Banpei's new TA60 family cruiser

[Bean]

Looking good again and best of luck with the sale. I hope she finds a good new home.

[banpei]

Thanks!
The person coming tomorrow definitely is someone who will take good care of the car. Ever since I got MOT on the car, all of a sudden I get a lot of interested people so if he decides otherwise there will be more than enough people.

[banpei]

Bad news:



I blame myself for not driving the car more than across town before letting someone else drive a stretch of the highway. A head gasket failure happened and the engine overheated. The roadside assistance tried to patch it with some sealant to be able to drive back home, but those efforts were fruitless. So a tow truck was called in to help out.

The person interested in buying the car is still interested when the engine is fixed, but I have to see what costs are involved in doing so. It will take some time and thinking about my next steps...

[Power_uP]

Well shit dude, that's not good.
Look on the bright side, at least it's repairable.

[The Doctor]

A 2T engine is easy for replacing a headgasket, it has been done in a field at a Danish Toyota meeting before!
Just depends on how much it overheated, but the head probably needs a skim.

Sucks though :/

[banpei]

Yes, it's not a matter of difficulty, but more the amount of room it requires to do this and the time involved. I have none of those. So tomorrow I'll start asking around if a garage nearby can do it and whether they are able to pick up the car. I will have the engine repaired as otherwise I'll probably won't be able to sell the car for a decent price.

I have no idea how much it overheated, but as I wasn't sitting in the driver's seat I can't tell when the overheating started to happen. It must be a terrible feeling for the buyer: he was the one driving and he broke the engine. I told him numerous times that it wasn't his fault as this was bound to happen and I'm happy it happened before selling the car instead of two weeks after purchasing the car.

[banpei]

I was able to find someone living close by who has at least two heads and a bunch of 2T engines in a corner, so if the head is a goner I have a backup plan. The Carina will be brought in for repairs next Wednesday, so fingers crossed it will "only" be the headgastket that failed.

[banpei]

Not much progress happened. The Carina was towed to the garage and brought in for repairs. I haven't heard anything from them yesterday, so I decided to pay them a visit near the end of the day. Unfortunately they were closed (too hot?) so I could only see it parked inside without any noticeable work done.

[banpei]

I dropped by the garage earlier today and the mechanic already popped the head:

The head had already been picked up by a specialist and we'll hear in a day or two whether the head is salvageable. It looks like the head had been leaking on the number 4 cylinder for a while, but the block and pistons seem to be fine.
I also left them a Toyota T-engine handbook to save them some time to work out the torque specs and stuff. They much appreciated that and wished more customers had one and brought them along when their cars are in need of repairs!

[banpei]

Unfortunately bad news: the head is cracked and the radiator is damaged by the overheating. This means I have to find a new head (I did find one via a contact) and either a new radiator or have it repaired or re-cored. In total this will be a very expensive repair.
I did reach out to the prospective buyer with the bad news and told him I will have to (partly) increase the sales price to match up for the repairs. I hope he takes it well, but I can totally understand if he bails out now.