Blown Head Gasket 19k

Hi I’m new to these forums; I recently bought a 2006 access cab 4x4 6speed manual, speedway blue, TRD Sport.
The car has a blown head gasket but I bought it $10k under retail value.

My mechanic is telling me that I should replace the whole engine instead of just the gasket because of the labor involved in replacing the gasket is 23 hrs and then going in there and finding out that it has cracked block or heads will make the labor cost go up and still will leave me replacing the engine anyway.
The car was always serviced a Toyota and have all the paperwork for it was diagnose with bad spark plugs and coils when it had 18,987miles but that only fix the problem temporarily and then went back to serv with 19,026 when they diagnose a Blown head gasket the car has exactly 19,050 on it do you guy think that driving the car for 63miles is enough time to blow a engine up?. The guy I purchased it from says that he never drove with the engine overheating and that it just felt like it would run out of power but the temp gouge was always fine.
Can you please advice what you think I should do?
Buy a used engine with low miles or go in there and try to replace head gasket?
Thanks

 

Sounds kinda fishy to me. I would almost bet there was some negligence on the previous owners part.

The mechanic does have a good point however I would still have him inspect it. Might as well pull the motor, pull of the head and inspect it and the block. If its bad, then you are going to have to pull the motor anyways to replace it. If its ok, it will be easier to work on the motor out of the truck anyways. The head will have to get sent off to a machine shop to be decked to ensure a good seal when it is reinstalled.

 

^ Talk about a major headache! For one if it was serviced at whatever Toyota dealership they didn't do their preventive maintenance to keep that young engine running strong. Secondly, I put a lot of blame on the previous owner as he should have know/felt/seen the problem and he let it go. Lastly, I would go to another dealer and get some estimates on the replacement/fix of your issue.


P.S. How much did you actually buy it for? ($10k below book isn't a price)

 

Where are you located? I saw on sacramento CL there was 4.0 a 6-speed together for sale for $2500 last week.

 

isnt there a 5yr/60kmile powertrain warranty?

 

oh and it wont "blow" an engine to drive with a bad head gasket. just dont let it overheat, keep the water/antifreeze topped off. Where abouts are you located. Maybe he hydro locked it and blew the head gasket/ cracked the block.

 

Pull the heads and check with a straight edge tool if the heads and block are warped if they are it got over heated. Also when you unlosen the head bolts if they come loose easy it got hot and may have pulled the threads from the block. I have also seen if it got really really hot when you pull the valve cover the middle of the cylinder head will be darker than the rest, they tend to bow in the middle. The 4.0l use a metal head gasket if its blown it got hot and something is warped, how bad you wont know till you pull it apart..

 

thanks for the fast replys, paid 14k for it here are the pic

 

I'm in Atlanta GA the only reason I don't want to put a used engine is because you really don't know what miles it has on it they always tell you these low miles and when you pop the valve cover you see there suldge built up, but i guess I really don't have a option, I'll keep my finger crossed and hope the head and block is not warped

 

Thats what I was thinking... Was it out of warranty?

 

Where are you located? I have a 4.0L with 27K miles on it. I can do the install as well if you are located in WA. I've already done an engine swap on the Tacoma so I'm pretty familiar with it.

 

no it still has warranty but he said that the dealer won't cover it because it didn't have the Toyota antifreeze in it. the basic warranty expires 03/2010 and the it still has the powertrain warranty.

 

Drain and refill with Toyota antifreeze and try another dealer.

 

cant you just flush it real quick and fill it back up with the proper antifreeze then take it in?

 

I think I would have to call Toyota Corporate on that one and try to nicely ruffle a few feathers.

If not, I don't know what would happen if you drain the rad, flush the system, and replace with the Toyota Super Long Life coolant and take it to another dealer?

One thing is for sure though, with less than 20K miles and the coolant was already swapped out with non Toyota coolant, something must have went wrong.

EDIT: I would flush and refill with Toyota coolant, visit another dealer and pretend you know nothing about the previous history because you just purchased it.

