Where the #*@! is My Coolant Going??

The labor is all in engine tear down. By having it out of the truck you're really not saving anything.

 

People say that but I went for another 100k without any issues.

I also find it ironic that we're slamming other manufacturers for head gaskets in a Toyota Tacoma head gasket issue thread.........

 

Good to know. If mine goes I guess I'll look for a low mileage, smashed, newer taco as a donor.

 

Man, that's a serious job. Something I'd tackle when I was younger maybe, but now I'd whip out the credit card. The big question is do you know when they made the design change on the gasket?

 

I just finished a head gasket job on a 4runner 2005 165k miles (no pictures... i never think about it)... If I ever have to do it again, I will pull the engine... I did it in the truck, and the whole time I was saying.. man I should have just pulled the engine... The 3.4 was a lot easier to work on than this 4.0...

I checked the cylinder heads and block surfaces when I had it apart, and they were within spec.. The one I worked on had to have 20-30 oz of water added each day. It would hold pressure on a coolant pressure tester over night (i actually left it on all weekend).. I did get it to show up by using a block tester... it would change the fluid color in the tester after the engine was hot...

Toyota parts for an engine gasket kit, water pump, spark plugs, drive belt, thermostat, rad cap, coolant, oil and filter and fipg and rear brake pads were right at $700... ouch..

I hope I don't have to do this anytime soon to my 09' Tacoma

I teach high school automotive and had one of my good students work on it with me... Things go a lot slower than they used to when I had to do this work to make a living.. I previously worked in service at a Toyota dealer, and started teaching right after the 1gr came out..

 

Tip of the hat to your sir.

 

Any tips on putting the timing cover back on? Does it like to leak from any one spot in particular, like where it meets the upper oil pan? I was planning to bolt the timing cover on and then the upper oil pan right after, hopefully before the gasket maker has time to cure. I have a couple tubes of the Toyota gasket maker since somebody told me it's better than ordinary RTV silicone.

Also, do you have any opinion on reusing the timing chain? It has 167k miles on it. I pulled the chain tight, set it down, and measured about 5.55" between 16 pins, where the FSM specifies a max of 5.78", but the FSM also said to hold the chain taught with about 30lbs of force for measuring, which I didn't do...

 

I don't have coolant loss either, but my gasket needs replacement, 245k miles here.

 

We don't pull the oil pan off and work around it. This is part of the reason it's easier to do out of the vehicle. In part, yes, it will leak where the timing cover meets the oil pan if it's not carefully put into place. It's easy to scrape the silicone off of the leading edge when installing. The other area it likes to leak is up where the cover meets the cylinder heads, the thickness of the sealing area is very thin. The factory Toyota silicone is great, as is the Permatex Import Grey stuff.

We always reuse the timing chain. Never been a problem. We measured a few of them and they always check out well within factory specifications. Chain stretch/wear on them isn't really a "thing", they last forever.

 

it's been a problem area since the beginning of time I believe.

 

Near the power steering stand-off.

 

One more.

 

My experience from my 04 4R, I did not pull the pan and slid the front cover on, and ended up mashing the oil pump o-ring, as well as sliding a bunch of the RTV off, ended up pulling the pan to reseal and change the o-ring, which is a giant bitch as you need to remove/move the diff and the rack to get access. This can be avoided if you pull the studs that are on the block so you can put the cover on at an angle instead of sliding it in front to back, @thefatkid told me this trick after it was too late for me. Same as @1MK on the chain, good to go.

 

that sounds like the kind of tip he could use wishbone.

 

I finally had time to clean up the heads and was about to reassemble them with new seals and put the engine back together, but I'm wondering about the exhaust valves now. They aren't as shiny as I was hoping they would be. Do I need a valve grind or is this ok?

 

Close all of the valves. Add a few CC's of fluid, and see if it leaks out, or not.

 

This ^.

It honestly looks alright to me. There is no engine out there that will be free of deposits, especially on the exhaust side of things.

 

There's got to be a few hours of labor getting it out of the truck. idk what the FRU hours are but it is overlap and something worth considering. Especially of the frame replacement is warranty-then he'd only pay for the actual work required for the repair (overlap is usually on the warranty).

 

Yeah, there is a few hours there for sure. But the dealer is still going to charge their book time on cylinder head R&R. I find it highly improbable they'd offer much of a discount, if any, because the engine is removed.

Edit: Never hurts to ask, you never know.

 

Hard to tell, I don't know if the engine is removed to R&R to head. If it is, then the removal should be on the dealer, not customer since it's already being removed to replace the frame. I would definitely question my bill if the times show up on it.