Head gasket job or???

Hey all,

I just created an account to get the collective opinion of the users of these forums. I have a 99 4x4 5vzfe. It blew a head gasket at 206,000 miles. I have rebuilt my old 22re before and knew I could do a rebuild on this truck, but at the time I had the money, and decided to let a reputable shop completely remanufacture my motor. I paid $4400 for the engine rebuild, a clutch job and new radiator. I got it back and it ran for 13,000 miles. Warranty was for 12k. It blew a head gasket again. I got them to do it again but I had to pay for parts ($700). After the 2nd time they fixed it, it ran for 6,000 miles and blew again, and was now out of warranty. Shop won't throw me a bone.

My question to all of you; would you attempt a head gasket job again, or swap for a jdm motor, or search junk yards for as low mileage a motor as possible?

On one hand, everything is new from the block up, and doing the head gaskets will be the cheapest route. I make less money than I did a few years ago and I need to do this for as affordable as is possible.

On the other hand, a machine/motor shop wasn't able to get it right twice. Does that mean my block is warped?

I can buy a jdm motor locally for $1150 and can borrow a cherry picker and pay a friend to help me do the swap. Every mechanic I know has a differing opinion. Some say to just do the head gaskets again, some say to go jdm, some say stay away from jdm motors, etc.

What do you all think?

Thanks very much and happy new year's eve!

 

When my daughter FUBARed her 5vzfe we had a local shop replace it with a Jasper rebuild. Paid a pretty penny for them to do it. But she's put another 50k on the odometer with nary a mechanical problem since then... If you are a San Diego 'Oceanside', so am I. If you need a 3rd hand, or a tool, hit me up (I converted my 98 prerunner to 4wd in my garage). Also have the factory service manual for that year truck on USB and CD... Welcome to TW

 

Welcome aboard.

 

Patrick,

Are you sure you blew the head gaskets? The mileage you gave of 206,000 miles is not very many for the Toyota 5VZ-FE V6. If you did you blow the head gasket, please tell us how you think you did it.

Good Luck,
Paul

 

After spending that much money and getting nothing in return, I would replace both head gaskets myself. Along with the spark tube seals, half-moon seals, and other seals I would need for removing the valve cover. And the exhaust manifolds.

I've never done this on my Tacoma. I think it would take some patience and a lot of time though.

 

I was on the fence weather to rebuild or replace my poorly maintained 200k+ head gasket failure when I first bought my taco and just only did the gaskets.... Fast forward 15k down the road and I lost a piston to the infamous "5vz death rattle" failure... Went the under 60k JDM route (JDM Arlington $1200 shipped) after-all and tossed good money into bad on a destined-for-failure engine... If it went around 200k then it was probably maintained like mine and plausibly have a catastrophic failure down the road as mine did. Just food for thought...

 

Rebuild it yourself if you have time on your hands. Or find a good reputable shop that sells them already rebuilt. If you want to save money, do it yourself. You have absolutely no idea what condition a jdm engine will be in. I purchased a jdm engine for my 240sx. Lasted about 1000 miles. Rebuilt everything. Been good since.

 

That's why you do a tear-down and re-gasket the whole thing before you install it... And any good jdm distributor have a warranty period or at least mine did, but a home or reputable rebuilt is always another option.

 

I did tear it all down and replace gaskets and seals. Zero leaks or issues until is stated knocking. Plus any shop can tell you they give warranty. If they will actually do anything for you is a completely different story. Bottom line is you don’t know the condition of a jdm engine until you start running it.

 

13,000 sounds way too short a life on a new gasket, let alone 6,000. Same side each time? Same symptoms? May be a coolant channel is blocked. I think a reputable shop, as you mentioned they are, would check for flatness of the head and block before assembling.

 

Sorry to hear about the trouble. Did the "death rattle" and piston loss start with a bad wrist pin? I've seen a couple of noisy wrist pins on here result in engine replacements.

 

YES! Freaking #6 wrist pin...

