so my truck is turning out to be a pile of crap just finally got it running good changed over to a weber carb desmogged the whole thing runs great now I have a coolant leak coming from the head gasket on the exhaust side by cylinder #1 so I guess it needs to be done now so since I only wanna do it once what parts do you guys recommend ??? certain brand of head gaskets ?? thanks

 

People seem to have good luck with enginebldr parts, also you can't go wrong with dealership parts.

 

Ok here we go again...

Engnbldr is good.

I used a Victor Reinz head gasket on mine. Toyota OEM would be good, too. NOT felpro.

If you're doing the headgasket, you'll want the exhaust manifold gasket, intake manifold gasket, exhuast ring gasket (for where the manifold connects to the tailpipe).

Some rtv or Toyota FIPG.

Coolant. Oil and filter.

Valve cover gasket and half-moon gaskets.

While you're there it's not a bad idea to replace the water and oil pumps.

I had coolant coming from pretty much exactly the same spot, after changing my water & oil pumps. Nice new pump allowed a weak spot in the gasket to start leaking. Didn't leak with the old worn out pump.

 

Just did the same project on mine and I used all Toyota parts there a little high but there the best I also bought the 261 cam from engbuilder but 83 pretty much got you in the right track I used Toyota fipg on both sides of every gasket I put on except the head gasket only in the two spots shown in the fsm and I have not one single leak. But yeah if you have the funds go ahead and get the complete gasket set from Toyota and replace everything while your there because your down that far mite as well do it all to make you feel better about your truck. I'm not talking down on engbuilder gaskets at all people have had good results but OEM is best remember that, I got my timing set from doa racing and was very pleased with the quality of it its all metal backed guides and pre stretched. Have your head sent to the machine shop to do a valve job and to mill your mating surfaces you always want to atleast have your head milled. There's lots of info on this site if you search and some very good people on here to help they got me through some hiccups myself but if you need some thing just ask I'll help as much as I can good luck and follow the fsm step by step and triple check everything before you start her up