power: 244

If you want to do the test to be 100% but those symptoms along with it being a 7th Gen always means head gasket if the other things check out good.

 
Rep Power: 0

The exhaust in coolant test is cheap, that will show you definitively.
If the car is that good otherwise, do the head gasket job yourself, it can be done, and is much more worth it if you do it yourself.
If you dont beat on the engine, it will last forever after that.

 
Rep Power: 51

I’m calling more local machine shops today. What’s the opinion on DIY valve lapping?

Assuming none are burnt beyond repair, should I seat them or take the “ain’t broke” approach. Pour gasoline in the tops and look for leaks overnight seems to be the test?

Shops want $700 for the whole job. Old threads seems to waver on opinions. Wondering if anyone regrets doing it DIY?

And if I have to replace one or two or more destroyed valves I’m assuming everyone will say OEM, correct? It has no bad valve symptoms that I can tell other than some higher power potential.

 
Rep Power: 51

For any future members. I stripped the head down myself and had the shop resurface and tank it. I did my own valve seals, lapping and lashing. None of the valves needed replacing and I used the original head bolts, which gave me some issues.

Other forums say to always use new head bolts, some suggest bolts from another engine are even better. IDK if either option is necessary actually.

 
Rep Power: 368

head studs are non-stretchable, so no need to change them. (It is one of the suspected causes of the frequent head gasket failures, though, but not proven)