Quick novice question. I have a 1995 V6 4WD 4runner with 118K miles on it. I'm worried about the headgasket. Is there any way to check whether the gasket is going bad, or will it just "blow" unexpectedly one day? I did a compression check on the engine and it was good. I just know these things are notorious for the blown headgasket and Toyota apparently "fixed" the problem by the time they manufactured mine (yeah right). Just curious what I'm in for (I just bought the 4runner, hence the compression check).

Also, the car came with a rear automatic posi-trac differential, but the owner's manual that I have with it is for a broad range of gear ratios. So I'm wondering if there's any way to figure out what my gears are, since I obviously don't want to pull it off and count the teeth. But that would be a nice thing to know (guy before me was the second owner and didn't know). Anyway, thanks for any responses.

 

Warm the engine up & do a compression, or leak down test.

 

Do a search, there is a link to a page that deciphers the codes to tell you what the factory gearing was. Not many US trucks came with a limited slip though, so they may have been redone. In one of the threads there is a description of how to turn the wheel and count the driveshaft rotations to get the ratio too.

 

thats the best test, otherwise it will just "blow" unexpectedly one day. maybe slowly maybe completely.

 

if you're in the US, the posi isn't stock. they were available in many countries, but not in north america

 

Sorry. When I said the car came with it, I meant I bought the car and it had it. I knew it wasn't stock. It's a Detroit.

 

you test the h.g. yet?

 

It could still test Perfect today, and just "blow" unexpectedly tomorrow.

 

Not to hijack, but my head gasket recall was done in 1997. Is it still prone to fail even with the recall being done. It has 102,000 now.

 

Yes, some have had problems even after the recall work was done but Toyota will only fix it once for free. As I understand it the new gaskets are better but it is still a problem child.

 

also, to be fair about it - damn few have ever had any actual problems.
I sometimes suspect some of it has to do with the individual - like those guys who claim they rev their 3.0 over 5 grand all the time....

 

That's true, plus you never know if the HG replacement was done by the book or not. Maybe those that have had it replaced more than once (I remember one guy had it done 3 times) just had techs that for what ever reason didn't do a good job of following the proper proceedures.

 

http://www.off-road.com/toyota/tech/other/4_axles.html

 

I agree. My car 3vz-fe has had repeated problems blowing headgaskets. When it was replaced under the Toyota(lexus) warranty originally, they didn't even scrape the old gasket material off the block, or heads. I'm sure they warped then - causing all of my problems down the road.


Most dealers I know won't do anything more than scrape off the block & heads. Many won't check them for being warped, or stretched.


A great metal machinists straight edge like a $150+ Starrett will tell you exactly how warped that head will be.But any semi-inaccurate $10 metal straitedge and a sheet of normal printer paper will tell you if a head is just warped some. If you can slide the paper under the ruler, you're warped & you can always slide a long metal straight edge down some if you think it's on a warped spot!

Just some food 4 thought!

 

Wow, I guess I got lucky with my 3.0 warranty work. I went by one day to check on it and they had sent the heads out to a machine shop to check them out. This was the dealer in Wichita Falls Tx back in 1997. They took a week to do the HG and timing belt.