Another leaking headgasket (2006): new engine or bail?

Your truck is an 09. You should be good with with up to a 2011 year engine from another Tacoma OR even out of 05-09 4Runner, 07-09 FJ Cruiser or 05-09 Tundra. Find something with confirmed low miles and or tested from one of these vehicles and either do the work yourself or ask some shops that will do this work, or pay for the to go up there and help you. I recently did an engine swap in my 05 Tundra, the donor engine was an 4.0 from an 08 FJ Cruiser with 103k. Thank God everything went well. No shops were willing to this job with a warranty because on “paper” or technically in there database, these motors could not be guaranteed to be interchangeable. I asked around here and got info from @Torspd and a guy named Nick from Yota1 performance and they gave me good info that the swap would work.

As long as the engine has single VVTi and no SAIS, the swaps will work and you can transfer external accessories as needed.

 

Hey Torspd. I used an 08 FJ Cruiser in my 05 Tundra. The Toyota parts database would not guarantee a fit but it did actually swap successfully. 2012+ Tacoma engines have the SAIS and some engines have a different shaped oil pan.

 

a vehicle should last a million miles if taken care of and designed properly
ie iron block on diesels that just starts to break in at 300/400k
and some gas engines that use the same kind of block

good bragging right too
anyone can walk into a dealer and buy a new car
not everyone can figure out how to make their old one last

 

Oh....I would love to have a Volvo P1800

 

Welp, as I said a four months ago, we opted to go with replacing the head gaskets and the rear main seal, new oil change, etc., i.e., everything that should be done while the engine was out to save on future costs. So we had the mechanic do all that, but after that was done, the truck started using oil (supposedly not leaking, but burning), and it never did that before the head gasket job. We've had to add a quart of oil every 750 miles. He gave us a year's warranty on it and made sure that if anything was wrong, like anything leaking, etc., we should bring it back immediately so he could take care of it before it became a bigger problem. We've had it back to him several times, and each time he has put some kind of "additive" in it at no charge in the hopes it would stop the excessive oil usage. The last time we went in, a few weeks ago, he had no comment on what could be wrong and also charged us for the additive. So we are not happy campers. It's been 4-5 months. If the additive was going to fix the problem, wouldn't that have happened by now???

So my question is, do any of you who have had head gaskets replaced have an idea what might have gone wrong and is causing the excessive oil usage? Has this happened to you, and what was the problem and solution? Please don't yell at me or say "I told you so!" lol! In no way could we have afforded a new truck, a used truck, a new engine or a used engine, really. And every used truck or engine we did look at already had 100k miles on it, so it wouldn't be long before we'd be looking at doing this again, and we wouldn't have known what other problems a used truck or engine might have. Really appreciate any insights/advice you can share. In every other way (except a few things cracking or breaking like temperature knobs (which we've replaced), it's still a wonderful truck!

 

Damage to the rings resulting from the leaking head gasket. The specific cause could be one (or more) of several things, but this isn't uncommon. Did the truck overheat, or did it sit for a while before the work was done?

At the end of the day, you picked the wrong mechanic. While some additives may mask the symptoms for a little while, they will never cure it. I suspect he knew exactly what the problem was, and hoped to gloss over it with his 'additive' snowjob. Likely the only practical solution now is to commence buying your oil by the case.

 

That sucks. No legitimate mechanic would suggest additives as a repair. Who knows what he did when he had your engine apart? Damaged piston rings or improper installation of head gaskets can leak water or oil into the cylinders. Check the spark plugs to see which cylinder(s) are leaking.

 

The truck never overheated and did not sit for awhile before the work was done.

 

Interesting. I would do a leakdown test and a cooling system pressure test. Do you see any blue/grey smoke, especially on start-up?

 

So what would have to be the next step after checking the spark plugs? I'm very discouraged by all this. He's new to the area and supposedly has 30 years in the business. He had great reviews, and we really hoped he was trustworthy. The shop we had been going to for years before this had also put additives in our truck, and the dealer's repair shop said it had probably ruined the head gaskets. Sigh.

 

We'll check for smoke, but I don't think we have seen any. What is a leakdown test?

 

He may be trustworthy, and he may be experienced; neither of those mean that he is skilled. Additives have their place, and can help in certain situations, but it's important to know what the root cause of a problem is, so that you can apply the correct Band-aid.

 

A way of introducing a controlled amount of compressed air into a cylinder to determine how much, if any is leaking, and how it is leaking (rings, valves, head gasket, etc) The tool may be something you can borrow from a large auto-parts supplier, or can be bought inexpensively on Amazon.

 

You should honestly just cut your losses and find a used engine out of a wrecked vehicle to swap.

No way I would try to rebuild a motor that someone has been dumping “additives” and “goop” into with the hopes of fixing it. If it’s drinking a quart of oil every 750 miles, you probably have a few issues.

Even well maintained that is a lot of miles and mechanical parts wear out/break. It’s just part of it.

Best of luck to you! Sorry for the bad luck.

 

Yeah, I know. But when we did look for used engines, we were quoted $7k for the engine and the work to put it in. We can't do that ourselves, so we'd have to pay someone. That costs almost twice what we paid for the head gasket job. I think we're back where we were before all this started.

 

We'll look into it.

 

a quart ev 750 miles is toooo much & will likely get worse

the ‘ numbers ‘ never lie

I ALWAYS ask how many total miles...........year / model

did the mechanic service the pistons ........rings........cylinder bore while the engine was out ???

typically thats where excessive engine oil loss takes place is the upper cylinder

Ur engine may have been due for a complete overhaul or replacement ( total miles ??)

not sure what he did to the heads............ were they refurbished

or did he just replaced the head gaskets ????

 

You're not the first person screwed by a poor mechanic. Like I said in an earlier post, sooner or later you have to trust somebody.
Anyway, you can trust me. Before you do anything else, remove your spark plugs and look at them. Keep them in order. Take a photo, post it here. This will cost $0. One or more will be oily. The condition of the plugs can tell a lot. You post a good photo of your spark plugs, members here will tell you the problem.

 

true dat !!

its a HIGH Mileage engine..........allowing for idling its easily approching 400k

if this is the 1st foray into the internals

OP already has gotten thwir $$$$ out of it

depending on how long they want to continue

a rebuild

a swap out

was in order

it will keep on running at 1qt/750 = waste o oil

1quart/1000 is the benchmark so its NOT the worst ever seen

 

Personally, I would cut my losses , sell the truck and get a reliable vehicle. This truck with over 319k miles on the engine, suspension and transmission along with ongoing oil consumption issue will cause constant financial headaches.