New...and looking for tech advice

Hi I'm new to the forum...long time 2nd gen Tacoma Owner. Bought her new in 05 double cab 4x4 4.0 v6. She was originally black, but the Southern Az sun ate the paint right off the roof and hood...she's been repainted white with flat black accents on the fenders etc for about 4 years now.

With almost 190k trouble free miles, I'm starting to lose a head gasket. All the tell tale signs, brown pasty goo on the radiator cap, bubbles coming up through coolant from compression stroke bypassing the head gasket I to the cooling system, and it did have an obvious miss on cold starts and a P0304 code, but those have gone away and it's currently running just fine. No signs of coolant in the oil...

Does anyone have experience with replacing head gaskets on this set up? Most research I've done, everyone has said the engine must come out. A few have said it can be done without pulling the motor. Just wondering if anyone has first hand knowledge of doing this job with the motor still in the truck? Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

Welcome to TW!