Blown head gasket

Good morning folks,
I bought a high mileage, one owner, Tacoma three months ago. When I say high miles I mean 250k, but the owner kept impeccable service records and maintained everything well.
About 4K miles into ownership I blew a head gasket. I’ve talked with two mechanics and neither one felt good about replacing the gasket on a high mile Tacoma like this.
I’m considering a quote for a 121k mile used engine - parts and labor coming to $8100. Is it crazy to put that kind of money into a 2009 truck? That’s almost as much as I spent to purchase it, and I’m feeling sick about the whole thing.
Thanks

 

How good a shape is the frame and body? What about the rest: shocks, springs rubber bushings etc? A decent used 2nd gen (2012-2015) is ~$25K (around here).

 

Welcome to TW. “Blown head gasket” how did it blow? My sons 2008 taco 1gr starting leaking coolant into number 6 cylinder at 400k never overheated so I stood a good chance that nothing was warped. $1000.00 in parts and 2 months it took. (Only Saturday) for about 4 hours and not every Saturday. Anyway, at 447k now and no issues appeared after 2 head gaskets, the main timing chain and tensioner, cross over coolant pipe under lower intake, new Valve seals, exhaust manifold gaskets and studs and other little miscellaneous stuff was replaced.

Find someone that knows Toyota and depends if it was overheated.

 

There’s a couple spots of surface rust on the frame, but it’s in great shape other than that. The suspension components are good too. It’s 2009 SR5 four door, short bed.

I’m fairly certain it did not overheat. I was driving down the highway and the truck lurched a bit and threw the check engine light. The mechanic pressure tested the gasket and found coolant leaking into the cylinder

 

I think you should first get a second opinion. Is it using up coolant? What code did it throw? You could pull the heads and check for warpage. If the heads and block check out then replacing the head gasket would be a better option. The cost should be less than half that of the used engine.

 

Replacing head gaskets & not resurfacing the heads was not the best approach.....
If straight-edged you would see that they were warpped....
Every head I removed with a head gasket issue were warpped, as there been many times when I didnt want to be inconvenienced by the machine shop.....

Too much work to take that gamble...

 

We have no issues with headgasket replacements on Toyota V6's we don't even mill the heads, it's always just a gasket failure.

The heads don't warp or bow unless overheated. They are small heads (3 cylinders) so it has less flex than a longer inline 6 head or a 4 cylinder head.

I would 100% replace the headgaskets and timing chains if the frame isn't rotted out.

It's fairly easy as far as headgaskets go. I can usually have it re-assembled same day. Finished the next morning.

 

Sounds like you have done a bunch, I have not....
Even ford v6 aluminum heads back in the day when straight-edged, showed enough warpage to justify sending them out & get them resurfaced...

 

So many folks have done head gaskets on the V6 with success and I am one of them. It’s been 2.5 years, 40k miles and still going strong.

 

Toyota- vvt-I and head machining don’t go together.

 

No gamble if ya know what ya looking for

 

I have more miles than you and just DIY the head gasket. 175 compression on all cylinders BTW. I did replace all timing components but they were completely fine.

 

Thanks for the help everyone. I really appreciate it.

A family friend has experience with head gasket replacement and he’s going to do it for well less than half the cost of replacing the engine.

 

I'll add my 2cents, I did my head gaskets awhile back,(I did post about it on this site) veh never overheated, but you could hear it gurgle in the heater core/dash and about a year later I could smell the coolant on start up, In the past I learned to always have the head checked/machined as it seemed every time I did not machine it, I'd end up doing the job twice, in my case my head was warped, I cant remember how much it was out, but machinist took just enough to clean it up, money well spent, as doing this v6 is not a fast/easy job, not like a 22RE ( cant count how may of them I've done, and the timing chain which would wear a hole in the timing cover mimicking a head gasket fail)
Funny as shortly after my head gasket issue my sons 89 4runner 3.0 had a gasket fail, his was overheated at least twice, I had the heads machined as well as its another crappy job to do, that you dont want to do twice!
we have 5 Toyotas in our fleet (lol) hopefully no more head gaskets
05 tacoma (400,000kms)
87 4x4 pickup (360,000kms) rebuilt engine maybe 500kms on it in past 3yrs
89 4runner (130,000kms) was parked for 20+ years motor seized, used engine unknown mileage had head gasket failure
92 MR2 (220,000)
93 MR2 120,000kms Kswapped a Accura RSX K20 engine in with unknown kms on it