My truck is a 1997 Tacoma, 3.4L v6 with 90k miles.

Recently it started running poorly, and it is likely to be a head gasket.

Question is, would replacing the head gasket be an unrealistic job for somebody with no experience? Obviously I would be referring to a manual for direction. Up until this point I have only done minor work to my trucks.

On the subject, how much should I expect to pay for a mechanic to do this job?

Thanks for the help!! I need some feedback so I can get this done asap and not miss any work...

 

First diagnose it to be a blown head gasket. Are you low on coolant and/or do you have mixing of fluids?

Rob

 

Why do you think its the H/G? Thats pretty low mileage to see a blown H/G on a 3.4. Sounds like you need to do some serious diag beofre condemning the h/g. If you have no experience it probably best leaving that type of job to someone who knows what they are doing. Alot of people try and save money by doing it themselves but it ends up costing them twice as much when they need to pay someone to tear it back apart and fix what they messed up. We see that ALOT in our shop

 

never heard of 3.4 HG blowing, most likely you just need a tune up.

 

Yea, I never heard of it either. This is what my mechanic told me so far. I am going to look into this further. As well as a compression test.

Thanks for the response

 

i usually stay away from any fluids to run through your engine but i heard so much about this stuff i thought id give it a try. its called K&W head gasket and block repair. i thought it'd be worth a try and it was fixed overnight. i dont know how long it will hold up this was only about 4 months ago but i was amazed.

 

does a blown hg always cause mixing of fluids? I've got a strange oil leak, rough idle, and slow acceleration - it was suggested that it may be a blown hg. I haven't done a replacement on one of these, but I can't figure where the oil might be coming from...

 

No. If you have a blown h/g, it doenst mean you will have coolant mixing with oil or vise versa. Could be a simple leak into the combustion chamber or I have seen quite a few 3.4's crack between the valves into the water jacket

 

do the 2.4's and (sigh) 3.0's have any proclivity for presenting the same?

 

The 3.0's are famous for blowing h/g's and burning exhaust valves. If the DIDN"T do that you would wonder whats wrong. lol The 22re's will blow occasionally bu are usually not too bad