tsfrance

Hello. So I have a 1990 Toyota 4WD with the V6 engine and I am the only owner of this vehicle. It has around 250k miles on it. I would guess that 90 percent of those miles are me commuting up and down the freeway. This truck has never been off road and I only have engaged the 4 wheel hubs one time an that was to go over the Sierra Nevada mountains in a snow storm. All these years besides a few tune ups I have only ever replaced the water pump and all the belts and hoses and just recently I replaced the power steering pump. It has been trouble free and you could ever ask for. Around 1998 or 1999 I remember there being a recall on my truck and I am not 100 percent sure I think it was for the head gasket and at the same time Toyota offered to replace the timing belt for a very small fee being that the engine was going to be opened up anyway. I retired in 2009 and in the 14 years I have probably only added 6k miles in that time period. Over the last 4 years I have probably only driven it at most 1000 miles. I never really had any need to use it that much. So recently I bought a new battery and of course it started right up and I have been using it a bit more. A few short trips here and there and it has run great. Today I used it to make a short trip to the store and when I got into my truck to start it up I thought I could smell coolant. So I started it up and about a mile into my 3 mile trip there is a stop sign and while stopped I felt I heard the engine run funny.. I continued on and then came back home and it was running fine. When i pulled into my yard I noticed that my temp gauge was a bit high. Not all the way to the right but about halfway to the right past the center. Something I have never seen before. I did check the coolant and it was a bit low so I added some and I looked for a leak but there was no leak at all. And there is the smell of coolant. I looked at the oil and it seemed fine and did not seem watery but I am no expert.

So anyway, I am hoping it may be something as simple as a thermostat but my neighbor mentioned to me that some of these engines had head gasket issues and maybe that is why there was a recall. I'm not sure if a head gasket blowing after 250k miles is really an issue though? So anyway I know a guy who has the equipment to test the head gasket so that should give me an idea. I am guessing it will pretty expensive to have fixed if the head hasket is the issue. I can't see paying over 2k to have it fixed for how little I use it but it's a shame because it did run great. Any ideas on any other things it could be if it turns out not to be the head gasket?

Thanks.

PS The title should say 1990 Toyota but I am unable to change it.

Hairyberry

If you’ve owned the truck that long and it’s been that good to you I would definitely say go ahead and replace the head gaskets or possibly rebuild the engine or swap in a 5vz you’re not going to find a more reliable truck

SoCalToyotas

sounds like it may have blown another headgasket. if it keeps having coolant loss with no signs of coolant leak that is usually the only explanation

tsfrance

Thanks. Would there be coolant in my oil?