The little Spanish landscaper I pulled over and talked into the McDonald's parking lot (I pulled a "Counting Cars" on him) and talked him into selling me his CLAPPED-OUT work truck, never did a lick of maintenance in almost 125,000 miles of ownership. My Spanglish is just enough to get me through a conversation with my non-English speaking customers but, from what I interpreted, the little guy changed the oil about 4 times in 8 years of ownership. 30,000 mile oil changes???? You bet ya!!!! I took on that responsibility as I paid him what the truck was worth ($3000) and my shop had 7 lifts at my disposal and this thing needed $4000-$5000 worth of work. But it was going to be my daily and didn't mind the idea of just rebuilding EVERYTHING and having a virtually new, reliable 1st Gen for hundreds of thousands of care-free miles.

Now....It started as a barely noticeable tick when idling next to a building and you can hear the echo... Kinda like if you go over an oil change 1000 mi. or so and things start to get a little noisy. Within 2 months It developed into a "lifter tick" tapping sound that would stay there around 1100 rpm's as the truck was warming up and the idle is naturally going down to 700 rpm's or so... By the end of summer it developed into a solid tick from 1100-2000 Rpm's (hot or cold) but would go away under a load or after 2000 rpm's.. At cruising speed, no load, around town, it sounded like someone smacking the block w/ a hammer.. Time to call TX jdm.....

 

Thanks for the detailed response. The symptoms sound exactly like mine. I bought mine for cheap with the "death rattle" knowing it might turn into an engine swap. I found a 70,000 mile engine from a rear ended 4Runner at LKQ that I could verify the mileage and service history. I changed all of the old rubber seals/hoses and did my own swap. It was expensive at the time, but its like driving a new truck now. I still have the engine in the garage that I want to tear down to find the tapping cylinder. It sounded like it was at the rear -- possibly #5 or #6 as well. I know of two other members that have done engine swaps over the "death rattle". I am starting to see a pattern that comes from neglect of oil, cooling system care, or both.

When buying a vehicle that is old enough to vote, prepare for the worst and be happy when you get the best.

 

Couldn't have said it any better myself! BTW, Did you notice they are almost always 99-early 2000's piston failures?????? I see a trend...

 

That's a good point. Mine is a 99 model. If we search on JDM, we can get a feel for the number of engine swaps that have occured. It might be worth following JDM replacements by year model. In my work life, I do a lot of pattern matching and tracking. So things like this always spark my interest.

 

Just my opinion but I can’t understand why someone would install a JDM motor in their truck with the unknown risks. Yes they might be cheaper but,
There is no way to tell the actually miles, under 60k is BS without proof.
No way to look up maintenance
No way to hear the motor running
No compression check on most these
No shortage of buyer reviews with bad JDM motors

Maybe there’s a sellers warranty but that doesn’t pay for a shop to take it out again for 1500.00
Or one to spend 2 days pulling in out and swapping everything over again if it’s bad and loosing 2 days of your week because the seller sold you a bad item.
The seller has no risk in the labor, you do.

I would want to make my odds of getting a good motor as high as possible.

If possible as I did the best option I think is to find a low mileage engine that is in the truck with
a vin number to hear it running if possible or be able to do a carfax on it and have as much information
as possible on its maintenance. This took me 2 weeks to find my motor tho but I’m picky.

My motor popped a head gasket at 480,000 (yes I could have just replaced the head gaskets but it was cheaper to just replace it with a used motor with
90,000 for 1500 plus 1500 for the the guy to swap it over.

I found a motor in a rolled truck with 90k on it a 3 years ago.

It was running in the truck so I could hear it running, did a carfax to see the maintenance on the engine.

Every thing checked out.

100,000 miles later on this motor it’s still running perfectly with zero issues.

If you did a carfax on my truck EVERY oil change EVERY timing belt is shown there and service record
over the last 20 plus years.

Just my opinion.

If you over heat your 3.4 motor you have a very good chance you will pop a head gasket because of the aluminum heads.