leak is at the back of engine, through foam, under plastic intake manifold. turns out in my case that its stripped threads in the block, not just a mere head gasket. been doing some research, Im gonna go with time serts in the block 11m x 1.5. I am pissed cause I looked after my black Camry, never a late service,always at my local (reputabal) dealer. only 160k on it!. shoulda got 4 to 500k.
I suspect that other owners will encounter this thread failure, as it seems to have held on for several years!. If your an 01 to 04 owner beware of this problem, in an otherwise reliable well looked after car. Toyota just gave me a huge kick in the wallet!.
you need 12mm 12 point long male torx socket to R/R head bolts. other special tools are 11mx1.5 time sert kit.(apparently not enough room by water jackets for heli coils.)

 

Check recent posts at this site on this subject.

At least you got 160K some had this issue well below 100K, some when still under warranty.

 

yah, your lucky you got that huge amount of warranty.

 

I feel lucky, at least I got 300,000 miles out of mine. I wonder if a manul transmission made a difference? Repaired mine using NS200L Head Bolt Repair kit.

 

Doubt it, the intake manifold insulation in the area apparently causes uneven head/block heating and eventually thread pull out of the rear bolts on some engines.

 

using time serts to repair my camry 2.4 having trouble head bolts not threaded at top only at bottom need to find three new bolts to beable to use the time serts where to find new style of bolts

 

The Time-Sert installation should be able to use the old bolts. If not look for head "studs" for same engine model perhaps like in link below:

ARP Head Stud Kit - Scion TC 05-06 2AZFE

 

when installing time sert it will be set in top of block flush with surface of block and my bolts have no threads at that point threads are at bottom portion of original head bolt will studs from arp going to be of proper length to hit sert and head

 

The insert should be set at the same depth as the old threads to allow using OEM bolt.

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