Replacing head gasket what else should I do?

Hey TW, I've noticed that I've been having problems with my coolant. My truck has been burning it for a little bit now. I'm just wondering what else I should do while I have the thing partly ripped apart. My plans so far, head gasket, valve cover gaskets, tune up on it. Any other things I should do while Im down there?

 

I should have mentioned the truck has almost 371,000 km on her

 

I would have the block and head resurfaced or at least checked for warping.

 

You have the v6? You mentioned head gasket singular and valve covers plural. OCD sent into panic mode!

 

if it were me I would have the head(s) checked for cracks.
You can clean the block up pretty good with new 6 inch wet stone and some WD 40. A couple of light passes to clean the old gasket material then flip the stone over to the fine side and make a couple more light passes. You are surfacing it, not filing it. Then put a clean straight edge on it to check for any warpage. Might as well adjust the valves while it is off too.

 

A lot of what is being suggested can be found in this video series. 3 hours long so grab some popcorn if you want to get through the whole thing:

 

Sorry it's a 3.4

 

Not sure what your experience level is, but you'll have to make the decision whether you want to do both headgaskets or find out which one is leaking (if one is leaking) if you only want to do that one.

 

Subbed as I’ll be doing this soon.

 

I'd be doing both if I'm doing one. I'm not the most experienced but I'm getting better. I've redid a bit of the truck already so I'm up for a challenge.

 

Have you checked out that video? Not to tell you what to do, but as an alternative to doing both hg's you could pop in a new motor. JDM long blocks w/ less miles than yours go for $1k or less and it's possible to come up on a good running motor out of a wreck once in awhile - I got a low miles engine and trans for $1450 out of a running truck. It wouldn't be any more work in terms of hours involved, just a little more heavy lifting with removing the trans and engine.

 

Timing belt, water pump (toyota OEM parts) and any pulley bearings that are iffy.

 

Definitely knock sensor pigtails.

 

Valve clearances. Spark plugs. Anything thats easier to get at with the head off.

BTW, GO TOYOTA OEM GASKETS ALL THE WAY! Worth the extra money. I did the head on my 2rz-fe, remanned head, checked all valve clearances, knock sensor wires, intake gaskets, exh. man gasket, EGR gaskets, etc. I got a valve grind gasket kit from Toyota. Only thing it doesent have are new injector cup spacers which you probably dont need.