This is getting old. This will be the third head gasket done on this truck in five years! The last one was a rock gasket from engbldr.

I can't believe no one makes a HG that will not blow. A friend on mine had been driving his truck for over 12 years before it was wrecked, and never had a problem with the gasket.

What gives? How long have you been going without having this issue?

 

Just a question: the older supra also suffered from this condition, they found it the torque specs are not high enough-in other words you need to torque the head on good! Whatever the specs say its wrong!

 

Is that the #1 or #6 cylinder? Have all three failures been at the same cylinder?

 

Yes same cylinder #6 in the back where the crossover exhaust meets the down tube.

 

You might have some head or block warpage in that area. The #6 cylinder is definitely a problem area on the 3.0, due to the restrictive nature of the OEM cross over. You'd probably be doing yourself a huge favor by switching to headers.

For what it's worth, my HG failure was at the #1 cylinder. I used new OEM gaskets and bolts. So far so good (26k later).

 

The last time I had the heads decked just to make sure they would be flat.

Headers just might be my best bet.

 

Definitely check the heads & block for warpage. That is the only reason you would be blowing gaskets that often, unless you are overheating it.

FYI: Headers USUALLY only make your engine bay hotter than crap & don't provide a heckuva lot more power for the expense.

 

while they make the engine bay hotter, it serves to COOL OFF the heads! (heat has to come from someplace)

the manafold design on the 3.0 just plain SUCKS! having all the hot exahust gass come around and meet the right side at the #6 cylinder is just a bad idea.

headers will definetly help migrate the hot exahust away from the heads.

but at this point id bet you've warped the block or something to have continual problems like that.

 

If youve blown that many gaskets, I would say somthing is not right. Not maybe but definatly check the block for warpage. Have the heads re decked this time as well. Get new head bolts and find out if there is a different tourqe spec than listed like above said. Also check your cooling system to make sure its working correctly.

 

One problem is that the headbolts are torque to yield which should only be used once. Even the factory manual says only once. BUT the head gasket recall will not replace the headbolts. Make sure you replace the bolts.

Also, if you are going to do headers, ceramic coat them. Otherwise you'll cook the starter.

 

as CJM mentioned....is there a new torque spec discovered on these engines? when i did my 7m i torqued a good deal over the reccomended torque because toyota f'd up and basically destined EVERY 7m (especially turbos) to have BHG's. personally i think they have (had) basis for a class-action lawsuit or whatever right there.....there is NO recall or notification. probably has to do with the fact they stopped using the 7m in supras in 92.... dunno about cressidas....

 

Well the cylinder heads and block aren't warped. The only thing that came tom ind was an incident last year when it tried to overheat.
BTW I did use new headbolts on the last one and I will be using new ones again.

Also here is a pic of the HG on cylinder #1, you can see that the gasket is protruding in to the bore.


Before we got to this stage we had a headbolt failure. I was loosening them when the head just snapped right off of one. Never had I sen this before. Fortunately I keep a set of extractors for just such emergencies. They worked like a champ.