2005, 175K miles, worth replacing head gasket?

I believe you can find the build date on the sticker located on the inside edge the divers side door.
You have to have the door open to see it.
It’s the one with the tire pressures and vin # on it.
The should be a build date on the sticker.

 

Your truck shipped with defective head gaskets. Mine did too!

Your options are as follows....


1. You have a shop, love your truck, want to keep it, want to make it better. Find a low miles 2007-2009 FJ with a VIN starting with 'J'. Buy the engine, install it, enjoy your truck! Your shop, your labor, parts cost $3k-$5k done right.

2. You don't care about the truck, but your broke, you need to get to work for another year, then you will worry about it. Go to auto zone, buy Barr's head gasket sealer, it's about $30, follow the instructions EXACTLY! run it till it dies in about a year, sell it or $5k.

3. You don't have a shop, but love your truck and let a dealership install a used junk LKQ engine. Cost at least $6k, honestly the bill will probably be close to $9k in the end and you get an engine with unknown history with no warranty! Read fine print!

4. You love your truck, you hire a local mechanic to put in a used engine... You get same LKQ junk engine, just cheaper labor.

5. You love your truck, do some research, find a low mileage 2007-2011 1GR-FE from a Tacoma, hire a local mechanic to install it. Probably $4k total.

6. Bring it to a mechanic or a dealership and say 'change the head gasket', and they do..... for $2k-$4k, But only do that and not a full Master gasket kit replacement, so it will fail in about 15k miles. Then you have a Tacoma with a seized engine.

7. You really love your truck and want to keep it 100%, original, Do full gasket replacement yourself, assuming you have shop, tools, you do the labor, it can be done for about $1000.




..... Personally, I installed a 2009 FJ 'J' VIN, myself, in my shop been 3 or so years, love it!

 

Yes!

 

Manufacturer date December 2005+ your good.

 

After being certified, if you would treat your own truck that way, just replace the head gaskets, skip hundreds of Toyota requirements, how could anyone trust you or any dealership to repair their Tacoma?

 

I have an '06 with 135K on the ODO. The truck seems to be running fine except for a recently developed whirring sound. Reading this thread makes me paranoid. Other than losing coolant and I guess power are there any other signs and symptoms of HG failure I should be watching for? BTW, I'm the original owner.

 

Search the forum for more...

You could have water mixing w your oil resulting in a brownish goo on your dipstick (and oil filler cap but the stuff in the cap is not definitive proof).

There are kits out there that can test for exhaust gas in your coolant.

Also, sometime people report sloshing coming from the dash (heater core) , I think this is air/exhaust gasses in the cooling system. I hope that’s not the whirring sound your reporting...

I’ve read overheating is one of the worst things you can do with the older HG design...I forget where I read it but they were saying it results in a blown HG almost 100% of the time.

Have you ever overheated?

Good luck! I hope this doesn’t ruin your Tacoma experience..

 

You should expand on what you mean by ‘a master gasket kit’..

 

What was leaking on your AC system? Was it the line o-rings? I am going on 11 years... though only 86,000 miles... and mine is still working great, never had an issue, which I also think is remarkable. I'm almost forgetting how to work on those systems. Damn truck, it is almost making forget how to fix anything other than oil changes and spark plugs. ;-)

As for the OP, if the truck is in good shape, the motor wasn't burning oil before and the head gasket didn't fail due to an overheating event or somesuch, fix it. It's a big job but can be a DIY thing if you are mechanically inclined and take your time... or take it to a good shop if you're not.

 

@ raylo one of the 2 tubes on the engine side of the expansion valve was bent. Probably when the motor was swapped a few years ago. I hardly ever use it. This year though....I replaced with a kit that had all but 2 seals.
This thread has part numbers for all the seals and o rings:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/not-so-cold-a-c.613682/

Lowes sells a Craftsman UV flashlight. You might want to get one.

 

10/2005....dammit

 

I have all the AC tools including UV light and a bunch of spare o-rings. Last big AC jobs were my old Chevy S10 and Camaro, both sold. Toyota AC still ice cold and bulletproof. Good to know your failure had a cause other than an arbitrary system failure.

 

I'm confused with your post. Are you trying to say I shortcut my truck's repair? And skipped hundreds of Toyota requirements? I hope not. Because you are making yourself out to be an idiot. You don't me. You don't know my truck. I know every scratch on my old girl. I'm assuming you know all of the skipped steps I took.

 

No, I've never overheated the truck and the coolant level has always been stable. I'm OCD about maintenance. The noise rises and falls with RPM's. and is not noticeable at all when I have the truck above 35 mph or so. Makes me wonder if it's a pump failure of some kind with bearings going bad. I also wondered about a vacuum leak but all the vac hoses look good and again the truck is running fine with no codes. I also don't hear anything in the cab that makes me think heater core. Our '04 Sienna is also makes a noise we can't figure out. The dealer had no clue either. A Toyota thing I guess.

 

Whirring sound is most likely a bearing on a pulley or possibly AC clutch. Nothing to worry about cost wise. If your like me and everything has to be pefect, a stethoscope is cheap. Get underneath and probe.

(CAREFULLY!!!!!)

 

Thanks for the reply. I put about 300 miles on the truck yesterday with no issues other than the noise. I'm suspecting the bearings on a pump. I have a stethoscope so will give that a try and see if I can isolate the noise,.

 

Is it possible to DIY the head gaskets on these trucks? For some reason I've always been under the impression that resurfacing (i.e. machine-shop work) of the head is necessary to properly replace head gaskets.

 

I've read somewhere in mid 10/2005 was when they changed the head gasket design, you could probably poke around and find it posted in this forum. My truck is a 10/2005 and has 267000 on it, still going strong.

If fact that's why I got a great deal on my Taco, dealership told PO that the head gasket was blown. I bought it, compression tested the cylinders, checked for coolant bubbles, and even made a leak down tester to verify the head gaskets were not blown. I think the dealership, when changing the spark plugs for PO, did not tighten a coil pack bolt, resulting in it not having a good ground. The CEL came on and had a code for mis-fire. PO returned to dealership, they pulled the plug, stuck a borescope in the cylinder, found moisture (I think unburnt fuel) and said the head gasket was blown.

My advice, be sure it's actually blown.

 

Once it's all apart take the heads to a machine shop, just for that. I want to say the last set of heads I had a machine shop pressure test and deck them for no more than $100 - $150.