2005 Tacoma V6 Head Gasket Replacement

Good evening ladies and gents. Ill be doing a thread on my head gasket job. Heads are at the shop for a check, clean, and new valve stem seals. I've cleaned the block and front timing cover, amd am waiting on the heads to come back as well as a few other parts for reassembly. Hopefully this thread helps to empower others to tackle this job as well!

Cheers,

Sebastian

 

Thank you for taking the time to post pics and the journey.

 

Looks like a fun project....
How long will the truck be down?
Also how many miles did you have before the head gasket went?

 

did your head gasket fail?

 

Since its an 05 i would say definately. Toyota redesigned the gasket midway through 2006. Did mine in my 05 at 145k

 

I have a 2005 Taco dclb. How can I tell when it was made?

 

You can go on Toyota's website: https://www.toyota.com/owners/my-vehicle/vehicle-specification and they have a VIN decoder that tells you all the options your truck came with from the factory as well as build dates, etc.

 

I'm hoping it will be back up within the week. Waiting on a few parts to get here (crank seal, some o-rings and valve cover gaskets)
It had close to 165ish when the gasket started going. It failed on cyl. 6 I was getting a little coolant in the combustion chamber, causing a PO306 on startup. The motor still compression tested fine which is the crazy part!

 

The production month and year is on the VIN tag in the driver's door jam. The problem was corrected 11/2005.

There's a thread in TW asking owners of 2005's and 2006's if they had a head gasket failure and like everything on the internet the problem is exaggerated to an extreme level.

 

i have 210k on my 05 - High abuse (been abusing it since 140k mi) and arizona heat etc.. NO HG issue's

 

I know that there's a problem as that's why there is an updated head gasket design. I'm not saying it's exaggerated or that it isn't. I just know that it happened to me and I have PROOF of it. I'm just going to fix it and rock on for another 170k miles!

 

That's good and I'm happy for you. This job has been a pain (not hard, just tedious) I'll be happy once it's done lol.

 

You should do a walkthrough. Could be a good contribution to the site

 

I probably will once I get going on the installation. I'll take some good pics and post up all the instructions.

 

sweet. Look forward to seeing it

 

I didn't doubt it for a second that yours did blow the head gaskets. I wasn't implying anything.

 

I got the heads back today from the machine shop and I worked for a few minutes installing the driver side head and coolant crossover tube. I'll put the other head on tomorrow and install the cams and set timing.

 

Nice. Thanks for the update.

 

I got the passenger side head on, along with the cam buckets and coolant crossover tube with the help of the wifey I'm still waiting on the crank seal and main chain to come in from Rock Auto (I went with the brand AISIN which is essentially the same as Toyota).Once that comes in I can set cam and main timing up and get the front cover back on the engine. I'm taking a trip out of town on the 13th of this month so I'm hoping I can finish a few days early so I can drive it around for a few days at home to test my work. Happy Fourth of July everyone!!!

 

For those of you wondering, these are the instructions I have been following for reassembly. This guide is extremely helpful for not only installing the heads, but also ensuring the timing is setup correctly, as these four cam engines can get a little tricky. The only difference I made on the removal of the heads was that I did not feel the need to separate the cam gears from the camshafts.