Seeking mechanic 707

I recently bought a 2005 Tacoma the seller was located in San Jose and the truck had Oregon plates. Soon after buying said truck I realized the check engine light wasn’t turning on in accessory. It turns out he had ripped out the check engine light so I couldn’t see it never passed Cali smog and had clogged cats. So now I have a 2005 1GR FE with 138,000 and yesterday I confirmed there was headgasket leak by having a shop run a leak down test which I had to request because they were trying tell me it was the radiator. I’m looking for any recommendations for a solid mechanic anywhere near Santa Rosa. I’m 19 and tried to do my diligence when buying this truck this guy pulled a really screwed up my learn to earn mentality.

 

Welcome to TW…

 

Might want to post your thread in the California regional forumn. There are a number of California members here that work out of their garage repairing Tacomas.

 

Sorry you got screwed. The cheapest way to fix the cat issue is probably buy @Murphinator ‘s headers, although I think you may need to slightly modify them since I think they have the SAIS tubing that your 2005 didn’t come with.

Yodaman is not cheap and may not work on trucks newer than 1st gen’s.

 

I’ll go ahead and post in the California regional forum thank you

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/moving-sale-calipers-retrofits-intakes-steering-racks.843777/

EDIT: shoot they sold already. But I bet someone else in NorCal has some headers they took off.

 

These are a great deal thanks for sending the link my way! I’m going to look into the SAIS and see what I would need to modify. Everything from this is definitely a learning experience just wanna be able to make this truck work out.

 

Oh man. Sorry to hear.
I hate people that do stuff like that.

I'd like to know if the engine ever overheated.
AFAIK, the 1GR doesn't seem to warp the block too bad.
But if you get it hot enough it will.
And at that point, a head gasket wont help.

For sure have the head checked for warpage.
That's what will warp first.

 

@xtremewlr is selling his engine soon. I’m not quite sure if it’s good to send you down the path of supercharged though since that’s probably going to cost a bit more than staying naturally aspirated.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/xtremewlrs-b00sted-xrunner-thread.839635/page-2#post-30184084

 

Bummer sorry to hear. Did he skip the title or do you know if he’s the actual previous owner? If he is actually the previous owner you can sue him pretty easily California law states the owner has to smog before sale and they are liable for all fees if it doesn’t pass smog

 

It hasn’t overheated with me yet I drove it north for about 70 miles. When I pulled over to stop and had the AC on and noticed needle was rising so I quickly started turning off the air and it went back down to normal. When I got to my destination I popped the hood and I was low on coolant because it had all boiled out of the reservoir. I am hoping that the block isn’t warped from the previous owner.