Head gasket job diy?

Q

qx4runner

New member
Hello fellow t4r owners, This is my first post here. I bought my 99 sr5 in oct 2013 with some problems, the biggest being a BHG. Its misfiring on cylinder #2 and the spark plug was wet when I pulled it. Pretty sure the HG is blown at a coolant passage by there.

I've read some people on here saying that a head gasket job is expensive and that its better to just replace the engine. There are head gasket kits available on ebay for about 70 bucks like this one 95-04-Toyota-4Runner-Tacoma-T100-Tundra-3-4L-5VZFE-Head-Gasket-Set-Head-Bolts-/360362990884
Is there more parts required to do this job? am I missing something here?

The 4runner is a second truck and I can take as much time to do the job as I need. Thanks for the help :D
 
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If the heads/block are fine, just do the HG. I'd personally pull the motor, but that most think that's overkill for a HG job.
 
I don't get this swap the engine mentality, An engine swap is a very costly proposition. Also its not diy. I'm not about to spend $2k on an engine swap in a SUV I paid $1300 for.
 
qx4runner said:
I don't get this swap the engine mentality, An engine swap is a very costly proposition. Also its not diy. I'm not about to spend $2k on an engine swap in a SUV I paid $1300 for.
Click to expand...


Ok so spend $1500 to fix your head gasket on your $1300 truck.
 
If that's the case then I can see why a swap makes sense, but I still haven't heard a reason why it would cost so much to do the job.
 
I havnt figured out why everyone on here tells to just swap the engine. Why? The bottom end on these motors are solid. Head gasket job is not bad to do. I have 233,000 on my 97. I hope it will last many more. Id do a head job any day over a motor swap. Maybe $200 in parts to do a head job? Thats a lot cheaper than $1500 for a used 150,000 mile motor
 
The DIY aspect of a HG swap is highly dependent on the 'Y' part.

It's not a simple piece of mechanicing. It's fairly involved. If you're not very experienced, if you don't have a good place to work on it, if you don't have the required tools, if you don't have the organization skills or temperament for long involve projects, you might not want to tear into it.

That being said, it's not rocket science, get a good manual and it should steer you through it step by step. You'll save about 80% of the cost of paying someone else to do it. And assuming you take your time and do it properly, it should be every bit as well done as if a pro did it. There's something to be said about being careful and caring how well it's done vs. having skills and experience and whipping through it.
 
It's a time-consuming job but certainly doable.

My concern with a BHG is whether the heads are still serviceable and whether the engine's condition may warrant additional work in the near future. In my case with 230k on the engine, the headgasket didn't erase all those miles and wear and I just couldn't justify just replacing the HG.
 
I don't see anything wrong with fixing the head gasket. But I wouldnt buy AutoZone or eBay hg kit. Only oem. And I don't know if that's $200..... But this also depends on did you over heat your engine. In my expierence, when my head gasket went. The engine wouldnt turn over because there was so much coolant in one of the cylinders. But I didn't know thinking Mayne my starter or something was wrong. So on like third crank it started up and I drove it like 10-15 miles then realized my coolant was gone and I blew my head gasket. That being said. I didn't wanna put the energy and time and time into bringing my heads into the shops to see if they are cracked or warped. And I was afraid of just doing th head gasket and having bottom end problems in future. So I took a $1500 jdm with 60k on it and after few beers and lunches me and my friend did the job.
 
The general consensus here on the forum is ... have you done it before - yourself?

If the answer is yes and you have access to Toyota documentation so you do it properly with the proper parts then I'd say go for it.

If you have never done it before and are not a mechanic then all I can say is good luck with that.

People say to swap the engine simply because it is actually easier, assuming you have a US engine. But that brings its own risks as well such as spending $750-$1200 on a possibly crap engine.

:bathbaby:
 
I've been a master tech at a GM dealer for 13 years. Now in engineering for the worlds largest appliance manufacture. A head job to me is much easier than heavy motor swap work. Id only use OEM parts. And 100% send heads to machine ship to check for flatness and cracks. $200 in OEM parts and maybe & hours of my time is much better and easier than $1500 or so and 20 hours labor for motor swap.
 
BrianSD_42 said:
The general consensus here on the forum is ... have you done it before - yourself?

If the answer is yes and you have access to Toyota documentation so you do it properly with the proper parts then I'd say go for it.

If you have never done it before and are not a mechanic then all I can say is good luck with that.

People say to swap the engine simply because it is actually easier, assuming you have a US engine. But that brings its own risks as well such as spending $750-$1200 on a possibly crap engine.

:bathbaby:
Click to expand...

Everybody is new once. If you don't ever tackle a job like replacing a head gasket because you've never tackled a job like replacing a head gasket then you might as well not get out of bed in the morning.

Go for it, OP. You might screw it up and have to do it over, but you could do it over three or four times for the money you'll pay a mechanic, and you'll walk away with skills you didn't have before.
 
I had a BHG myself, contemplated on replacing the HG then decided against it when one of the PO's put a HG stop-leak additive in the coolant. Swapped the longblock and I'm in process of doing a full rebuild on the BHG motor.

It's not *that* difficult. It will take time, though.
 
I think another thing to consider on top of the good info already stated is whether or not your Runner is a daily driver. If it's your primary vehicle, might want to spend the money and leave it to a professional. Doing it yourself, you may have other issues shortly down the road and have to park your vehicle again for repairs. If it's a second car tho...F it, do it yourself and learn.
 
Also if you are going to do this your self.....

Don't be a knot head and just slap the heads back on with a new gasket and call it good. Spend the extra 150 bucks and take the heads to a machine shop and have them worked over and make sure they are flat and smooth.

I had a customer tell me he would not pay of that and it was not needed on this head gasket job, we STRONGLY DISAGREED and advised him this was silly. Well long story short he paid us again to take it all apart and send the heads out because the valves were jacked up also and he didn't want to put in new head bolts, you always use new head bolts. The labor it takes to do this job is not worth cutting corners. Do it right if you are going to do it. From start to finish I tell my customers it takes at least a week to do a head gasket job, why you ask? Machine Shops are busy!

Hope this helps a little and good luck.

Blue
 
Yea when I did this to my t4r the longest part of the job was the machine shop they checked this and that and tossed in some valve seals and springs and for cost of $125.00 can't complain plus now I can say my heads were not cracked. The job may take u 2 hours at most if you have done a few but 5-8 hr wouldn't be to bad for taking your time and learning your stuff. On another note big time supporter of Toyota updated head gaskets for these year model seem to be pretty solid product.
 
I'm in the same boat. My sister in law had a cracked radiator in her 02 4runner and kept driving it until the car started to scream at her. She called me and asked what it means when the gauge is on the H :Cry:

After a lot of research I think I'm just gonna swap in a new motor. Head gasket job is very involved and parts will start to add up when you decide it's best yo get a new timing belt, water pump ect. I'm also hearing that (on high mileage motors) when you tear them apart and get the heads all fixed up and the valves seal well that you start getting blow by on the rings and burning some oil.

Anyways, for $1000 I can get a motor with lower miles and have it swapped out in a few days.
 
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