2002 3RZ Head Gasket Failure - Resolved

Hey All!

Truck is a 2002 2.7L 3RZ.

The past two weeks or so I've been chasing an intermittent P0300 code at start up with a momentary (5-10) seconds of rough idle then operating normal for the rest of the day. I cleaned all the intake system components, maf, throttle body, iac, pcv valve, spark plugs, plug boogs. Thought maybe it could of been a fueling issue as it would start fine if I keyed off and on several times before cranking it.

Anyways... had it stumble and loose power during two highway passes today with a P0301, followed by a near total loss of power, enough to limp off the freeway and die... Went to crank it again and was greated with a huge plum of white steam from the engine bay and tail pipe...

Got it towed home, pulled all the plugs and drained the oil. Plug one had coolant on it, all others with dry and normal (they were replaced two days ago). Oil didn't have any noticeable coolant in it (also changed two days ago). If I squeeze one of the coolant lines I can hear air coming out of cylinder 1 spark plug hole. I'm tempted to add oil and do a compression test just for some fact finding.

I think it's pretty apparent I have a nicely blown head gasket here. With that being said, I'm looking for advice on best next course of action here and potential worst case scenarios...

I'm pretty confident in pulling the head, having it inspected, and redoing the gasket. It's my daily and getting it reliable back on the road is the goal.

Thanks all.

 

I would consider a junkyard engine swap. $1000-$1500 and you could be back on the road (far less time and money than a head gasket repair). Given it's your daily, that'd be the quickest way to get back on the road.

Then you could even take your time rebuilding your current engine to have ready should the junkyard engine not last forever

 

I did my own head gasket, it wasn't bad, lots of good advice available around here. Off the top of my head -

- toyota has a part number that includes all OEM gaskets needed to do the job, it saves a ton of time in finding parts
- you'll want to get the head checked by a head shop, and at the very least check the valve clearances. While they're in there they can replace the valve stem seals
- it took me several weeks of evening work to get it done


how many miles on the engine?

 

How many miles does it have? The head gasket in my 2TR-FE went at 157K, but it was nowhere near as catastrophic as what happened to yours, and the head wasn't even warped.

 

The motor's at about 205k. I've had the truck since 175k and been on top of maintenance, have an ultra gauge, never any weird temperature swings. Their were two valve on list to be adjusted but they were still within range as of 3k ago, was going to be doing them soon haha.

 

I'll look into that, not an awful idea. Motors out here are listed around $2500 for a warrantied junk yard pull. Ironically I was looking to add power or do a fun swap with this down the line, now I've just got to get it back on the road.

 

I too want to add power to my truck, and am passively looking for a junkyard engine to rebuild, then put forced induction on the newly rebuilt engine. I'd rather do that on the engine (5vz) that came on my truck though to avoid dealing with the headache of wiring associated with a swap to a different engine (LS, 2JZ, etc).

So you could always do something like that with your existing motor after throwing a junkyard engine in.

 

You have no idea what your dealing with to you pull the head off.

Pull off the head then decide .

If your hearing air you have a very big failure.

Make sure it is not just a hose failure steam under the hood can be drawn into the engine.

With all my head gasket failures I never vented steam under the hood .



Good Luck!

 

That's the plan! Pull the head and see what's going on. Curious - how could steam under the hood be drawn into the engine? I'd say I got a big plume from under the hood but more than half or more came out the tailpipe.

 

Well it gets drawn through the air intake out the exhaust .

Unless you have a snorkel and draw air up by the roof .

Might be the reason you had coolant in the cylinder as well .

 

Copy that. I'll inspect the coolant lines. The steam was rather instantaneous from both ends. Will report back!

 

Alright alright. Got the head pulled, not too difficult, all the ancillary stuff is really the headache here. I spoke with a friend who's an engine engineer at TRD and he was pretty convinced I'd have a cracked head for this type of failure. Looking like that's not the case thankfully. Pretty significant head gasket failure though from the coolant channel to cylinder no.1 on the exhaust side.

I'll be taking the head to a machine shop to have it looked at and gone through. But hoping I'll it's not too much involved there, new gasket kit, and reassemble.

Any advice on while i'm in there type things here? (on the very conservative keep it running top for a long time side of things... no big boost turbo ideas...)

 

you see that large cavernous area with the chain? Fill it with clean rags because you will drop something in there. I replaced my head a couple years ago. I could change the motor twice in less time than properly change the head, plus the cost of the machine shop etc. If I can give you any advice, get a large sharpening stone and lightly stone the block. The high spots will show, lightly continue till gone. Most importantly, use ONLY Totota gaskets. dont be tempted to clean the plenum.... good luck

 

Have the machine shop look over the valves to make sure they're sealing well. change the valve stem seals. When it's all back together make sure the change the oil after a few drives to flush any contaminants out. Looks like a pretty healthy engine otherwise though. You might consider replacing the head bolts while you're there.

 

Yeah I'm not a big fan of these heads........
a lot of failures..

check @ the 18min mark......

(30) Engine Head Gasket / Cracked Head Repair (Toyota 3.4L V6 5VZ-FE ) - Part 4 - YouTube

 

Head was dropped off at a local machine shop to be gone through and sorted. Looked good upon visual inspection by their tech and he was pretty confident it would be a good candidate for rebuild. Will report back when I pick it up and begin prep for reinstall. Thanks for the insight so far y'all!

 

OP - I'm literally just starting down this same road after a week or so of debate and searching for an engine that I could afford and looked decent. Ultimately, I've decided to pull the head and then make a decision. Any updates?? I'm following your thread and hoping there is a good end to the story.

Here's my thread so far.....

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/need-an-engine-2-7l-3rz.807212/

 

Yes. Success here. I have about 800 miles on it after the fact and we're running better than before, nice and smooth all the way up to redline under load on hills too.

I had the head gone through, nothing was in need of replacing, just new seals, ground seats, decked etc... Toyota factory gasket kit with all the extra bits, replaced a few studs on the exhaust and head, and a few rounds of oil after startup, chase your threads in the block, and use new head bolts unless you're inspecting your originals. It wasn't too difficult, just finding the right mental space and a long day here and there to allocate to it as it's just a lot of parts to remove and reinstall. Ultimately it was pretty easy, just download that section of the factory service manual and print it out, follow it step by step.

The worst bit for me was when my head gasket failed a small part of a metal ring on the gasket pushed inwards toward the piston. As a result the top of the piston had a small score on it, the bore was fine as I inspected via rotating the motor. I used a small half moon file to kick down the burr on the top of my piston to prevent any hot spots in the combustion chamber. No issues to report from that at all, was just a point of concern after getting it all open and seeing a small amount of damage to a piston.

Let me know if you have any questions, easy to walk through.

 

Awesome. I'm hoping that mine goes as smoothly. I literally (just last night) got the work space set up, tools organized, and began draining fluids and pulling some of the intake off. Should make some progress this weekend, thanks for the feedback!