Is this even possible? : head gasket leak, no overheat,no codes, see pic....

I invite your thoughts and/or guesses in regards to this picture:

-POV is from underneath truck looking up towards sky
'looking' at area where cyl head and block mate at back corner of engine- (close to firewall)
the light grey metal visible at the top of pic between the grey wiring plug on left and the slightly darker grey rounded corner of my exhaust manifold is the very back corner of the (relatively) clean and dry cylinder head -. An inch or so to right and below the grey plug is the black shiny oil-wet engine block.

WHAT does this look like to you? How would you interpret this?
I beg your indulgence here-I'm in a pinch time-wise so I'd like to get a discussion started before I go out on a limb with my own conclusions. ( so sleep deprived right now I wouldn't make any sense anyways< my apologies.) : I'll return tomorrow and post more pics and the relevant details.
Please share your thoughts guys I know your time is valuable so I'm counting / praying for your generosity
thank you thank you now I can sleep I hope
I need a new (reman) cylinder head and gasket and ???

(FOLKS CHECK and adjust YOUR VALVE CLEARANCES!!!))((yes it's a PITA but way easier than a top-end engine rebuild or replacement.)) And MUCH cheaper.

96 2wd Tacoma auto 2RZ-FE 200k+. my 'Daily Driver'.

 

oh man i'm punch drunk duh sorry : 96 2w d tacoma auto 2RZ-FE 200k-

 

I dont know man. Kinda looks like a leaky valve cover to me.

 

This. If you find oil above it leaking out of the valve cover it's probably that. If you're super concerned like you're experiencing low output and / or rough running, do a compression test to find out for sure.

 

If your having to add radiator fluid then u have a problem

 

Valve cover.

 

My 99 2.7 3rz-fe looks the same, been wondering if I had a bad head gasket or if it's just oil migrating back from another leak. I have to add coolant but I also have a water pump leak. And an oil pump leak lol

 

thank you all very much for your input.!!!
The reason I solicited outside opinions on this is I fear it's a head gasket leak. The valve cover gasket was seeping but not in that area. The cylinder head (in that area) itself is clean-down to the block, where it gets pretty messy.
Not long after I purchased this truck (several years ago) it overheated-clogged radiator. Replaced radiator-no more overheat. But-always a faint smell of coolant, barely detectable. No visible coolant leakage, but every couple of months or so I have to add a pint or so of coolant.
Where I'm at right now: cylinder #3 and #4 both sets exhaust valves are so tight I can't even get a reading-feeler gauges smaller than .003 are too flimsy to even get in there.
This 'project ' didn't actually start out as such-I bought a new valve cover gasket last year at the same time I rebuilt the front suspension (lower balljoint failure,not fun!) but never installed it....
CA smog cert time so doing some too-long deferred maintenance. Knew I'd be a fool to not check valve clearances while I had it opened up...AFAIK they're not -quite-burnt -yet: no ECU codes, no audible misfire, maybe a slight power loss, hard to tell. I was ready to put it back together to run compression checks as a way to more accurately gauge engine condition when I saw what appears to me to be leakage between head and block. That kinda stopped me in my tracks....
Further thoughts?
I took another series of photos from underneath the truck. Unfortunately the main area of concern is situated such that it's very difficult to get camera positioned for good pics. -would it help to post more anyways?

 

If you think you have a Head Gasket issue, Take your radiator cap off. Start your truck, Watch for bubbles. Give it a few minutes so its an accurate test. If you have bubbles you have a Head Gasket issue. This is one of the easiest tests to do.

 

I think you'll know it if you have a bhg. It won't be a question of what the engine looks like on the outside. You'll be losing coolant, blowing white smoke, or finding sludge in your coolant. If the hg was leaking enough to have the amount of fluid collect on the outside of the block, you would have super low compression in at least one cylinder and your engine would be running really rough. Impossible to diagnose without more info, but doubtful hg is having an issue without you feeling or experiencing symptoms that are more common of a failing one.

 

thanks again for taking the time to respond. I know you're right about Knowing if I have a hg issue (yup, been there, done that, too many Xs!) -call me gun-shy or paranoid....

moving on: the exhaust valves. All 8 out or nearly out of spec; and I have to make a correction on what I wrote last night re: #3 cylinder (follows)
exhaust valve clearances, (inches, not millimeters):
cylinder #
1: .011, .011
2*: ?< .003, ?<.003
3: .010, .009
4*: ?<.003, ?<.003
*actual clearance on these is something less than .003 but those feeler gauges too thin to use....

