Head gasket issues with the 3.4L?

Is the 3.4L engine prone to blown head gaskets like the old 3.0L did?

I'm hoping to get into a 1st gen Tacoma at some point soon, but I wanted to get some more info about the 3.4L before jumping into one.
I had a '92 4x4 pickup years ago that was the best truck EVER until it blew a head gasket, and then another, and another, and then a new long block, and then bye bye. Don't want to go that route again!

 

Thanks Chris. I did some searching and found little about the 3.4L HG's but I wanted to double check.

 

Hasn't happened to me nor have I heard of it happening with the 3.4s you should be good to go!!!

 

i had a head gasket blow on the one i had.
96 3.4. blew out with about 100,000 on it

 

i have 157,000 on mine with no problems

 

I'm the second owner of my 99 and I guess the guy before me didn't maintain it because the motor blew at 164k. Other than that, I got no complaints.

 

I had a 96 4Runner with a 3.4L before my current truck; it developed a small head gasket leak when it was about 6 months old. The leak was so small that the coolant with evaporated on the block, never any coolant on the ground. The head gaskets were redesigned at about the same time (late 96), Toyota replaced the head gaskets and because they had the truck for more than 20 days waiting for the redesigned gaskets they provided me with a factory 100k extended warranty. I kept the truck until 2001 and with 95k it had never had another problem. My current 3.4L has 156K and has never had any issues with head gaskets. So I think the redesigned gaskets have proven to get the job done.

 

Im the second owner of a 96 3.4 v6 that has 170,000 on it and it runs great and the guy before me never had to replace anything on it except oil and tires!

 

2001 with 164,9xx miles and one of the gaskets is starting to leak. Very minor at this point, but still of note. Truck has been maintained only by the dealer and more frequently than the schedule calls for (e.g., oil changes). So I bought a 2011.

 

i've got 157k on mine (i'm the second owner)... previous owner took great care of it and said it never needed anything more than standard routine maintenance. he changed the timing belt at 90k. runs strong and doesn't leak/burn hardly any oil! i put 6 quarts in and get about the same back out every 3k miles.

...woah! didn't see how old this thread was. well, hopefully this comment was useful

 

There was a head gasket recall for early 97's with the 3.4L engine

 

196k miles here and happy

 

The bad headgaskets were for the early 3.4's and were redesigned in 1996 or 1997 something like that. There was a recall.

 

in 1996 working at toyota dealer the first 3.4l were having headgasket issues simuliar to the 3.0l. but they were redesigned in 97-98 model years but my 2000 now has 260k without any issue (knock on wood).

 

I remember seeing somewhere that from 2001 and forward, a higher quality HG was used. 2000 and prior with the 3.4 MAY have a higher susceptibility to HG issues.

I have a 2001 Prerunner w/ the 3.4 and I keep up on my coolant change intervals. I'm a sucker for preventative maintenance. No known issues to report.

 

I think the OP would've mentioned a problem if something happened in the last 11years since he made that post



Then again he hasn't been on the site since 2012