balverson

I had a head gasket failure on a 2.7 i4 96 tacoma. The head, per the machine shop, was badly warped (.040 in. to resurface) and was, at that point, unuseable. This had been a long ordeal and the shop has still not completed the repair-and VERY,VERY expensive. I was loosing coolant and it was determined that it was leaking in no.1 cylinder. All of that for this-
what other that overheating could have caused the failure. Really don't want to do this again.

rdlsz24

Head gaskets can fail on their own over time because of the head being made of aluminum and expanding and contracting.

Rob

SEAIRESCUE

Stop the presses.....

The head can be easily repaired by heating it to a temperature that softens the aluminum and then clamping it flat to cool. Racers have this problem often so the repair is commonplace....just got to know about the fix.

One has to ask themselves how a head, under tremendous clamping forces can warp? My conclusion is that it was they way from the factory. Is Toyota checking every head installed..............NO.

Why is Toyota plagued with head gasket problems and Honda is not! See previous statement.

I fixed my 3vz 3.0 V6 by making my own copper head gaskets after watching Toyota release several different head gasket designs in an attempt to fix the problem. I alsp purchased some high tensile strength head studs and nuts to replace the *#$%@^ junk headbolts Toyota put into those engines. Torqued them to 60 ft-lbs (short one to 45) and no issues after 20K miles. Amazing.....

Get your head heated and made flat. Get some new head bolts and see what is available for gaskets. Engine Builder in Washington State is a good resource for parts and advice. He is an engineer and offers really good parts at a reasonable price.

$0.02