Intake valves not nearly as bad, naturally. cyl #4 @less than .004 both valves. the others all w/in spec.

How do I proceed? How do I get an accurate measurement when I can't even get a feeler gauge between the cam lobe and the shim? -note that I did buy the 'special tool' for adjusting/changing shims.(
What a PITA! )

 

I have a 2000 PreRunner 2.7. Are these valves adjustable? I thought they were hydraulic.

 

if you think making the measursments are a pain try locating the correct shims... this could take more time than anything.

 

The Honda tool?

 

I had a Head Gasket issue on my 2005 4.0 and mine didn't show any signs. Never showed hot on the gauge, No smoke, Nothing. It overflowed once from the overflow bottle. I talked with a mechanic and he saw white crusty matter around my overflow bottle so he did the bubble check in my radiator and that's how we came to a conclusion that I had an issue.

 

not sure if I should start a new thread with this question or not, so here goes:

what is the best (affordable!) head gasket set ? I understand that 'you get what you pay for'-which is why I phrase the question the way I did. From all the reading I've done it SEEMS that the general consensus is to use OEM or MLS head gasket. But somehow I have the impression that the factory hg IS MLS? Does anyone know for sure? I can afford $300 max for this part of the work (the hg shop bill may run as high as $700 and that does not include new head bolts nor fuel injector seals and some other misc parts...)

ALSO what else should I examine carefully and (consider) replacing while torn down?

Please advise, thank you!

 

Have you run a compression test and found one or more cylinders has low compression? Why are you swapping out the head gasket? I'd go oem on this since you wouldn't want to have another failure and end up paying more shop fees. What does the $700 cover? If you have low compression it could be a cracked cylinder head and that's going to add to your bill if $700 is just in labor. But let's start with the basics, do you have low compression in one or more cylinders?

 

If the engine still runs fine, doesn't shake, smoke,putter, ping or knock. I'd buy a Toyota valve cover gasket use rtv and a torqje wrench to put it on. Get 2 bottles of simple green and wash the crap out of the motor from every side, top and bottom then see if it still leaking oil or antifreeze. It could be loosing antifreeze out of the weep hole on the water pump.
That stuff on the block could also run down from the valve cover or something, I've also seen trucks that burnt so much oil leak some from the between the exhaust manifold and port on the head but they were really worn out old school v8s not i4 Toyota with 200k miles

 

sorry I forgot to respond :

rzgkane: AFAIK yes but I'm not up on your yr/model specs.

Dalandser: um, what Honda tool are you referring to?

MARSHBUSTER: I had overheat issues years ago but no other symptoms (such as you describe)

 

haha I knew I shoulda....

Dalandser: well the story goes somethin like this: bought new valve cover gasket _last fall(!)_ whilst buying front end rebuild parts...didn't get around to installing it, then was working 7-10's (7days/week, 10 hrs/day) for a while; almost got caught up on bills but not quite. After lay-off catching up on deferred maint stuff incl valve cover gasket..with Ca SMOG 2 upcoming. Realised I would be a fool not to check valve clearances while it was unbuttoned. (am bigger fool for not checking them sooner...) See post above w/valve clearances.... Have close to $100 in pts/gaskets that are returnable if unused, most of which are necessary to re-assemble to running condition (to run compression test) and thus will be unreturnable but will be included in hg set.
Time and $$ now critical; I'm willing to spend what should have gone towards long overdue debt but can't work w/o truck.
Would definitely have been preferable to have compression numbers to start with but.....had no idea how deep I would dig myself into what's starting to appear an endless sinkhole.
Sorry for the rather rambling not-quite answer to your fairly straightforward (and absolutely appropriate) question while I take a break from kicking myself :E

EDIT: in response to what the $700 covers: disassembly/cleaning checking for warpage machining to spec new valve stem seals 3way valve (stem?) grinding and several other things which I can't recall off the top of my head- the $700 figure the machine shop quoted me was pretty much the worst-case scenario cost-the cost started at something like $199 to disassemble, clean, check for cracks/warpage and then reassemble w/original parts :cost increases depending on what parts require replacement. Can't find the notes I took during the conversation so now gotta suck it up and call them back to confirm those sometimes costly little detail numbers.