i have a 1990 toyota pickup with a 3vze out of a 94 pickup, late yesterday afternoon i went for a drive with the girlfriend to a couple places and on the way back threw town i was idling at a red light just after stopping and getting gas and putting oil in it(no milky stuff at all under the cap)it wasnt getting hot or nothing and it started puffin steam out of the tail pipe, instantly knowing what it was i gave it a quick rev and it got worse but still ran fine, i started heading home which was only a couple blacks away thank god and it progressivly got worse(running like crap) and starting steaming out the entire block to the point where you couldnt see anything at all..i got it home checked the oil cap and it was milky of course,it was a little low on water but not to bad,i pulled the dipstick but the oil showed no water in it?? pulled the intake hoses off and there was water dripping out it like i was sucking in water threw the intake,i started it up about 10 minutes ago and it ran on about 3 cylinders for about 2 minutes then it cleared up but is still down a cylinder and steams but not nearly as bad, theres water pouring out of every crack in the tail pipe....sounds like a typical head gasket to me but it just seemed weird that the intake had water in it but the oil is nice and golden brown like the day i changed it and the fact that there was no sign it was going bad it just straight went from fine to the worst blown head gasket ive ever seen from a toyota..not looking for a miracle cure to fix it just kinda stumped

 

Bump.

 

They either burn the coolant or mix it in the oil sometimes both. Pull the plugs and they will be able to tell you.

 

It's definitely burning it bad,how common is it that the heads crack in these v6's,I'm scared the heads won't be good when I get them pressure checked.

 

Depends who you ask.

If you ask me, it's not very common at all. Practically unheard of in fact.

If you ask somebody that makes money testing, repairing, or replacing heads, it happens all the time. And yours are cracked for sure. So you'll definitely be looking at replacing them, or spending even more money having them repaired(it always costs more to repair them...even if it doesn't). Whichever makes them more money.

Yeah, whatever...

I wouldn't even bother having them checked/tested. If you don't see a crack or other obvious damage when you inspect them yourself. Then there ain't any.

Look, it's just one of those things that isn't really even worth speculating on. Who knows exactly why it blew, exactly where it blew, exactly how much damage it caused or resulted from, or exactly how much it's going to cost to fix? Answer = NOBODY. You find all that out when you go about fixing it. And that's THE ONLY way you'll find out. Comprende?

 

In my many(25) years as a repair technician, I have seen heads/blocks/pistons/turbo components/etc crack and it wasn't visible to the naked eye. Under stress and/or pressure, no bueno... Comprende?

I'm just saying.....

 

I agree... Most head shops will "hot dip" them and x-ray, some cracks will be extremely difficult to see when the head is off, and cold...

That being said... Op needs to pull his plugs, and see which cyl are burning the coolant..., About the water in the intake tube... Could be the IAC valve is leaking?? Never seen it happen like that before, but I guess its possible; More than likely tho, it was just condensed steam...

 

thanks for the help,ive been comtemplating my three options lately due to this washington rain puttin a bit of a damper on my plans of a tear down..been thinking about getting a whole new rebuilt 3.0,or having someone do the head gaskets who knows how for 900 or do it myself..next chance i get im pulling plugs to find the culprit,i will keep you guys updated.

 

Hey Scott-
It probably is not the HG....had something like that happen back in the
80's to my friend's 85 Toyota truck. Big cloud of white smoke that wouldn't go away.....turns out the old anti-freeze turned a bit acidic and etched a hole in the intake plenum shooting water in the intake. Take your spark plugs out and if all 6 are wet...and possibly cleaned off from the water then you need a new intake.

ps---bet you have the cleanest pistons in town

 

bummer to hear that. the engine change is not that bad. but timely hooking everything back up. maybe find a used engine. i have seen complete broken but decent running trucks for $400-$800 in my area.

 

this would make more sense and due to how random it was and the fact that it wasnt over heating, has anyone else heard of this happening on a v6?

 

or even a 4 cylinder..?

 

On a 4 cylinder its more likely the the timing chain eats through the water jacket in the timing cover. But pulling plugs and running a compression test will let you know whats going on. If it is headgasket, it most likely will be #6 or 4.

 

ok i started tear down today,got the radiator out some bolts removed off the top of the plenum,attempted to remove the egr valve,got the fan,clutch fan,and timing cover off and before it started raining i pulled the plugs they were all pretty black/burnt brown,plugs 1,3,5 had a couple droplets of moisture but nothing major..plugs 4 and 6 were the same nothing major but when i pulled plug number 2 i had atleast roughly 8 ounces of water pour out of the cylinder....also checked the dip stick today and i now have milky oil so i am guessing that the water that might have been in the cylinders already leaked down into the oil past the rings...

 

Blown head gasket for sure.

 

Good luck on the rebuild.

 

only cyl 2 had the water huh? thats kinda odd..... Did u ever run a compression test?

 

Interesting; four years ago, I blew #2 HG as well. Uncommon one to blow as it's usually 5 or 6.

I have two extensive threads on mine...

 

ive read on here that doing a compression test sometimes wont tell you anything,ive come to the conclusion that even if it is just the intake gasket that if i got it tore down that far i might as well do the head gaskets now so i can feel a little better about taking my truck on 200 mile round trips to eastern washington haha..TNRabbit you say you have extensive threads on HG repair might have to check that out im getting kinda stumped with the extensive vacuum lines which some of them had antifreeze in too by the way..is there a write up that you guys know off hand thats helpfull for someone like me who has never touched a v6 toyota or should i just invest in a chiltons book?

 

Sounds like an intake gasket to me, but it is odd that there was only water in cyl 2.... A compression test MAY not be enough to tell ya whats going on, but combine that with a leakdown test, and cooling system pressure test, and that should be enough to propperly diagnose.

I agree with doin the hg's while your in there, and tearing it down will tell you more than any test.