Well last night my headgasket decided to go again. Lots of smoke, oil in coolant, coolant in oil, etc. I just replaced the headgasket about 11 months ago due to it leaking. This time its fully blown. The reason why it blew the first time was because of severely corroded water jackets in the head(most likey from the previous owner not hooking up the grounds to the head correctly.) So this time I am buying a rebuilt head to hopefully solve the problem. So its back into the garage to rip everything back out again. Wish me luck.

 

good luck it must take alot to blow a head gasket i cant seem to do it

 

good luck ;-)

 

I'm sure you know how to do it quickly this time. good luck man

 

It could be that you have used a bad gasket. Talk to Ted at engnbldr.com about that gasket to use. He has 2 very good quality pieces there right now that might make a huge difference for you.

 

The gaskets in the motor are from engnbldr.com. Right now I almost have the head completely stripped down. I just need to get the lower intake off, take off the cam gear, and I will be ready to pull the head off.

 

Call Ted and see what he says he may replace them for you if there is a good arguement for it. I've talked with him in some detail about the HGs and he is probably one of the only people who is still working on these engines.

 

It not really the gaskets fault that it failed. My head is really corroded and needed to be replaced a year ago. I am being smart and replacing it this time.

 

You're right to do the whole shabang this time. Nothing like doing a partial job then having to do it all over again. Good luck.

 

All left to do now is remove the headbolts and pull the head! Halfway there. Almost.

 

i learned this lesson the hard way...blew 2 gaskets before i came to my senses, the head was JUNK! put a new head on there, been running great ever since with none of the issues.

 

It almost 1am saturday morning, and im done. Haven't fired it up yet, but its all back together. Got my head and gaskets today, and started working on my truck at about 6 pm. Only problem I ran into was the bolts for the cam bearing were stripping out at about 12 ft/lb's. Helicoil solved that. Another headgasket under the belt.


My back hurts, time for bed.

 

Thank god for them good ol heli-coils. Got 3 in mine

 

I have a 94 4 Runner 3.0 V6 which now has 34,000 original miles.In 11/01 I was advised of a recall for headgaskets by Toyota.I brought the truck into Westbury Toyota in Westbury New York for an unrelated problem
and was advised to have the headgaskets replaced pursuant to the recall notice at 19,000 miles. In 12/05 I noticed a coolant leak. I brought the truck back to the dealer.
At first they advised that it was a leaking heater valve which was replaced. The leak persisted. They then advised that the truck had a leaking headgasket on right side of the block,which I suspected.The service advisor requested that a furthet exam of the
headgasket was necessary to confirm the problem. I unknowingly consented to allow them to further examine the Head. They confirmed the diagnosis . I requested that they reassemble the engine and return the truck. The dealer advised that the they would charge $1,600 to reassemble the engine. Since I had no choice I consented to allow them to do the repair for a total cost of $3,300. Naturally, I contacted Toyota Corporate who refused to contribute to the repair despite the fact that the headgaskets had been replaced 4yrs and 14,000 miles earlier.
The most disheartening thing is that the truck was never abused and was meticulously maintained.

 

Quick question. How should I break in the new head? I put my old cam in, but should i still do the new cam break-in procedure? Let me know, this thing is ready to fire.

 

really isn't a break-in procedure for the head. just bolt it in and go, if you're using the same cam and rockers, you'll be fine.

 

It may be too late now, but for future reference when a head gasket goes, there are some things that should be done:

* Replace the head, or have the old head lightly planed to insure it's absolutely flat and clean so that it provides a good mating surface for the gasket.

* If possible, plane the top of the block to insure it's completely flat too. At the very least, use a good straight edge and check it before proceeding. Make sure it's clean as well.

* Replace the head bolts. The factory 22RE bolts are only intended to be used once. They lose their strength after that.

 

actually, 22R bolts aren't torque-to-yield like the 3VZ-E head bolts. they are fine to reuse as long as they aren't corroded or damaged.

 

^
And the TTY bolts found on all the modern v6's do not require, nor specify replacing.

 

Yeah, but I'm paranoid with headbolts. It's just cheap insurance to change them. I went to the ARP studs on mine just because I really don't like changing head gaskets.