to head gasket or not to head gasket, that is the question

So a few weeks ago my thermostat stuck and caused my truck to overheat. I just confirmed today that my head gasket is indeed blown, or my head is warped/ cracked. Calling around looking for some quotes for the repair it looks like it's going to be about 3k depending on headwork.

So should I fix it or what should I do??

A couple more factors coming into play that are making me think about dumping the truck are the fact that the truck approaching 180,000 and alot of stuff is wearing out. Mirrors are loose and wobbly. Headlights have broken tabs. Visors are loose and don't sit up against the ceiling anymore. Seat is beginning to have holes. Bed is squeaky. Driveline vibes. Tires will need to be replaced soon. Brakes are near needing replacement. Transmission keeps getting really hot and burning fluid. I haven't read anything about transmissions going out but I wouldn't put it past it to self destruct at any time after towing trailers across the country a few times. (Not very heavy but apparently this tranny likes being hot)

Suggestions? New truck?

I love my truck but it doesn't make sense to dump too much money into it at this point.

Anyone interested in an 05 4 door prerunner? Haha

 

It's a tough question. $3k is a lot of money to spend if you think it would need other repairs soon. If it were me, I would fix it. Even an '05 with high mileage sells pretty high. I would guess that you would get a good return on the repair investment. Whether you sell after fixing or if you keep it longer would be based on whether or not you want a new payment and truck.

 

I wish the new tacoma would hurry up and come out to make this decision easier, haha.

Payment isn't an issue, I can pay cash for a new truck, but you can call me cheap and not want to replace something without good reason. My last tacoma had 300k on it before some a hole totalled it. I would still be driving that today if it kept rolling.

 

I thought I was going to be in the same situation about 10 months ago, truck never showed it was overheating and it was running really ruff, then it started throwing codes. Ended up taking it to my uncles shop where he thought it was a cracked cylinder head so he tore apart the whole motor got the heads resurfaced which weren't cracked and replaced all the gaskets, Turned out the water pump went out which was throwing the code. Didn't have my truck for 3 months due to his shop getting backed up and me not paying anything, but now my truck runs flawless. I thought I was about to have to fork out some serious coin, all the quotes before were outrageous. Hope you get it all figured out

 

This is one of the reasons I bought the aero force gauge. My pre runner runs between 186-191 on the aero force gauge. Never ever higher. So if it does ever run higher I will know immediately! If I were you I would get the new truck! Sometimes you cant put a price on piece of mind...Goodluck no matter what your decision is

 

3K+ for repairs and your worried it costing too much but you have cash for another one. Just say you want another one. Take the cash and build yourself the rig of your dreams.

 

I have a scan guage. Before the whole overheating debacle I had noticed it trending a little hotter than usual but nothing crazy until I pulled off the highway to get some gas at about 1 am towing a trailer. The temp went from about 190-200 to 250 in about 5 seconds. I am watched it happen at a stop sign at idle. There was nothing I could do. It was fine as long as I was moving and had enough rpm to get the water pump pushing water through the partially closed thermostat. I got it all the way home, about 150 miles helping my foot in it actually in low gears and it ran at 180 the whole way. Only when I stopped would it heat up. New thermostat and now it's back to its old self... except for the water in the exhaust and my disappearing coolant.

It's not my first time around the block.

 

It is my work truck. I like to spend my money on recreational things, like boats and beer. Less money on truck equals more beer. Ultimately this truck will need to be replaced in the next few years but it doesn't make sense to waste money like I said earlier.

I'm thinking of fixing it and begin my search. A new ram 1500 diesel sounds interesting. I would probably get something like that if I wasn't scared of the thing falling apart. I buy toyota for a reason. This is by far my worst toyota experience with a vehicle. Still love the truck though hah

 

Tally up all the costs of repairs and maintenance to bring the truck to a serviceable condition. Compare it against the bluebook values of your truck in its current condition and in "fair" condition. Make a business decision to repair or sell as-is.

 

I would NOT continue driving it in that condition. Leaking head gasket into a cylinder is not good. Think about what is going to happen when it gets worse and a cylinder gets enough water to hydro-lock the engine. This usually results in broken piston and or bent connecting rod etc...

It happened to a friend of mine who ignored the warnings. His MR2 drove fine for a week or two ( except for the coolant in the exhaust ) then when he went to start it after work it locked. Broke a piston and bent the connecting rod.

It may not be your first time around the block, but it could be the last.

 

It's been a progressive thing. I was keeping an eye on the coolant res after the overheat couldn't really tell if it was going down or not. I was more conserned about the bubbles being pushed up trough my coolant res. Basically if it was going down it was marginal. And I could swear there was more moisture in the exhaust but wrote it off as me just paying attention to it more as I never bothered to actually regularly check the amount of steam at startup to have a real baseline.
I was using some one ton trucks to haul around a bunch of blast media for work that was too heavy for my truck for a week and then went on vacation for a bit so the truck hasn't been used much. When I got back I noticed it's starting to misfire on startup, probably from coolant in the cylinder. At this point it had been about a 1000 miles since the overheat and the coolant res was getting low. Took it to the shop and they confirmed the head gasket issue with a block test.


No I do not plan on driving much, except to the dealer to get the work done. I entertained the idea of trading it in before it gets worse and throws codes but I don't want bad karma. Every body wants to charge about the same and they have more experience.

Has anyone hear of a tranny going out? I am kinda more conserned with that as a major maintenance item down the road. I just haven't read anything on here about tranny giving up on these trucks. I drive around with a lot of weight in my bed (tools and have airbags for leveling) but I don't tow trailers that are really all that heavy. 3k max normally but quite often. I towed a 23ft mako for about 800 miles once but that was no more than 5500lbs . My the trans fluid looked pretty bad between the last few flushes

 

For transmission fluid I would go more by smell than appearance. In my experience the Toyota Transmission Fluid gets dark rather quickly, but isn't burned.