Well, this has been an odd one from start to now. We had the engine apart a second time, two years and 20k miles after doing the head gasket job, because it was doing that shudder on cold starts again. The head gasket doesn't appear to have been defective this time, but we did change from Toyota to Fel-pro while we had it apart. I had not realized how thorough I needed to be in cleaning all those little EGR passages in the intake, and I did get a bunch of junk out of there this time, so ... time will tell whether that was the culprit. Anyway, I have the car most of the way back together, but I'm having an odd problem. When I went to take apart the fuel line quick connect (inside that part that snaps together), I am pretty sure I had to squeeze the two yellow tabs together to release it. Now it snaps back together, but I can easily pull it back apart unless I put the extra part that snaps together, together around it. (With that part mounted, it stays together even if I pull on the rubber fuel line -- but is that part meant to be the only thing preventing it from coming apart?) This isn't supposed to be this way -- right? Shouldn't I have to squeeze the tabs together? They don't come up flush with the black part when I attach it, and I seem to remember them doing that in the past. There was nothing visibly wrong inside the quick connector, and I tried to loosen it up by jiggling the yellow part with a tool, but no change. The line with that connector is around $80 at my local Toyota shop, so it's not horribly expensive, but I'm sure it has to be shipped in and I'd like to make sure I'm not missing something dumb before I order it. Has anyone here dealt with this situation before? This picture shows what I'm trying to attach (the hose goes over the metal fuel line)
Put it together and apply fuel pressure by turning the car on so at least the fuel pump pumps up the pressure and if you have no leak and it doesn't come flying apart I'd leave it alone or pay the 80 bucks and do the dance and be basically in the same position I guess. I know I wouldn't replace mine unless it blew apart or something when I added fuel pressure usually the addition the fuel pressure makes everything stay together in this type of system.
They do wear over time and get weaker. I believe you can actually remove that yellow part. Then you could use a heat gun or hair dryer to heat it some and hopefully spring it out so it will clip and stay in place. You can test it by having someone in the car to start it, and you can hold a rag around it to see if it stays in place. Then maybe push and pull on the hose to try to remove it, but not too hard. Don't just start it and see if it holds! If it shots off you'll have gas spraying all over the HOT engine and risk a fire! NOT GOOD! If you're not 100% sure it's secure, replace it! $80 is less than the hundreds or thousand of dollars to replace the wiring and/or melted plastic parts, IF you can get the fire out quick enough. You should also have a fire extinguisher in had also!!!
Just going to live up the pump on a cold not started hall assembled as case may be . To see if pressure holds on said fitting . Which it usually does . Then we continue assembly.
ASRDogman, you were on the right track about being able to reshape the yellow piece somewhat. I found a local junkyard with a few Gen3's, but since they're 45 minutes each way from the farm I decided I'd be more aggressive about trying to reshape it than I'd been previously. Basically I tried to squeeze it so that the part that holds the metal fuel line would be narrower (and able to snap into place) and the part that you squeeze to release it would be farther out (and fill up the black housing like it had done before). And -- it worked! The junkyard wanted 7 bucks for the part, but saving 2 hours of my day on one of the last warm days this year was a real help. It's almost fully reassembled now. If that hadn't worked and I couldn't have gotten a good one at the junkyard, I'd have paid the 80 bucks at Toyota. Thanks everyone!
I'd say yes. If the small diameter EGR passages, one per port, were untouched first time 'round, the engine would continue to be starved of EGR gas, likely unevenly so, as the cylinder one end passage tends to fully clog ahead of the others. What was the miles when the first head gasket failed? Assume EGR system had not been previously cleaned? What was it's condition? Were you able to determine the first head gasket failure point(s)? Ditto for the second time?