EHam

whats this i hear about Toyota's running forever? well mine sure did not. whats sad is it only has 144k miles on it. from what ive seen that is supposed to low for these trucks. i dont beat the hell out of it and i keep pretty good care of it. the other night im out and it starts running like crap. the next morning im heading home and it starts running hot. i know i probably should have pulled over but i was so close to home i thought i could make it and i figured its probably a head gasket so ill have to start tearing the engine apart anyway. any ideas on how much a shop would charge to fix it? im about done with this truck.

Tubbyfatty

Dealership -around $2000. I called a shop that I went to with my old car and they said its normally around $1500

Machine shop - $200 - $300

Bunch of threads about this. Mine blew a while back, it sucked, Im always easy on er and keep up the maintance. Oh well.

Phatboy1048

yea mine just blew but im in the process od just putting a junkyard 3.0 in and drive it with that for awhile while i refresh up my stock 3.0. toyota really screwed up with the 3.0 im telling u i wanan do a 3.4 swap but tooo much time and u have to relocate pretty much everything hahha but will bolt up to my trans which is nice

tried4x2signN

Take the VIN to the dealer and see if the recall has ever been done on it...

They'll run the VIN and if it has, you're SOL. If not they'll do it for free...

You > look > stickies...

Kiroshu

If it was the original Toyota HG and the truck is a 91 or later then it was about time.... Sometimes you get a lucky one and the HG will go 200k+ but most of the time not... The job pays about 10-14hours so you can expect alot of money in labor.... 3.0s have scetchy HG issues but if you take care of it they last just as long as other yota motors. Every motor has its flaws.. the 3VZ-E's is the Head gasket....

camo31_10.50

the crossover is the problem..it cause too much heat around the #6 cylinder.

my fix for that...get rid of the crossover with a full custom dual exhaust, into a dual inlet/single outlet magnaflow

*EDIT* i don't have to have a cat. so

Tubbyfatty

The crossover is not the only problem.

This motor is a Bi metal motor (cast iron block, alum heads) So since the heads heat up faster then the block it rubs on the HG and over time thats what causes it to fail.

dsleggett

A VERY high percentage of engines made in the past 20-30 years are cast iron blocks with aluminum heads. Not many of them have HG issues. As I understand it Toyota did the recall because of a faulty OEM gasket design/install. It seems that the cross-over causes premature failure on newer/better head gaskets too.

EHam

i understand nearly every vehicle has their problems but head gaskets going out because of poor design is ridiculous. i bought this truck because i wanted something reliable and got decent gas mileage so i wouldnt have to put so many miles on my cadillac cts-v. by the way the hg recall has been done. as soon as this truck is fixed im going back to domestic..sorry guys.

Kiroshu

Theres alot of reasons and hunches how these HG's go out. Ever seen many 88-90 3.0's with HG probs. Not much because they were built right and had a tougher material HG with asbestos which later on toyota was ordered to change it cause of federal regs. So the 91-95 3.0s had a weaker material. Also another so called cause toyota said from the factory a select amount of 3.0s had improperly touqed heads also causing this. The exhaust design does not help either how ever he 3.4 is not much diff. If it goes out change it will a "good" HG and tourqe correctly to "toyota specs" and drive it will be fine from then on. Toyotas rush to put a V6 in a truck market had its down sides.....

mmcpeck

My '88 Pickup 3VZE blew a HG with 110K on it, I wasn't even beating on it, just going down the road and it blew. It heated up so fast that it cracked the block. Toyota gave me a whole new short block for free, this was in '96.

My current '92 had the HG done by Toyota under the campaign at about 45K miles, it didn't blow the PO just brought it in to have done. It's got 101K on it now, so hopefully I get at least another 50K out of these HG's, or more.

camo31_10.50

then why is the headgasket USUALLY blown at the #6 cylinder??? because of the EXCESS heat caused by the crossover.

and just about all motors are iron block with alum. heads.........

Yotakid23

We're getting away from the point. We all get they blow and for whatever reason doesnt matter. Anyway back to the original point. like was stated earlier, go to a dealer and see if its already been replaced, and if not they should do it for free. Mine hadnt been done yet but I still opted to do it myself and save that for later. I'm 18 and it took me two days, 1 to tear the engine down and clean up the parts, and one to build it back up. as long as youre not scared to get dirty you can do it. Just be sure theres not pitting or warpage in the head and/or block

budro

Yeah, the Explorer and S-10 Blazer are real jems.

wd21_sr5

HG is a maintnance item as far as I'm concerned, like a timing belt or brakes etc. Not like the motors self destruct like older Durangos. No offence but does it upset you that you've had to put gas in it and change the oil too? Fix it and drive the thing, my personal opinion.

pb4ugotobed

Wow, so quick to jump to conclusions here. First off, The headgaskets are not as big of a deal as you all seem to make them out to be. The original recall was due to a poor headgasket, not the crossover pipe, or anything else. It as a poor construction of headgaskets. Very few ever had problems after the HG was replaced, unless it was due to poor installation. The engine itself isn't the greatest design, and I have my own problems with that motor (even though my truck has the 3vz)... it has poor flow, makes no power, gets horrible mileage, etc. But overall it isn't any less reliable than any other engine Toyota's made. And the crossover pipe doesn't blow head gaskets... May contribute to some burned valves, but a poor HG design allowed the block or head to pit and/or rot around the water jacket allowing a weak point in which for it to blow.

But that's straying away from the point here. Rather than just trying to assume this poor chap has blown a headgasket, maybe try to start with the basics. IS there coolant in the system, How old is it? What about the thermostat? When or was the water pump ever changed? Is there a blockage in the radiator?

Let's not condemn the poor guy's motor without even thinking about it logically folks. There are about a thousand reasons a vehicle would overheat, and a blown headgasket is near the bottom of the list. IT would run like ass and probably smoke like a pig for any noticeable effects of a blown headgasket. You would lose most (if not all) compression in at LEAST 1 cylinder making it behave like a misfire. He didn't say anything like this, he just said it was running hot. Probably a $10 thermostat or a bad waterpump.

barthmonster

I have a '91 that runs GREAT, but overheats here and there. I've replaced the radiator, fan clutch, and thermostat. The thermostat is a 180 and is NON-Toyota, but I drilled a hole and placed the hole at the 12-oclock position which helped a lot....

My thought was that I had a bad head-gasket because of gas I found when I removed the radiator cap when the truck had sat for a week... I'm still not sure...

Why would it automatically run like crap with a blown head gasket if the leakage went into the cooling system ???