Ok guys, bear with me here....

First of all, great site full of very helpful people and info. I am a 44 year old male that knows less about auto mechanics than the average person, so if in response to someones suggestion I ask a very stupid question just tell me "that's a stupid question".

This is going to be a long post...

I bought my son a 1991 Toyota pickup. It's a 6 cyl with the 3vze engine, 200,000 miles. Last weekend he called after he arrived a church and said his truck was blowing out white smoke from the exhaust. I told him to turn it off immediately. I had been in the truck that morning (it was very cold outside) and commmented on how well his heater worked. I went to check it out and sure enough white smoke was billowing out. I packed it full of coolant and limped it home....approx. 5 miles.
Like I said, I know very little about auto mechanics. A guy at work who builds racecars as a hobby suggested I use the Blue Devil sealant to fix it until I could get the money to do it right. He said he has done several engines this way and a few of them have run for over 2 years with just the sealant.
So, I removed the thermostat, turned the heater on high, started the truck and added the sealant to the radiator. I was supposed to let it run for 45 minutes and at the 40 minute mark the engine started overheating and steam coming from somewhere in the engine. I killed it immediately.
The next day I drained the oil and flushed the radiator, then added oil back and reinstalled the thermostat. I ran the truck for a few minutes and the white smoke stopped coming out of the exhaust. I thought it was fixed/patched but after another 5 minutes steam started coming out of the engine block again. The heater never blew hot air.

Here's my question. Could it be that a new water pump will stop the engine from overheating and I could get a few more miles out of the truck? I'm not 100% sure the wp is bad, but it's all my feable mind can figure out.

 

I'm 99% sure you've got bad head gaskets. If the oil that you drained was milky looking, the head gaskets are toast

 

Head gasket.

Get it to the shop.

 

As a second thought, you may just have a serious coolant leak. IMHO don't use throw in sealants. Most of the time they clump and/or clog coolant passages. See if you can visually locate a leak after topping off the coolant.

 

Oil was milky. No coolant leak that I can visually detect

 

Wow
I over thought this one. White exhaust after a engine has warmed up is burning coolant. Strike my last post, your head gaskets are toast.

 

3.0 + steaming tailpipe = headgasket.


I bet every 3.0 ever made ever...has had a bad headgasket.

You know its bad when Toyota replaced headgaskets for free
on these for many years.

The 3.0 is Toyotas Waterloo.

 

OK, yall have convinced me to NOT try to replace the water pump and "see what happens".

Can a person with a 120 peice socket set from Lowes, a few screwdrivers and a 12 pack replace a head gasket?

 

If it's got white smoke comin out the exhaust and it's losing coolant than that's most likely the coolant getting in the combustion chamber caused by a faulty head gasket. When the head gasket gets repaired the timing belt and water pump should be replaced at the same time, as you have to remove the timing belt to remove the head gaskets to be replaced. Since the water pump is timing belt driven it's always a good idea to change both if one goes bad as they can be a PITA to do just one. If you're not convinced the head gasket is bad with the white smoke, you would be able to smell the coolant being burned, to me it smells similar to maple syrup, always makes me want pancakes when someone burnin coolant drives by me lol you would need the 12 point sockets to remove the head bolts, some pliers for the hose clamps and it's easier to get a puller for the harmonic balancer to get that off if you decide to change the timing belt at the same time, which isn't a bad idea. If you get a Haynes repair manual, or you can get a subscription for alldata for your vehicle that would give you a step by step guide to repair it. I always do a tune up when I get that far into an engine since you have to take that stuff off anyway, might as well replace that stuff too.

 

Yes, the coolant is burning out of the exhaust. I know this because it smells just like burnt coolant.

 

To answer your question...no.

Take it to a shop. You will thank me later.

The 3.0 is Toyotas ugly stepdaughter. It was a bad design.
It is a terrible engine to work on. Tight. Cramped.

The only ones who will encourage you are the ones who own 3.0's and have done headgaskets. They will defend thier 3.0's like a man defending a cheating wife.

Have the most experienced shop you know fix it.

 

Damn right!

 

No........ a HG is NOT where you want to start with this basic tool kit and limited knowledge of auto mechanics.

Also, don't use any Blue Devil or other such HG elixer.....it will likely create more problems with the radiator and heater core costing you even more $$ in the end.

 

damn, buzzkill....

 

What can I expect to pay for someone to fix this?

 

Now, if you are willing to invest in some tools and take the time to read HG threads 'round here, you could likely learn how to do the job. Organization is key and buying quality parts is essential. The 3.0 is a spaghetti factory under the hood. Lots of digital pics before and along the way are useful.

Just stating the facts.

 

"Spagetti factory" Love it. Assimilated into vocabulary.

Id say 1200-1500 should get you a head gasket job.

 

Book rate at 10.8 hours for the job it cost $1,122 with parts being oem head gaskets plus shop supply's and tax.this is Mitchell estimator rate at average shops rate 90 an hour

 

I think if you read up on everything, print out the necessary FSM pages, and proceed slowly, taking a picture at every step, before and after removing something, it could be done. You'll need a few unique tools, but nothing too crazy. It's definitely NOT a GM 350. A shop would be a better route if you need it up in a hurry, but there's plenty of folks here who cut their teeth on a 3.0 HG job.

Sent from my iPhone using YotaTech

 

Tools you'd likely be missing are:
torque wrench, breaker bar, gear/pulley remover, and gasket scraper maybe a wobble extension or two.

I can't imagine it made it this long with the original gasket but you can try the dealership recall program too. Bonus there is if it took anything else with it they'll fix it no charge.