Cracked Head Thread

Since this thread is about failure counts you add these to the list.

3 people have contacted me after reading my failure thread.

1 guy I know at a Toyota shop had the same failure on his 96.

1 guy in PH just redid his heads after this failure only 2 months ago. The thread is pretty recent.

:)
 
Man, and I had plans to DBT (Do Big Things) to my runner this summer once I had some money. I would hate to throw gobs of money into it for suspension lift, tires, wheels, etc., only to find out the same week I got a cracked head or TWO! What's really discouraging is what Brain said about others making comments about how good his engine sounded just a short time before his heads went. :nono:
 
sh1t happens, when it happen i'll just get a set of used head and resurface them. labor part i can do myself, so for people who has some mechanical skills, this shouldn't be that bad.
 
Just an FYI, my truck never overheated and always ran perfect in the 10 years I had it (bought it @90K miles) until the heads cracked at 205K. If this was any other brand of automobile, it would be normal or even expected to have major top end issues after 200K. Maybe a little rarer on a Toyota, but definitely not abnormal for a 14 year old vehicle. I've seen many Chevys, Fords, Jeeps, etc.. have cracked heads at 130K or so. So even though it happened to mine, I don't have anything bad to say about Toyota's engineering or quality of parts. Sh!t just happens.

BTW, my miles have always been hard "mountain" miles since I've owned it. I equate that to about 50% more wear than a city car.
 
Typically about how much does this repair run? I saw that one guy posted 2700 but that seems a little high to me. For that price you should be able to find a really low mile engine and have it installed with money left over.
 
Typically about how much does this repair run? I saw that one guy posted 2700 but that seems a little high to me. For that price you should be able to find a really low mile engine and have it installed with money left over.
Click to expand...

So many factors ....

My repair was expensive because I did both sides and got new heads.

Assuming your head isn't cracked then a simple gasket fix might be only $1000.
 
Coming from the bmw world, I never heard of any head failures at that sort of mileage. Hell, there was a guy with 600k+ miles on a 2.5L inline 6. Factory heads and block (I'm sure he's changed gaskets)

I know you guys baby your trucks, but even for a molested japanese engine, 200k head cracks seems a bit odd to me.

I'm most worried about the automatic transmission... anyone know how long those usually last? I'm at 150k
 
Riffman, I'm from the BMW world too. Don't worry about the auto trans in these, probably the best trans out there. I'm at 200K almost and it shifts smooth as glass.
 
good to hear :)

Apologies for the thread hijack, but what BMW did you have? This was mine:

3854904058_59ceea4923_z.jpg


4164621611_3a1cd80605_z.jpg


4323743871_0425af6aa7_z.jpg
 
i'd like to know which head it is that cracked on the others? maybe its a certain casting number that has issues?! maybe???


here are pictures of mine, and the cracks, notice the number 7 inside the head, my other head that i got has a 12, and the one i replaced the 7 with is an 11......

SL382110.jpg~original



SL382111.jpg~original



SL382112.jpg~original



SL382113.jpg~original



SL382114.jpg~original



SL382115.jpg~original






ALL ABOVE PICTURES ARE OF THE SAME HEAD
 
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Pink Milkshake seems to be more of a common (but still infrequent) issue but very preventable if poeple simply change their radiator since a radiator aging is the single reason for the issue while a cracked head can happen from alot of different things.

Cracked heads still don't seem like a regular issue from what I've seen with 10 years on yotatech and about 8 years here so I'm not too worried about mine at 171,000 miles.
 
Kevin,

I don't see any cracks and those heads look pretty good compared to my old ones.

Can you circle the damage in red, sorry maybe it is just my screen.

Btw, what are your plans? Refurbished head?
 
It is cracked right between the intake and exhuast valves there, hard to see in the pic but dead obvious when looking with the eyes.

The vehicle is in mint shape for 320k kms. And this is after hot tank. so it looks minty. minus the crack
 
Kevin,

At least you can do the work yourself :)

Have you gotten any quotes on resurfacing the heads, valve job extra?
 
I would never want to have to pay for this job myself! I am doing it myself as well, almost done actually, just going to finish it up on friday night. parts and labour alone cost around 800.00 so far, just to get a used head, have it surfaced, pressure tested, lap the valves, do a valve grind

adds up!
 
Does anyone believe replacing the head gasket prior to the 200K mile marker can prevent this from happening?
 
Aluminum heads + cast iron block = cracked heads/blown gaskets. Aluminum and cast iron expand and contract at different rates, causing stresses and warping. This is why proper cylinder head torquing and good gasket materials are extremely important. I worked at a machine shop for a couple years, and cylinder head failures are fairly common in aluminum/iron construction. Fairly common meaning more common as opposed to all aluminum or all iron construction. That being said, I still think most people will easily see 250k+ miles with no issues. And I think this thread has so far proven this, seeing as how very few people have reported problems. Just my $.02
 
^^ Makes sense.

Sucks, because im @ 180K and i'm starting to see coolant disappear from the resevour bottle little by little. Looks like i'll be upgrading mine soon.
 
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