Ry

Hi all. It's been a rough day so far so I'm gonna try and sum this all up pretty quickly. I drive a 91 'Runner V6.

Yesterday I was driving home from work 101 degrees out and I notice my temp. guage climbimg into the red. Pull over and check my radiator and it is bone dry. I always keep a gallon of water in my truck for that purpose and it took the full gallon. I kept my eye open for leaks but I saw none. After that the temp stayed normal until I drove home from work again today and the guage climbed back up to the red. It took another full gallon of water to get me home. So I pull out all of my plugs and the last one I check (back plug drivers side) is drenched and it looks rusted. Needless to say it wasn't fuel.

So now I guess I'm gonna pull the heads. :cry:

I want to know about headers. I'm gonna have to hack my old manifolds off because they are frozen to the crossover pipe and the tail pipe. I have my eye on the NWOR headers because they look like they are good quality. Drawback is that they are pricey and do not have a CARB exemption number (I live in Cali). The CARB number is not as important to me as the quality of header though. Are there any others that I should peek at? I've looked at Downey's and in comparison to the NWOR headers I wasn't impressed.

I also want to know about cams for this engine since I will be in that neighborhood. Not sure if I actually need to remove mine to get the heads off but I will if I get better cams. I haven't seen more than a couple aftermarket cams for the V6 but I want to know if you guys might know of any.

Thanks for your reply I appreciate it,
Ryan:cry: :cry:

tom_993

Ryan,

There was a period of time in the early 90’s that Toyota installed defective head gaskets. They are replacing most for free, even if the truck is way out of warranty. Before I bought my ’03 4Runner, I had a ’93 truck with a V6, probably the same V6 as in your 4Runner. My head gaskets failed long after the truck was out of warranty, but the dealer replaced both head gaskets for free. This might apply to your ’91. It’s worth checking into, as it might save you a bundle of $$$.

Good Luck!
Tom

joshik

yep, toyota will replace the gaskets and probably do more work on it too since its all apart.

i bought my truck last year with 115k miles... and the seller said that they replaced the gasket and pretty much rebuilt the lower end 5kmiles previous. so at about 110k. i think there is a limit though on how many miles. i thought i heard of something like that before. but yeh, call toyota and see, and see what other say on the forum. i know lots of ppl have gotten this done!

oh btw, i have a 91 pickup v6

AgRunner06

If they will do the head gasket recall on your truck. Drive the truck until it doesn't want to run anymore. Then you can get a whole new motor for free courtesy of Toyota. That's what I would do.

KING

RY, you don't know how much I hate to hear what's going on with your rig.

I have a '94 PICK-UP and my temperature has been a bad boy as of late, although it's hasn't reach the red part, it seems like it's heading there, sooner or later it seems. I am worried to heck for this, even though I took it to the dealer and they said it didn't apply to my truck, but for some reason, I feel like they're going out--the head gaskets.

Every time I drive it now, I drive with worry that it may over heat on me and I can't drive comfortably anymore. Instead of my eye being on the road, it's on that damn temperature gauge more than half of the time. It's killing me to no end.

Tomorrow, I will have my radiator cleaned out and possibly replaced, if not, rebuilt. I hope to GOD that will take care of my problem, if not, then I'm getting rid of it and going with the FORD!!!!

Robinhood150

Check for a milky substance under the oil cap, a rough idle and/or white smoke out the tailpipe.

KING

Been there, done that. None of those appear!

oly884

then your head gasket probably isn't gone, did you check you thermostat? they can get stuck shut or open, and that causes cooling problems.

4Legz

do a block test to check for exhaust gasses in your coolant

KING

That's a possibility that I am going to get at tomorrow, along with the radiator. Y'all pray for me that's causing this insanity!!

RY, I'll pray for you.

oly884

I've done reasearch on this and I've found that only DOA makes cams for our engines, there are also several other companies that will custom grind you cams for you. Either way you go, it will be more that you'd want to spend. It was a couple of months ago that I replaced my engine with a long block (broken rod) and I looked into it. I didn't have to deal with a head gasket, but I know that working on these engines sucks! I'm sorry to hear about your problem, and if there is any advice I can offer you just ask.
-David

oly884

KING- good luck, and I hope it's you thermostat, if not that, then your radiator. At least you don't have and coolent in your oil. Good luck.

david in germany

also just an option, Even if the dealer sted that the head gasket had been done go to another dealer and explain that you purchased the truck and are not sure if the previous owner had the gasket recall handled then they should be able to pull it up in the nation wide data base and tell you for sure. if the dealer that did it did not put it in the system "your choice" if so then the curiosity is then layed to rest. stealerships have been know to open the hood and look thinking " looks ok, return to owner" and tell the owner that the work was done... I would have it checked.
David

KING

UPDATE: Well, both the radiator and the thermostat were worked on today. The radiator was completely re-built and a new thermostat was installed.

After an 18 mile test drive this evening, right when it's 108 degrees outside, it seemed to do fine. I think it's safe to say, it basically did what it is expected of it. While driving, the highest the needle would get to, was a tad bit shy of the half point mark. However, after resting there for maybe five minutes or even less, it would go down to about half between what is considered the one-quarter mark and the half point mark (Hope that's comprehendable). I consider that running fine.

Still though, after I shut the engine off and I turned it back on, there goes the needle again, from bottom to a tad bit past half, but then again, once the wheels were in motion, it regulated it's temperature to normal.

After all, I'm pretty satisfied with the progress. But well see........

Now, I'm still kind of skeptical about the head gaskets. Even though there is no milky substance underneath the oil cap, no rough idling, and/or no white smoke from the muffler, I have my doubts. Something tells me.

My mechanic told me that other possible signs are the oil being low. He said, that with the kind of mileage my truck has on it--100,000, it shouldn't be wasting any oil, yet. And about a month ago, I had to add about three-quarters of a quart (1,500 miles into it's last oil change, which means, I should still be full or somewhat). Another sign is water. I'm not too sure how this is suppose to work but every oil change I add coolant to the resevoir. Which reminds me, I also added a portion the same time I added the quart of oil I just mentioned. I don't know if that is normal.

That has me on the worry.

What I am going to do, like DAVID suggested, I am going to go to another dealership and have them check the deal out and briefly go over my situation. But then that's another thing. I just hit 100K this past MONDAY and isn't warranty over at that mark? Now, if the head gaskets do have to be replaced, will I have to pay, or will it still be free?

All this gives me a major head ache.