Blew the headgaskets on my 3.0, now what?
 

Overheated the 3.0 on my 4runner and without a doubt blew the head gaskets. Fired up once after over heating and giving it time to cool, made it maybe a mile and it was hot again and lost all power. Now it does not start..

So my question to you guys is, what would you do with a limited budget? I'm not sure if it's worth putting money back in the 3.0

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance..

:facepalm:

Sorry man. I wasnt gonna poop on your build thread, but you have discovered the curse of the 3.0

Either have the 3.0 rebuilt and exorcised by a priest, or swap a 3.4 in it.

Cheapest option...pop some head gaskets on it. Its gonna suck. Not a fun motor to work on. You will earn a Toyota Mechanic purple heart for getting one running again.

Litle more. Try and find a good 3.0 Not an easy task. Easier to swap whole motor than pull one of those demon spawn mechanical nightmares apart.

Kinda spendy. New longblock. Wham bam thank you ma'am. Hurt the wallet...but probably the best solution. Weekend job with some buddies.

Ouch my wallet. Research. Find. Install 3.4 Join the few the proud the swap masters. All Toyota owners will be required to salute you.

Again. Sorry man. Head gaskets suck. I know.



The prior entertainment was brought to you by 1/3 funny and 2/3 back pain medicine.

I spent about 60 on a cheeapo head gasket set on eBay. Then I bought a set of victor reienz OEM made in Japan head gaskets for 44 on eBay. I had cracks in both my heads so that cost another 500 at the machine shop for rebuilt heads, I also had them adjust the valves. I rebuilt my injectors while I was at it with a rebuild kit on eBay for 30 bucks...came with new pintle caps too. I bought an Aisin OEM waterpump and timing belt kit for around 90 I think. The job itself isn't too bad if you take your time and bag/label everything you remove as well as taking plenty of pictures of the motor as you tear it down for reference. Tricky part is dealing with the exhaust crossover(that you can thank for the blown h.g) I bought a swivel head ratchet wrench with an offset handle and had no problem getting the cross over off (unbolt the crossover from the drivers side , I left mine attached to the paasenger side exaust manifold and removed it all at the same time with the head...big time saver You'll want to get some wd 40 and some scotch bright to get the block surface clean. Make sure to run a thread chaser/tap down all the head bolt holes in the block (m11x1.25)...bolt to 33ftlbs in sequence then add 90* in sequence then a final 90* in sequence. Remember to remove your heads following the proper removal sequence too. Don't go cheap on the head gaskets though. Make sure they're made in Japan at least. Theres a "slipper plate" on the head gasket that is supposed to face the head. On 95% of the aftermarket gaskets the slipper plate faces the block aka are made upside down) Wrapping the exhaust crossover with header wrap may help insulate the heat from the back of the drivers side head.

Well I'm going to try and find a used motor first I guess, then if no luck I'll go from there. I had a bad feeling that I was going to have HG issues eventually, but I was hoping to at least make it through winter, I just bought the damn truck! Only put maybe 600 miles on it, and 300 of those were the drive home from buying it.

You gave my lady and I a pretty good chuckle HighLux :lol:

Spend a good week or two reading the 3.4 swap threads and you can swap a 3.4 for cheaper than you think. I have about 1200 total in my swap

Yup, after doing a quick search in my area looking for a motor/parts truck, without any luck it's making the 3.4 swap look better. Just started reading the 3.4 swap 101 thread.

i just blew a headgasket last week as well, after putting just about the rest of my money into rebuilding the truck and some engine work. its real discouraging. I think im going to take the quickest route and put in a new 3.0 for now since its my dd, its winter and im sick of being picked up to go places since october when i started the rebuild lol
If it was summer i would definetly have done the 3.4 swap and ride my cbr

Good luck with whatever you choose to do and if you do the 3.4 swap let me know how it goes!

Im going to call the local stealership tomorrow and see if they will still honor the recall on it. I doubt it, but maybe. It's worth a shot.

Has anybody tried to get theirs fixed by Toyota under recall recently?

I really don't have the time/money/tools/shop to perform a 3.4 swap unfortunately.

I do have a EFI Ford 302 laying around though.......

You can swap a 3.4 for the price of rebuilding a 3.0
Biggest cost is the engine itself.
You just need basic hand tools and an engine lift, or chain fall.
Swaps here have been done in driveways in the rain, snow, and heat
A 3.4 is the simplest engine to swap in place of a 3.0

It would also take me a year of working on it by myself to get it done. lol

Mine took 3 months by myself. I was also unemployed during that time

Took me about three months to do the swap too, but I took the harder road going from a four cyl to the v6.

Toy only swaps in Oregon can do all the hard part, plug and play wiring harness and prefabbed exhaust crossover.

Look up toy only swaps and offroad solutions. Either place can make a 3.0 to 3.4 swap as easy as it gets.

my 3.4 is an awesome engine and I don't even have the supercharger on yet.

Good luck gettin the runner back on the road...

The wiring is the really scary part for me as far as the 3.4 swap would go. The mechanical stuff I have no problem with but finding something plug and play would make me lean more towards the 3.4. I'll look into them. Thanks

My dad has bought at least a dozen Toyota's from a local dealership over the past twenty years so I'm hoping that my truck has never had the HG serviced by a dealership and they'll still honor the "recall" in an effort to keep his business.

I did find a cheap possible parts truck today, but at $800 and 170K on the clock, it seems like another ticking time bomb to me.

Unfortunately I think it's going to be out of commission until spring at least which really blows seeing as we get tons of snow and my only other vehicles are a 2wd Ranger and a Foxbody Mustang haha

What part of Michigan are you in? I have a few friends who happen to be Toyota dealership mechanics, group effort swap.... if your not too far away. best of luck

Was the truck you found a 3.0 or 3.4?

I couldn't see myself spending around 800 on a "wiring harness" that you send them the one off the engine to modify. If I remember right I had less than 20 wires I had to solder. It looks crazy the pics I've seen that looks like 100's of wires in a mess.

Stranded in the U.P., Munising to be exact.

Thanks.

It's a 3.0. The 31's/wheels would be a small upgrade over what I have now, so that would help me justify the price a little bit. But not enough if it's just gonna pop em too

http://up.craigslist.org/cto/4239602266.html

Tough call if you should buy that for the engine or wait for a 3.4 It would be bad you go through all that and that motor blew the head gaskets soon also

Always nice to have a spare parts truck laying around for all the little dumb things that add up in a hurry. Talk him down a bit. I bet he takes 500 cash. Just before Christmas, cash money talks a big game. You could sell off the diffs and bed and make your money back...