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You're welcome. I'm not sure for what. Good luck with whichever path you choose. But you probably won't need it. Since though there may be many different brands/types, there doesn't seem to be much substantial evidence showing one brand/type is any better/worse than another. Which may be because they're all relatively good variations of the design. Or, as I've said time and time again, because the 3VZ-E doesn't really have any major problem related to head gaskets anyway. It's one of the biggest internet myths ever propagated. So any head gasket you put in it will probably work just fine.
I know we've gone rounds before on this, but I just don't see how you can say, with a straight face, the 3VZ-E did not have major head gasket problems. Toyota even did a recall, not just a TSB, to replace head gaskets on their dime outside of warranty. The also had to improve upon their original design, which to me shows they acknowledge their mistake. The 88 3VZ-E has the head gasket with the asbestos in it, which held up well because of it. Once they went to the non-asbestos design from the factory in 89, head gaskets were blowing like crazy, hence the slipper plate design.
The magnitude of the 22R/RE head gasket issue is masked by proclaiming the real problem is with the 3VZ-E. Truth is the whole thing was made up by jealous 22R/RE owners. Who, including Toyota BTW, are too ashamed to even admit that the HG problem with that engine is so ridiculous. And too stupid to know why it's such a problem anyway. Which has more to do with the piddly amount of torque on the head/rocker arm bolts. Than it does the Slipperplate™, or lack thereof. Which I repeat, and have verified with the inventor, WAS DESIGNED FOR THE 22R/RE!!! AND TOYOTA HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT!!!
The Slipperplate™ has never been proven to do any good on a 3VZ-E. And some say it's not even the best design for the 22R/RE either. They changed part #s for the 3VZ-E head gaskets at least 4 times from 88 to 95. The last of which were the Slipperplate™ design. Which to me suggests they were just trying to keep up with the latest designs on the market. Not so much as a fix, but as a preventative measure. The recall might just be because the 95 3VZ-E had them from the factory. So by doing that they set themselves up to be liable for not having used them until then(or rather for not issuing a recall, if they hadn't). They can't make such a drastic design change to such a critical component and not be expected to apply it to earlier engines(which by default would now have "sub-standard" parts). The fact that there was a recall doesn't necessarily mean it was meant to solve a major issue. It might just mean that they decided to use a significantly different design, and don't want to get blamed for not making the decision sooner, or for not "fixing" their previous "mistakes". The asbestos hypothesis is just that though. Nobody can prove that's true either. And I highly doubt it is frankly. Sure looked like graphite to me. AFAIK somebody totally made the asbestos thing up in their head. Where is that documented?
Bottom line: I'm comfortable running any head gaskets on my 3VZ-Es at this point. I'm pretty sure they'll all work the same. I'm pretty sure it'd be hard to tell which is better or worse. Since like I said, the problem with the 3VZ-E prematurely blowing head gaskets is a myth. Which of course you don't agree with because you don't even own one, much less one that has said problem. I mean that makes a lot of sense right? You have no experience to make the call, but it's always you guys that I argue with this about. NEVER AN ACTUAL 3VZ-E OWNER!!! Look maybe, like all myths, there's a grain of truth in it. I'll concede that much. Maybe they made a "bad batch" at some point. And all the fuss has been about a very small, and yet to be identified, production run.
In the end...this thread has become all but meaningless, in its attempt to glorify one type or brand over another. Little did I know. But whatever...it was fun. Pretty over it now though. It's no fun any more.
i made the mistake of dealing with BEN @ 541-521-5235 TOYOTA ENGINE COMPANY VISA/MASTERCARD WELCOME when I bought a "reman" 3 vze engine from a guy in springfield, OR. i found on craigslist. i saw the crud in the exhaust ports in heads i knew something was fishy but paid $1600. anyway because i really needed to learn this lesson. the front main seal blew within first 5 miles after engine install. and the drivers side head gasket failure and resulting cracked block were well before 20k. i love my truck buyt has been sitting and rusting since. Ben killed my enthusiasm and a little piece of my soul. hopefully the link works, so people will see in his own pic, in his own add you see a stack of the Evergreen fake as fu.. head gaskets in the background, as well as many other red flags of a non professional. i discovered the nature of these chinese counterfit parts on tear down after the reman took a dump. and then found this thread looking for wtf was up with them. thought id return and add some fruit to the question of where these $10 prop parts were dumped and hopefully save someone else the trouble of being taken for a ride. god bless
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I acknowledge that this thread is old, but, oh boy, what a trip it was reading through it. I originally found it while trying to figure out what changed and when with the new part number for the OEM Toyota gaskets, since Toyota Parts Direct shows the OG part number still for sale. I think the reason for this is that they never show anything out of stock, they just cancel your order after the fact... kind of scummy IMO. I did find that the Apex gaskets with the Slipperplate™ towards the head, similar to the original Rock gaskets, shown by MudHippy are still available on RockAuto. I may go with those if/when my head gaskets fail.
For anyone who cares, my truck is an '89 3.0L M/T 4WD EXTRA CAB DLX with about 350k miles on it, the original head gaskets, AND crossover! You don't have to believe me, but that's how I bought it from a nice older gentleman who purchased it in '91 from the original owner. He also never had the head gaskets done under the special service campaign because he wasn't having any issues. I pulled the motor shortly after I bought it, however, because it needed a lot of maintenance performed. And the whole time I have been struggling to decide if I should just change the head gaskets now or put it right back in without ever pulling the heads and see how much longer the OG head gaskets really go. I mean, they've lasted this long - will they last forever? will they blow tomorrow? I don't think anyone could really say.
After reading though this thread (I've read many, many others on this topic too), I feel like it just isn't worth the risk to choose one brand/type/iteration of head gasket. Before I thought OEM was the safe bet, and it probably still is, but after seeing how they've flip flopped with these redesigns over the years, I lost some of my blind trust towards them. For now I won't mess with my gaskets. I'm going to modify the crossover to terminate in a Y with the down-pipe, because what we do know for sure is that the stock crossover is a bad design. Whether or not this will increase the lifespan of my head gaskets is all but speculation.
I had the heads pressure checked and they are not cracked and are flat. This time I bought a set of Fel-Pro gaskets but they are made the same as the Ebay ones.
04-01-2016, 10:16 AM
