Is my headgasket on its way out? 3.4L

Hey guys and happy new year. Decided to start tackling the valve cover gaskets on my 2000 Tacoma which were leaking pretty bad. After pulling intake noticed the plenums were pretty dirty but after wiping the dirt and grease it actually wasn't that bad..which lead me to-

Stats-2000 3.4L, 152k miles automatic.

Moving on to the valve cover on passenger side I pulled the cover and see this below. Milky on one side closest to firewall( which is the side with the heaviest leak, it was bad). Am I Fked? Or is that some slight condensation build up from not being driven much. My mechanic friend said probably windage-crank case pressure or oil hitting counterweights churning oil up.


And here's the same side, oil looks clean and not milky nor is it in the dipstick. I haven't driven this car in a couple weeks either but did about 400 miles on it up until early December. otherwise drive around the block once a week.


thanks for any 3.4 pro's on here helping a squid out.

 

Hey Matt,

Kudo points to you for trying to get your valve cover gaskets to stop leaking.

So you have a 2000 pre-runner with an automatic and a Toyota 3.4 with 152,000 miles on the odometer. That is not many miles for a Toyota 3.4 to be suffering from head gasket issues. Are you the original owner of this rig? If you are not the original owner of this rig, how many miles were on it when you purchased it. Did you run the rig very hot for a long period of time? This will always do a number on head gaskets.

Alright, here is what you need to determine if you believe you are having head gasket issues. I can't make any kind of prognosis regarding if you have a blown head gasket from looking at the pictures you supplied. Sorry about that. Nothing looks that out of the ordinary. You need to find out if your 3.4 is burning coolant or inhaling coolant due to a blown head gasket. There is a turkey basting looking device that they sell at auto parts stores that you put in place of your radiator cap, and this device can determine if there are blown head gaskets. That is the easiest way I know of to tell. Is your rig blowing a great deal of white smoke for a long duration of time when it is on? This is also a sign that you have a blown head gasket.

Good Luck,
Paul

 

I don't really see the milkyness you're talking about. I just see brown dirty oil. It would look like a milkshake.

I would definitely drain the oil and start there. Maybe run it for a few minutes before you drain it. If that's milky then do a compression test. But if you drain the oil, and it's fine, then you're probably fine...

 

Looks normal and healthy to me. All the healthy 3.4 valve covers I've pulled look similar. I'm with your buddy-probably condensation. Maybe time to throw a new PCV valve into the valve cover to help minimize that?

Also, dunno if you meant it literally or not, but "Around the block" isn't enough to really help the drivetrain last. Much less than say a 10-15 minute drive may do more harm than good. Needs to get all the way to operating temp for all the components -cat converters, transmission, ring and pinion etc. So idling in the driveway doesn't really help much either.

I've smoked two head gaskets on 3.4's. Both were self inflicted, and secondary to other problems-a blown rad hose and a dead water pump. Both way out in BFE out wheeling and I'm supercharged....kinda a perfect storm for murdering head gaskets. Once it gets hot, it starts missing and you know the damage is done. 3.4 generally isn't known for HG issues unless you overheat it or supercharge and let it knock a bunch.

If your losing a head gasket, you'd most likely get at least one but usually multiple of these symptoms:

Miss-can be at idle or under load
White smoke from exhaust
Liquid from exhaust-more than the usual condensation drips
trouble code for miss fire
milky oil on dipstick
coolant loss/discolored

Hope this helps!

 

Nothing to sweat hombre

 

Thanks Paul, i'm the third owner. The previous guy had it 1.5 years and just commuted quite a bit like 25k in one year and the first owner up to 115k kept it in pretty good shape more or less, don't think it was overworked by the condition of the body and under carriage. Will look into the leak down test tool, however i think i was just overthinking this last night because the coolant doesn't seem to be going down at all. Thanks for the reply!

Thanks, all good points. I think its fine after rethinking everything. Yes theres a little water coming out at start up but not consistently; its probably built up condensation. Coolant is level and not going down, color is correct etc. Going to finish the job and drive the piss out of it and see how it goes from there.