1993 4 runner with poss. head gasket.

[Paulhub37]

So i looked under oil cap and there is a brown milky fluid in cap. I am also having to refill coolant about every week... This all just started.

Oil on dipstick looks normal and coolant is still green in radiator and res.
As far as white smoke goes there is only some when it is cold. Driving down road no smoke.
I want to try Steel seal and have seen posts on here but I have not seen any updates as to if it worked or not?
I was quoted 1300 for HG repair and another 200 for the timing belt and water pump. I am not interested in fixing for that price since I paid 2k for it less than a year ago.
If I do nothing to it and sell it for $500.00 and disclose that info would that be a good price to sell it? 1993 with 185,000 and in poor shape.

 

[Diverse4runner]

Brown milky fluid is oil mixing with the coolant. Yes that is bad and can be a definite sign of a head gasket issue.

1. How cold is it outside. Let it site all night and don't start it until the afternoon. If white smoke comes out and it smells sweetish thats coolant being burned.

2. All that sealer crap sucks and will only cause harm to the motor.

3. There are tons of write ups on replacing the head gasket. It can be a ***** to do with a friend but doable. I did my own, took me two weekends one to take them off then machine shop then another weekend to put them back on. Cost me about 400 bucks if I remember correctly with machine shop and gaskets a little more with water pump and timing belt.

 

[Paulhub37]

Thanks for the Info. Well I guess it will be listed for sale then.

 

[CodeButcher]

If you get white smoke like D4R said, that's the typical blown gasket. Usually confirmed by a compression test. If you have water in the oil, it may be a bad Oil Cooler. It's a hockey puck looking thing on the driver's side of the block.

 

[Diverse4runner]

The oil coolers can go bad but its pretty rare. Where are you located?