Lull

What is in it now 4M?? What import engines are you talking about, I dobt you could get a new old 4M, yeah 7m's 1J's and 2j's can be had for that kind of coin however there is alot of other coin associated with getting one of them running in the car. I re did the head on x2 4m's (different cars) and had no other with the heads on those blocks. If done and done properly, with coolant you will be fine. 7M's have most of the head gasket issues casue of the boost added to the equation. where are you located and do you have an early or late 4M as I think I may still have a reco'd head with low km's around

Wondering if anyone has some good advice on what I should do with my Crown. I've only had it a few months and the head gasket went, I've been quoted $900 to replace it and I am pretty sure it went due to not being particularly smart on icy mornings and the such but in the high risk that it is because the heads are warped or cracked I made some enquiries on engine prices. A re-conditioned engine is out of the question but a 2nd hand jap import can be put in for around $1500, I am almost leaning toward doing this as the idea of paying $900 for a new gasket only to find there is more to it isn't fun. At the same time though, I know very little about the reliability of a 2nd hand import engine. This car is meant to be my daily drive and right now I am on a tight budget but know I will be for a long time in the future too so even if it costs a little more now I just want to find the smartest most economic way to do it, any suggestions?

So hopefully Alf is still on this even though he (stupidly :) ) sold his car... Yes the rust is still rusty but the weather hasn't been particularly good at letting me fix that up, battery replacement fixed the power issues you mentioned. I haven't experienced the petrol guzzling but I am well used to it from other cars so perhaps that is why. I am still damn happy I bought the little beast, head gasket went last week and was quoted $900 to fix, have made enquiries just in case it is more than the gasket and can get an import engine in for not much more than $1500 (might be more worth it in the end anyway than just replacing the gasket, happy to take opinions) so even adding that to cost price I have still gotten way more than I would have buying a stupid little excel which is pretty much the only other choice I was looking at with the budget I had. I'm glad I got the chance to own a car like this and am now looking at mechanics apprenticeships so that I can keep it without spending heaps of money on it, although I think I'd be taking about a $200 per week paycut to do an apprenticeship I think it would be worth it in job satisfaction :) Anyway, I'm now looking for the manuals that are required, I've found many different variations on the 4M engine manual and am wondering if anyone knows is this just to do with different dates they were printed or is it going to be a lot more specific than that? Apologies to ignorance but the only mechanical knowledge I have is from experience and although plenty it does mean I fail in some of the basics like, how to find the right manual... any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks guys, less than a day into it and already two bits of very useful information!

Hi there, I am new to all this internetty car chatty group stuff but happy it exists. I just recently bought a 1976 Toyota Crown off a guy who is actually a member on this and thats how I found it, by doing more research on my car. I was happy to find everything he had written left me still being happy with my purchase. I am well aware that it's probably not the most intelligent purchase in my life considering my financial circumstances but it is by far not the stupidest either :) So my real purpose to signing up to this is for information extraction from those who are a little more worded up in the world of the Crown because this car I want to keep for as long as possible. I have noticed very quickly that parts are not easily found and am hoping some people are able to point me in the right direction when in search. Also if anyone living in Fairfield VIC area wants to play grease monkey with me on weekends I'm hell interested in doing so, still trying to source manuals for the car and will one day buy tools but once I've done that I'd prefer to spend those few spare moments I have in life fixing rather than kicking dirt in boredom. Although not a fan of summernats, as a ex-Canberra girl I have always had the dream to one day do up a car (a little rat-rod style) and take to summernats with the only intention to offend:) so that is my main aim with this car I guess...that's about it I guess...