Head Gasket Leak

Hello! I have a 05 Tacoma with 172k miles and it has a headgasket leak. And it's bad timing. I'm in the middle of a move. I will be moving 7 hours away, and I was hoping to drive it down for it. I got a repair estimate and it was almost $5k. And I just can't afford that at the moment. It may be a stupid question but would using a head gasket sealer temporary allow me to drive it to it's destination and park it, and wait till I have the money to repair? Does the sealer cause future problems, if I wanted to have the gasket replaced next spring? Or should I just look for a towing company to try to ship the truck?

 

If you plan to keep the truck then it's probably wise to have it towed to your new place.

If there's a moving van involved....rent a trailer and tow it.

 

The sealer causes the downstream work to be a lot more involved since you've got a bunch of sealer floating in the system now, plus there's no guarantee that it will work or hold. I'm with the above - tow it to your new place if you're interested in keeping the truck in good shape.

 

Yes, I had a cracked head on my 1st gen which was causing a coolant leak. I used one of the stop-leak products that included a money-back guarantee (which I used)...

It ruined my radiator and heater core as well, which just increased the repair costs.
So yes, sealer may well indeed cause future problems.

How far are you moving? It may be worth just renting a truck and towing your truck with that.

 

How bad is the leak? What are your symptoms?

If its not terrible you might be further ahead driving it and just keeping an eye on everything. Not having to worry about the hassle and expense (probably +/- $1000) to ship it at this point

 

I appreciate the insight fellas!

The leak sounds like an old truck. It's been gradually getting worse. I haven't seen the truck overheat. I just use it for small trips. Yeah, shipping it 7 hours, sounds expensive in itself. I'll have to weigh out my options in the next week.