I believe the non Toyota coolant factor is irrelevant because something must have went wrong FIRST to need the coolant topped up - OEM or not. Lets face reality, if something goes wrong while on a trip somewhere Toyota Coolant isn't available at every service station or auto parts store. The system has to be refilled with something to get you home.

 

Change the antifreeze back to Toyota, and take it to another dealer. They may track the dealer notes by the VIN but might be worth a shot.

Who put in the wrong anti-freeze? Sounds like the guy who sold it to you is covering something up.

 

I guess I can try that, but I figured they would have record of all the work that has been done, because when pulled the toyota owner it gave me all this:

Service History for VIN: 5TEUU42N06Z280081



To sort by service date, click on Service Date header.

12 Service Records found, displaying 1 to 10. 1 | 2 Service
TypeService
DateService
ProviderMileageRepair
Order#Service
Description By Dealer 07/24/09Chatham Parkway Toyota 19,026 0378772CHECK ENGINE LIGHT
By Dealer 07/24/09Chatham Parkway Toyota 19,026 0378772ENGINE RUNS ROUGH
By Dealer 07/24/09Chatham Parkway Toyota 19,026 0378772DEALER ACCESSORIES
By Dealer 07/07/09Chatham Parkway Toyota 18,987 0378670CHECK ENGINE LIGHT
By Dealer 07/07/09Chatham Parkway Toyota 18,987 0378670ENGINE RUNS ROUGH
By Dealer 04/24/09Chatham Parkway Toyota 16,949 037133315K SVC FACT REC
By Dealer 04/24/09Chatham Parkway Toyota 16,949 0371333CK ENG LEAKS FLUID
By Dealer 08/15/08Chatham Parkway Toyota 11,301 034788010K SVC FACT REC
By Dealer 01/23/08Chatham Parkway Toyota 5,901 03270405K SVC FACT REC
By Dealer 11/07/07Chatham Parkway Toyota 3,179 0318967MT&BAL 1 TIRE

 

My advice....

pick up a used motor for around $1400-$1600 that is in good shape, drop that in, truck is up and running, your a happy camper.

Then have the other motor inspected. if its good, sell it, if it needs major repair part it out, and recoup some of the cost from purchasing a new motor.

 

1 07/07/2009 CHECK ENGINE LIGHT CUSTOMER STATES CHECK ENGINE LIGHT ON ~|~VERIFIED CONCERN, FOUND PO300, PO301. RANDOM AND #1 CYLINDER MISFIRE. MOVED #1 COIL TO #3 CYLINDER AND MOVED ~|~#1 SPARK PLUG TO #5 CYLINDER. TEST DROVE WITH COMPUTER CONNECTED, NO MISFIRES. WHEN WE FIRST SWAPPED PLUG AND COIL RECEIVED MISFIRE IN #3 AND #5. SMOKE PRESENT COMING OUT OF TAILPIPE WHILE MISFIRE CODES PRESENT.

INTERNAL (DEALER) PAY 2 07/07/2009 ENGINE RUNS ROUGH CUST STATES ENGINE RUNS ROUGH AND SEEMS LIKE HAS NO POWER ~|~ ~|~SEE JOB #1

INTERNAL (DEALER) PAY JobDateOperationOperation DetailsPay Type1 07/24/2009 CHECK ENGINE LIGHT CUSTOMER STATES CHECK ENGINE LIGHT ON ~|~VEHICLE HAS BLOWN HEAD GASKET~|~VEHICLE HAS BLOWN HEAD GASKET


NameQtyTRANSMITTER, TRAN1 INTERNAL (DEALER) PAY 2 07/24/2009 ENGINE RUNS ROUGH VEHICLE RUNNING ROUGH ~|~ ~|~VEH HAS BLOWN HEAD GASKET

INTERNAL (DEALER) PAY 3 07/24/2009 DEALER ACCESSORIES SALES DEPT LOST KEYS DURING TRADE APPRAISAL ~|~CUT AND PROGRAMMED KEY BILL TO SALES ~|~HAD TO RESEED VEHCILE APPROVED BY WINSTON JR.

INTERNAL (DEALER) PAY

 

There was a lot of good responses out there, but 23hr to pull the heads off?
Never heard of such think. 23hr? cam-on.
take care
vbibi