Yet another 3L head gasket post

Howdy everyone. I recently purchased a 1992 Hiace Super custom 5speed 4x4 for 800 bucks, and it shows:
Previous owner rebuilt the engine with new bottom end internals and used a cheap chinese head gasket instead of a proper one which he seems to think is causing small bubbles to come out of the expansion tank. I suspect that the head may be cracked so I am going to remove the head and have it checked at a cylinder head shop.
I am having some difficulty removing the cylinder head however: I cant seem to get the intake manifold off without first removing the injection pump as the manifold is bumping into some kind of diaphragm thing on top of the pump. The other problem is I cant get the second crank pulley off. the hilux haynes manual i have says to jam a screw driver into the ring gear to stop the engine from turning but im not sure where to do that. the manual says there is a driveplate/flywheel inspection window, but im not sure where that is.
I'd really like to get to the bottom of this as im rapidly starting to feel like ive just wasted 800 bucks :/

It's a manual 5 speed? That's rather nice, most are autos.

What engine is it?

It's a 3L... I did manage to get the pulley off by removing the starter and jamming a cold chisel into the ring gear. Looks like I'm gonna have to take the head off with the intake in place as I'd really rather not pull the injection pump. Also, when I pled the timing belt, the injection pump sprocket moved forward on its own as if under some kind of tension?

so ive gotten the head off and lo and behold: the head is cracked between the valves on cyl 1. going to try to have a machine shop try to repair it unless i can find another head to swap in. The 3rd cylinder also has some vertical scoring on it as well.

SleazyBakeOven wrote:

so ive gotten the head off and lo and behold: the head is cracked between the valves on cyl 1. going to try to have a machine shop try to repair it unless i can find another head to swap in. The 3rd cylinder also has some vertical scoring on it as well.

Sounds like you've done the difficult head bit now, shame about the bore scoring - does it look bad enough for a rebore to be needed?
Chinese heads are not great, be sure it's not a Chinese head you put back on.

A common issue is the viscous fan failing (they are better than electric but still wear out eventually) and the overheat then gets the engine. It doesn't help that many gauges have a deliberate 'feel-good' dead-spot (the self-centre on ignition but the voltage feed to them goes via a 3V zener diode that ignores 3V of movement). See my thread about removing this problem.

You may want to study the Hilux forums and fill the fan with a bit more silicone oil before reassembly.