Replace head gasket vs replace engine

2006, v4, with 130k miles I bought for my son 18mo ago. Quoted $4500 to replace head gasket and 7k for new engine. No issues till now. Thoughts?

 

Head gasket for the 2.7 ? Seems excessive but I have no experience with that.. I would shop it around to some local mechanics and not the stealership...

 

4500 bucks better mean new chains, tensioners, gaskets, fluids, vvti controller etc. Thats huge.

I usually quote 4000$ for V6 headgasket with chains.

 

I've had the head rebuilt on mine and got new tensioners, chains, gaskets the works at around 2k in the Kansas city area. It's extensive work but haven't had an issue since.

 

Gasket, but at a more reasonable shop.

5 lug, 2.7, right?

Replace the plastic coolant bypass pipe under the intake while it's opened up.

 

Err -- there is no "V4".

Is it a 4-cylinder, or is it the actual V6 6-cylinder?

HG failure was common for a certain calendar production date range of 2006-year V6 Tacomas (1GR-FE engines) -- but not the I4.

 

As far as I know, the 5-lug never came with the V6. So we’re looking at the 4-cyl.

 

Get another quote from a shop that knows Toyotas a bit better.

 

Thanks Jason. Saw your reply and did just that.

 

Yes @Clearwater Bill, 2.7L, 4-cylinder. Stumbled across about 18mo from a single owner in excellent condition, etc. The $4500 felt excessive, but that kind of repair is beyond me and thought these last few years, who knows w labor and parts being an issue. Plan on getting another diagnostic run early next week from the only other highly referred shop in the area that can tackle.

 

We could tell you a lot more about the prices if you posted a pic of these estimates. $4,500 doesn't mean much if we can't see what's on the estimate. Otherwise it's just a number

 

Good point. Here's the one I have thus far.

 

Boink me sideways, is this in Canadian prices?!
$3,400.00 for Labor. That's $425.00 for 8 hours / 8 days.

I understand this is a involved job, but damm.

 

FYI the cylinder head gasket set is available from Toyota Parts Direct in Canada for $273.05 as quoted to me on March 8th.
These might be dealer prices.

 

"Includes time to remove and inspect engine assembly"

At $175 per hour that's about 19 hours of labor

I'm not familiar enough with these to know if the engine has to come out to do the job. Also not seeing any fluids or tune-up parts like plugs and filters on there. Kinda seems like a "please go away price"

 

Thanks @TJTM and @b_r_o . Getting a 2nd quote tomorrow from a trusted referral. Will update there as well.

 

Be sure they use NEW head bolts. Most mechanics are not aware that toyota uses one time use bolts of uniform strength ( stretch bolts). If they don't change the head bolts it will go about 20,000 miles or so ( until the warranty runs out) before it blows again
and if you bring it up they will most likely be resentful and ignore what you say

When the head blew on my 2.7 , it hydrolocked after pulling over , so I didnt want to risk it, or tear down the motor to look for a bent rod and with over 250,000 miles already and got a fresh motor with 80k out of a crash

 

The head job on the gen 1- 2.7 was very easy good access, IIRC only took me about 10hrs, main difference gen 2 is the rocker rollers but they may want to pull the motor to look at the rods to see if it hydrolocked . I had to replace the head myself years ago on a gen 1 2.7 because every shop in my area (including toyota dealers) refused to do the job, I had lower compression on two adjacent cylinders making it cold stall. I thought they were all crazy but sure nuff found out why the hard way after doing the head, They said too many(ALL) come back with the head blown again soon ( i think I found out why) and recommend engine replacement, so got the valves done and replaced the head .After 20,000 miles it blew again ( and even hydrolocked when coolant got in the cylinder ) just like they all said it would.
I did some research (too late) believing there must be a reason and found out about the head bolt issue everyone seems to ignore and/or or be unaware of, If the motor has low miles and never got a hard workout the head bolts might take another stretch and go again farther but its a roll of roulette wheel
I have a similar problem now with a Ford 5.4, good experienced mechanics refuse to do just a timing job on a 5.4 motor with over 100k, unless they can tear down the engine first ( because it is oil pressure related ) AND it takes extensive experience to do a $3000 + timing job and have it last so they default to a crate engine replacenmentt or forget it. a timing train replacement labor charge is similar to an engine replacement labor charge

 

Me thinks it's overpriced because they don't really want to do it.

 

I think the bolts can be reused as long as the stretch didn't exceed tolerance. The FSM should have the spec but you need a micrometer to check ( it helps to raise a son who is a machinist)

Also, do not use Fel-pro head bolts. I used them on a Matrix once and the bolt heads cracked when torquing them down. All the torquing was done by the spec. Not all bolt heads failed (3 out of 10).