2010 Toyota Tacoma Smokes Heavy climbing

I've just recently ran into this issue where my Tacoma would smoke heavily from the exhaust when climbing a steep hill even at 25 mph+

So what's the problem?

Im thinking it could be my head gasket but im not 100% sure.

Truck has always been serviced from the Toyota Dealership here in Hawaii, and I recently had the transmission oil changed at 80K miles

 

What color is the smoke? If it's white, it's likely a gasket leak. Is it coming out the tail pipe?

 

Yeah its a thick white/greyish smoke coming out of the tail

 

Oil leaks, like the transmission or something else, that get on the exhaust will cause this. It smokes going up hill because of the extra load and therefor the exhaust gets hotter. The result is it burns off the oil that has leaked on there. It doesn't smoke as much or at all, or not noticeably any other time because loafing down the road at a lower rpm doesn't heat up the exhaust as much. That could be what you're seeing.

 

Check to see if you have any oil film on the tailgate or rear bumper.

 

Sounds like possibly a head gasket, with coolant entering the cylinders. Crankcase pressure changes and does weird things, especially on an older engine with more blow-by. Increased crankcase pressure under load, and or, greater water pump pressure at higher RPMs. could be a factor.

I'd have the cooling system properly pressure tested to rule that out.

 

Checked under the hood it's the gasket there's an oil leak so already scheduled an appointment to have it repaired.

Just curious though because the dealership here couldnt even tell me. How often are the gaskets changed? I mean for a 2010 with only 80.5K miles on it you'd think the gasket would be like new...

 

Some things like gaskets, age regardless of the number of miles. There are certain types of gaskets that dry out if the engine is not run regularly, and some that are simply attacked by chemicals is the air or oil etc

For certain, they could make a gasket that would be good for 50 years, but that's not the plan.

 

Dumb question... Are you sure you aren't way overfilled?