Head Gasket replacement cost 3.4l

About a month ago, I discovered my head gasket was leaking from the pink blob hanging off the engine below the drivers side header. I picked it off and have been keeping an eye on it. Well I checked it again toady, and it's back.

Can anyone give me a ball park figure on what it might cost.

I'm at 82,000 on the odometer and figure I should probably just go ahead and do the timing belt replacement, etc at the same time so I won't be paying for extra labor.


Just had a thought. Does anyone know of a cheap aftermarket warranty / maintenance agreement. Maybe it'll be cheaper to purchase one and save me some money

 

that sucks, if you have to pay someone Im thinking around 1k? not really sure though.

 

Does Toyota sell the Head gasket separtely, might have to buy the whole gasket kit, Do the waterpump with the timing belt.

 

I would just go aftermarket if thats the case.

 

If I'm going to have it done, I'm going to have everything done at the same time. I'm broke but don't want to pay someone again just to replace the timing belt, water pump, etc.


I now also have a noise / feeling that just started this past week on my drivers side. Feels like and sort of sounds like I just drove over one of those plastic road dividing markers. Seems to happen at low speeds below 35.

 

How about some of this: http://www.barsproducts.com/1100.htm

I've never used it or anything and honestly never would, but if your broke it might help you out for a while. Someone on here probably knows a bit about it or other products like it.

 

I thought about using something like that but I don't really want to unless i know it's not going to screw something up.

 

Absolutely depends on what part of the country your in and what the over head of the shop is. Beyond that there are several other variables to take into consideration. How long have you driven the truck with the damaged gasket? What kind of weather have you been driving it in? and many others. What some people don't understand is that a head gasket is under extreme pressure from the head itself. Most head bolts are torqued between 150 and 250 lbs. If your head gasket breaks it causes a void between the block and the head. The heat from the engine can sometimes deform the head or the block to fill the void. Doesn't happen all the time but it can happen. Over time there is a lot of damage that can be done to the block as well as the head through normal driving. When you replace the head gasket, it's always recommended that you have the block and the head resurfaced so that you have a nice smooth surface for the gasket. You don't want there to be any voids not filled by the head gasket, cause then you get leaks or air in the system, neither is good and neither is a cheap fix.

Now that my doctoral thesis is complete, it's tough to say what the total cost to replace the gaskets would be, could be $600 could be $1500+. There's just too many variables to account for.

 

I have a 2001 V6 with a leaking head gasket that I am about to undertake. I will take pictures and post a instruction.

TBA.

 

Thatbwould be great if you documented it w/pics.. My '04 has the same issue as the original poster's engine, leaving pink crust on the gasket.. Much appreciated!!

 

i think mines leaking too, i just did an oil change after many months overdue, and the oil came out very milky and slightly brown (red coolant tint)

it also smokes white for the first while when started

 

Aluminum heads tend to be pretty forgiving as far as heat goes. If you are talking about a small amount of coolant leak, then I seriously doubt that you will need to deck the block or heads. Decking the block is a pretty expensive venture, as most machine shops will not do it on an assembled block. This means you would have to remove the engine, and strip the block down to the bare castings. Over my 30 years of working on engines, I have only ONCE decked a block, and that was because I bought a block from a junk yard where the surface had been pitted due to rust. Heads are another story, but while I have had to have steel heads resurfaced, I have only replaced heads on three jobs. One was when a spark plug pulled out the threads (I don't like thread-serting in a head) and the other two were because a customer drove their car over 3000 miles with a blown head gasket, while adding water to it every couple of hundred miles.

OP, as someone else had mentioned, cost will vary from what part of the country you are located in. The current labor time for replacing head gaskets is 10.5 hours. Adding a timing belt and water pump SHOULD only increase the labor time by 0.7-1.0 hours. As far as parts prices, those also can vary. Parts for a job like that at my shop would be in the $175-$250 range, depending on the quality of the water pump and belt. Labour would be $550. Hopefully that will give you a bit of an indication of how much you may need.

 

Depending on the area that you live in, $1k is not an extreme price at all. at a 10.5 hour job, if their labor rate is $80 per hour, you are looking at $800 in labor, and $200 in parts. $80 per hour is about average for a dealership.