4thTRDRunner
Junior Member
Hello all! If you're finding this thread for information on head gasket sealers, I sincerely feel your pain in finding out about your head gasket leak. Or if you just want to see whether or not head gasket sealers actually work, well, you might just be able to find out!
I'm making this thread because I couldn't find much on head gasket symptoms for specifically 4Runners, and because I couldn't find much information on head gasket sealers and how long they actually last.
So, to start, I'll tell the symptoms of my specific 4Runner and give some information on that. I have a 2005 4Runner that I purchased 2 months ago from a private seller with 184,000 miles on it. This is my first time owning a 4Runner. There was no check engine light on when I bought it, the seller was the only owner and he had it serviced at the dealership he bought it from in 2005. The carfax was clean with no wrecks or mechanical problems reported. About a month after purchasing and around 1000 miles later, I noticed that my 4Runner would occasionally shake after I started it for around 20-30 seconds. This wasn't always on a cold start either, it just happened at random. The engine light didn't come on, and I didn't notice any other problems with the vehicle. The only other symptom I experienced was the sound of rushing water behing the dash, which I'm not convinced has a direct relationship to a head gasket leak. That could have been air in the heater core, or a clogged AC drain (still not sure what it was exactly). just thought that is worth mentioning. After a few weeks of these occasional shakes my engine light did come on. I had the light read at a local autozone and the codes were for a cylinder 6 misfire and engine malfunction control. After researching and discovering the dread of cylinder 6 and the connection to head gasket leaks, I assumed the worst. Just to note, my 4Runner was running in tip top shape and it wasn't displaying any other symptoms of a leak, the oil looked good, the car never went above the normal temp, I wasn't losing a noticeable amount of coolant. Because the shakes that occurred when I started the engine only happened a few times, the engine light eventually went off on its own, around a week later. It came back on again a few days later, and then went off for the final time about 2 weeks ago. The CEL did not come back on after that, so I was a bit confused. All of the symptoms online were very apparent and I wasn't experiencing any. To be sure, I had a local mechanic run a "leak down" test on my 4Runner. The test was positive, and their were bubbles in my coolant from the compressed air in the cylinder. After getting quotes ranging from $2550 to $4000, I decided it would be better for me financially to try to seal the headgasket.
From the extensive research I've done on head gasket sealers, there are really only two options: Bar's leak or blue devil. I decided to go with blue devil because there are plenty of videos out there on how to use it, and the majority of them are successful. Now it is important to mention that there are 2 different types of blue devil sealers available, one you can pour straight into your coolant and drive on, and the other (yellow label) you have to drain, flush, remove thermostat, and then use the sealer. I chose the yellow label because it has the most documented success. It cost a total of $55 plus tax at my local autozone. I also decided to change the coolant from toyota super long life to the basic Prestone green coolant. My main reason for this was that since the headgasket is leaking, I don't want to have to pay $22 a gallon to refill my system if the selear doesn't work, and because Prestone green coolant can be bought pretty much anywhere that carries coolant. I didn't want to have to take a trip to the closest Toyota dealership every time I needed coolant. Prestone is $8.88 a gallon at Wal-Mart. Since the truck has high miles, I didn't feel the need to buy the most expensive brand coolant anyways.
So, I flushed the system and put the blue devil in on Sunday of this week (10-28-2018). I followed the directions on the bottle to a T, and would recommend doing the same (Please do!!!). The 4Runner was definitely well taken care of by the previous owner, so I only needed to do 1 flush with water to clean the system. I then added a radiator cleaner as the instructions stated, let that do its thing and then flushed it again. After letting the engine cool, I took out the theromostat, and let the engine go completely cold. I then filled the system with water and added blue devil. Waited 1 hour with the truck running with heat on full blast and then turned it off and waited an additional two hours for the truck to cool (as per instructions). After draining the blue devil, I added my new coolant to the system and I was finished!
So that's it! I just wanted to create this thread to talk about my experience with blue devil and document all of the symptoms of my head gasket leak. I will update every few months the mileage of my 4Runner and I will update when the head gasket leak comes back. This can show to longevity of the sealer so you can decide whether or not its worth your time and money! The current mileage on my 4Runner is 185,250 and I installed the Blue Devil two days ago. I currently am experiencing 0 problems so I am assuming it worked. If you have any experience using blue devil or have any head gasket questions, comment on this thread and I or any other person can try and help!
