Need help buying a 98 tacoma. Head gasket questions.

Ok, where do I start. 1st off, I'm new to this site so...hello everyone. I have been wanting a Toyota pickups for as long as I can remember (1st back to the future) and now I finally have the money to get one. I have been shopping Craig's list for about 2 months now. I think I have finally found one. It's a 98 3rz extracab sr5 manual trans 4x4 one owner with 168,000 on it. I always thought the v6's had the head gasket problems, but now I know the 4 cylinders have the same issue. This truck has never had its head gasket replaced.

So I guess my first question is what symptoms are present when the head gasket is going bad?

Is there anything besides regular maintenance i can do to prevent the head gasket from going bad (btw I am a Acura master technician with over 10 years under my belt, so sky's the limit on whatever I can do to prevent it)?

Would installing extra gauges help me monitor the engine to prevent excessive damage if it does fail. Ie. oil temp, coolant temp, oil pressure?

Sorry for the long ass post and thanks for your input/help.

 

The 3.0L V6 was primarily the V6 that had head gasket issues. Anything 95.5 and newer is a Tacoma and either has a 4 cylinder or 3.4L V6. The 3.4L is a strong motor. My dads has 385,xxx miles and runs just like new, burns no oil, don't hesitate to buy a well maintained 3.4L. Also to answer your question about preventing the head gasket failing, the biggest thing I can say is don't run it hot.

 

yota engines are pretty much bullet proof, the problem is people run them hot and that's why the head gaskets fail.

keep good antifreeze in them and run extra coolers if your doing heavy towing and you never have issues going 350,000 plus miles on them without ever touching the engines even for a tuneup.

I saw one guy I know who never changed oil or air filter since new and put 278k miles before it started smoking and all he did was he added one quart of oil every month when it started smoking and as far as I know it was still running 5 years later.