hubie

my truck had a blown head gasket last year. then i got a used engine from a company in california. my mechanic put this one in and as soon as he got it running he called me to tell me that the guys in california had sent me an engine that had a blown head gasket.

i contacted them, and they said that they would send me another engine, but i would still have to pay the mechanic to switch the engines out. they sent me another engine, and it had a blown head gasket also. i contacted them and they refunded my money for the engine and all core charges, and i got to keep the second blown engine for a core. but i still had to pay the mechanic to swap engines one more time. i then found a good used engine at a local salvage yard out of a wrecked 4runner.

i just found it hard to believe that my original engine blew a head gasket in 1998 and it was replaced under the recall. it then blew again last year. then i get two other engines with blown head gaskets. all of these blown head gaskets had a leak at the #1 cylinder. i don't know about the design of the engine, but it sounds to me like there is some sort of design flaw near the #1 cylinder that causes this to happen. if it were a random thing, or bad gaskrt material then the gasket would blow on one cylinder on one engine and a different cylinder on the next engine. why is it always the #1 cylinder?

ChickenLover

Mine blew at the #1 cylinder as well. There are a few things that contribute to blown HGs on the 3.0. The exhaust cross-over is very restrictive. It lets too much heat build up around the #6 cyl. Causing bent valves and blown HGs in that area. This can be alleviated by switching to headers.

I believe the HG issues began in the beginning of the '90s when toyota was forced to change the make-up of their gaskets. This was due to the mandatory removal of asbestos (I think). Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Repeat head gasket failure can be caused by a couple of things. Warped surfaces (heads or block), or reused head bolts. The head bolts are TTY (torque to yield), and actually get stretched on that final yield. They really shouldn't be reused. When the HG is repaired by the dealer (under the recall) they typically reuse the head bolts... I don't know why.

hubie

once i found this forum last night, i finally realized how many toyotas with a 3.0 liter had head gasket issues.

i then called up an old buddy of mine from college who had a pickup with the 3.0 in the late 90's. i remembered him having it in and out of the shop a lot, and i started wondering if it was the head gasket. he said it was. he finally got rid of his truck, and said he would never own another 3.0 liter.

his got replaced under the recall, and then it blew two more times after that. i wish i had talked to him about this before i bought my truck. he said that his mechanic changed a lot of these in the mid to late 90's. he said that his mechanic thought that the main problem was a coolant passage that was very close to the #1 cylinder. he said that the head gasket only has a small amount of material between the cylinder and this passage.

i don't know if this is true, but it is what his mechanic told him. this is where all 3 of his head gaskets failed. this seems like a design flaw to me. i really can't believe tht toyota doesn't stand behind their product better than this. if they replaced the gasket once under recall and it blows again it seems obvious that it is not a gasket issue. if the new stronger gasket fails, then there has to be something else wrong.

my buddy said that if the first gasket blowing caused any overheating, this could warp the heads, and cause the next gasket to blow that much easier. seems to me if your engine overheated due to the original gasket blowing, then toyota should be putting a whole new set of heads on the engine in addition to the head gasket.

today i found the the paperwork that i got with my truck it said that my engine had overheated several times. this is why the guy brought it to the dealership in the first place. that was when they found the first blown head gasket and replaced it. but that is all they did, no new heads, no resurfacing the heads.

when my mechanic pulled it apart when the warranty gasket blew, he found that the head and block looked like someone had used a wirebrush on a grinder to remove all of the first gasket from the heads and block. he thought that removing old gasket material that way could cause the new gasket to blow. does anyone have any input on that method for removing the old gasket? if that is true i can't believe that the dealership guys would do such halfass work.

rocket

iTrader: (1)

Please break your thoughts/paragraphs up and use capital letters at the beginning of each sentence. You'd get more replies.

I can't even begin to read your first post let alone your second without having instant eye strain.

jimmyray

dude this is a fourm i think he wants help or explinations rather than an english teacher.

saleen9973

Has anyone tried using copper spray on the block and gaskets when doing the hg? I used it on my turbo talon ran 30psi through it all day long on a fel-pro gasket.

hubie

someone correct me if i am wrong, but the gaskets on a turbo only have to hold like you said 30psi or so. i would think that a head gasket has to hold a lot more pressure than that.

rdlsz24

I think he is saying he used it between the block and head gasket on his turbo Talon, not on the turbo itself. And if it can hold up to 30 pounds of boost (which is ALOT... people blow head gaskets on boosted cars at way less PSI), it should be plenty sufficient for a N/A engine.

Rob

em3e3

I agree about switching to headers to keep the engine cooler. Since installing Downey ceramic headers, oversized intake & exhaust valves, and custom camshafts, the engine runs cooler than ever before. Plus, I did the work with the help of my bro-in-law, and cost-wise, still came out ahead.

I would suspect that re-built/re-manufactured engines have had all sorts of problems before you get them (cracks in the heads, warped surfaces, etc), so you're getting someone else's problem to begin with.

I'm sorry for all the trouble you've had, but if you want to do it right, you might consider doing it yourself. An any case, I gathered up a few things to think about when replacing the head gasket:

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116/upgrades-mods-maint-do-while-heads-off-101088/

saleen9973

Sorry, that is exactly what i ment. Next time i will be more specfic. I had a stock napa fel pro gasket and used copper spray on the head gasket and on the block and boosted the heck out of it all day for years. I drag raced that car it wnet 12.6 @109 in the quarter mile. I was just searching the web for different head gaskets and found a cometic head gasket, i know that the turbo and supercharged world use these gaskets all the time, i just don't know how well they would do n/a. Does anyone know for sure if ARP makes head studs or head bolts for the 3.0?

rdlsz24

I don't see them listed on ARP's website. They could still be available, though.

Rob

rock2487

I actually thought about welding that dealio together to prevent it from blowing up...lol...

blake.nemitz

mine let go at 220,000 and i put 90k on the new set. got lucky i huess

dirtnerd

yeah you got lucky. I had a '91 w 3.0L. First gasket blew at 70k mi. had replaced under recall. Went again at 140k. I traded it in at that point.