I'm making this thread because I couldn't find much on head gasket symptoms for specifically 4Runners, and because I couldn't find much information on head gasket sealers and how long they actually last.
So, to start, I'll tell the symptoms of my specific 4Runner and give some information on that. I have a 2005 4Runner that I purchased 2 months ago from a private seller with 184,000 miles on it. This is my first time owning a 4Runner. There was no check engine light on when I bought it, the seller was the only owner and he had it serviced at the dealership he bought it from in 2005. The carfax was clean with no wrecks or mechanical problems reported. About a month after purchasing and around 1000 miles later, I noticed that my 4Runner would occasionally shake after I started it for around 20-30 seconds. This wasn't always on a cold start either, it just happened at random. The engine light didn't come on, and I didn't notice any other problems with the vehicle. The only other symptom I experienced was the sound of rushing water behing the dash, which I'm not convinced has a direct relationship to a head gasket leak. That could have been air in the heater core, or a clogged AC drain (still not sure what it was exactly). just thought that is worth mentioning. After a few weeks of these occasional shakes my engine light did come on. I had the light read at a local autozone and the codes were for a cylinder 6 misfire and engine malfunction control. After researching and discovering the dread of cylinder 6 and the connection to head gasket leaks, I assumed the worst. Just to note, my 4Runner was running in tip top shape and it wasn't displaying any other symptoms of a leak, the oil looked good, the car never went above the normal temp, I wasn't losing a noticeable amount of coolant. Because the shakes that occurred when I started the engine only happened a few times, the engine light eventually went off on its own, around a week later. It came back on again a few days later, and then went off for the final time about 2 weeks ago. The CEL did not come back on after that, so I was a bit confused. All of the symptoms online were very apparent and I wasn't experiencing any. To be sure, I had a local mechanic run a "leak down" test on my 4Runner. The test was positive, and their were bubbles in my coolant from the compressed air in the cylinder. After getting quotes ranging from $2550 to $4000, I decided it would be better for me financially to try to seal the headgasket.
From the extensive research I've done on head gasket sealers, there are really only two options: Bar's leak or blue devil. I decided to go with blue devil because there are plenty of videos out there on how to use it, and the majority of them are successful. Now it is important to mention that there are 2 different types of blue devil sealers available, one you can pour straight into your coolant and drive on, and the other (yellow label) you have to drain, flush, remove thermostat, and then use the sealer. I chose the yellow label because it has the most documented success. It cost a total of $55 plus tax at my local autozone. I also decided to change the coolant from toyota super long life to the basic Prestone green coolant. My main reason for this was that since the headgasket is leaking, I don't want to have to pay $22 a gallon to refill my system if the selear doesn't work, and because Prestone green coolant can be bought pretty much anywhere that carries coolant. I didn't want to have to take a trip to the closest Toyota dealership every time I needed coolant. Prestone is $8.88 a gallon at Wal-Mart. Since the truck has high miles, I didn't feel the need to buy the most expensive brand coolant anyways.
So, I flushed the system and put the blue devil in on Sunday of this week (10-28-2018). I followed the directions on the bottle to a T, and would recommend doing the same (Please do!!!). The 4Runner was definitely well taken care of by the previous owner, so I only needed to do 1 flush with water to clean the system. I then added a radiator cleaner as the instructions stated, let that do its thing and then flushed it again. After letting the engine cool, I took out the theromostat, and let the engine go completely cold. I then filled the system with water and added blue devil. Waited 1 hour with the truck running with heat on full blast and then turned it off and waited an additional two hours for the truck to cool (as per instructions). After draining the blue devil, I added my new coolant to the system and I was finished!
So that's it! I just wanted to create this thread to talk about my experience with blue devil and document all of the symptoms of my head gasket leak. I will update every few months the mileage of my 4Runner and I will update when the head gasket leak comes back. This can show to longevity of the sealer so you can decide whether or not its worth your time and money! The current mileage on my 4Runner is 185,250 and I installed the Blue Devil two days ago. I currently am experiencing 0 problems so I am assuming it worked. If you have any experience using blue devil or have any head gasket questions, comment on this thread and I or any other person can try and help!
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