95ToyotaPU007

On my way to lunch today I start up my truck (see in sig) and a plume of white smoke exits my exhaust pipe. I was like dang, there goes the head gasket. I was wondering why I was low on antifreeze every couple of days.

I doubt its a cracked head or block but you never know.

The 3.0 has 353,800 miles on it and has been the most reliable vehicle I have ever owned.

My first thought was, park it and fix it in a couple weeks. I priced everything and it's all under $500 if I do it myself.

But after a while I started wondering. Should I just get the engine rebuilt? or should I just park it and get a used 2004 4-runner that I saw a few weekends ago?

I'm quite able to afford the used runner but the truck is still in great shape, besides the head gasket of course. Do you think other components will start failing soon?

thanks in advance.

burnscore1

Get it rebuilt. It will start falling apart.
If you still feel the need to replace a head gasket after that, you can come finish my project!!!!

Catlin

A HG job is not easy. There are countless places to get stuck if you haven't done it before. You will see lots of other areas to fix while you're in there, like oil leaks, seals and having the heads redone. Lots of decisions to make. If you do it, remember to let the engine run for 15-20 minutes to rid the exhaust system of all the old anti-freeze. It will blow white smoke for that long after you start it back up. Lots of threads on this forum on how to do it, and that helps.

algranger

Hmm have you considered swapping in a 3.4?

Jay351

The weakest part of your truck is the motor. I doubt anything else would be doing. Drivetrain wise, you have one of the strongest trucks toyota made.

Rebuild the motor, or swap a 3.4L for more power, better fuel econo and better reliability.

yodercrawler55

wasn't there a recall for head gaskets on the 3.0's?

Jay351

Yes, but im sure he is WAY over the allowed mileage.

You could call toyota and see if the recall has been done yet..

yodercrawler55

i know when mine went out i just rebuilt the motor since i didn't want any other problems in the future to come up. if the bearings in the bottom end are exposed to the coolant you have a good chance of the bearings rusting out then having to rip it apart again.

vital22re

iTrader: (2)

i swapped in a 3.4 my self cheaper then the price of a rebuilt 3.0 $2100 for all the parts.

Justinlhc

Meh, there is alot of crap to take apart to get the heads off, but it's not that bad. The hardest part IMO is the removing the exhaust (unless you have headers) and unbolting the power steering brackets (suck suck suck to get to).

I bought my head gasket set for like $95 with new head bolts and valve seals. I ended up buying all new valves too which cost about $75. I should be picking my heads up tomorrow and slapping it all together this weekend.

95ToyotaPU007

I missed the recall by several months. With the mileage on the engine I bet they would have turned me away if I did qualify.

I'm leaning toward getting a rebuilt or remanufactured 3.0 I would go with the 3.4 swap but I think that would take too long trying to get the right parts together.

Who sells reliable 3.0s? besides toyota.

gary96360

my dad got the headgasket done by the dealer in like 01 with over 200,000miles on it under the recall. i went to the dealer like 4 months ago to see if the recall was done and they checked it up. it doesn't hurt to ask. if one dealership says no, try another.

Catlin

I don't know who sells rebuilt engines -posts indicate a vendor in Colorado - but with 350,000 on your engine, there is just too much to replace to justify a HG replacement. You can plan on 50 hours of labor, but unless you rebuild the lower engine, what have you got? I just put a HG on my 3.0 with 169,000. It was at least the third HG for this 93 4runner. Runs strong. Probably cost close to $1,000 for parts, with all that I replaced, and I didn't touch the lower end.

Justinlhc

What??? $1000??? For what??? Did you buy brand new heads and a new set of headers??

I just did mine for $425 and $258 of that was the cost to surface the heads and have all new valves and seals installed.

Catlin

Well, first I bought a full HG set for about $100 on ebay. Later I thought the HGs they sent were substandard. I bought, after much study, a full Fel Pro set for about $230. These HG's were not MLS, which I wanted, but they had the steel reinforcing that were like the ones that failed. I liked the Fel Pro valve cover gaskets and that's why I bought the full set. I don't think any major manufacturer makes MLS head gaskets for the 3.0.

Head work cost about $200. I did not do the valves at all. The heads were a bit warped and pitted from damage caused by the failed HG's.

New timing belt and 3 outer belts- about $50 I think. New air flow meter cost about $120 from ebay. I had tried to separate the old AFM from the wiring harness and pulled out the 7 wires instead. This messed up my AFM and I got another, which works fine btw.

Then there was 30 for oil, antifreeze and filter. 17 for one can of The Right Stuff. New Plugs, $10. Toyota parts bought were two or three little pre-formed hoses for oil cooler and other places - about $12 each. Oil cooler was leaking and new little gasket was about 10 I think.

Then I bought an air die grinder from Harbor Freight to polish the block, along with various abrasive attachments. This was about $40, although I didn't need all that I bought. That is a great tool and it did a good job on my block. I bought about $25 worth of metric nuts and bolts.
This is $868 so far. Then we must buy a few more specialty tools, as always. Probably $50 - 100. So that's my story of how I spent my money.

Justinlhc

Well yeah if you rebuild the entire motor and buy all of the tools to do with with it's going to cost alot. You bought alot of stuff that isn't just a "head gasket" job including 2 head gasket sets.

abecedarian

I've got nearly every tool I'd need to rebuild my engine, head down, save for the honing and ridge reamer, in my tool grip. Well, I may need to add a 1/2 drive torque wrench and a thorough set of feeler gauges and some plastigauge.