How to prevent BHG.

Toysport

New member
I'm new here and new to 4Runners that are notorious to bhg. I have a '94 SR5 3.slow v6 w/ 191k miles that I purchased for $1300 a week ago. I read a lot of thread in here particularly bhg and have yet to find any preventatives. I only wanted to know what I can do to avoid such disaster.
 
Register to hide this ad
Be aware of your cooling system. The 3.0 are very sensitive to heat so keep your cooling system in check make sure your thermostat is working properly etc etc. Also headers are a good investment but that's not a complete solution
 
The best helper is to get rid of the exhaust cross over pipe in the back of the engine and throw some headers on and dont let it overheat.

after reading hoe nah's.... Yea, what he said.
 
Last edited:
Good water pump and tstat. Toyota coolant. Getting rid of crossover will help
Check to see if it has an open recall
 
I will do all of the above except the headers, unless there is one that is CARB approved. Thanks for the help.

The only problem with doing all except the headers is that the crossover pipe is pretty much the primary culprit--the gaskets typically fail right on the back corner where the crossover pipe cooks them. I'm not sure on the CARB rating, but you can check Rocky-Road for Doug Thorley's, or Northwest Offroad has their own set made to their specs. The other thing with putting headers on the 3.0 is it's the one mod that will wake that thing up a bit, and make other mods work to their fullest (the stock exhaust is pitifully restrictive).
 
BucknutBob, Doug Thorley has the CARB approved headers for the 2nd gen 4WD only. Mine is a 2WD. Will it matter?

Also, headers is the only option to fix the culprit? There's no other way? $600 is a little steep.
 
$600 for headers is insane.

Its really not that bad, supply and demand... Not many people make them anymore for 20 year old rigs.

If he's going to keep the rig for another 100K plus, then its worth it, but if he's going to get a new car in a year or so, I'd save the cash.
 
Here is the best way to prevent failure of the head gasket.

step 1. pull heads off
step 2. put in new gaskets
step 3. put heads back on with NEW bolts.
step 4. put a sticky note in the dash to repeat this in 50,000 miles.

youll never get stranded with BHG if you follow this pattern.
 
guess 505hp wasnt enough. i driven a 2008 z06 and the hp is crazy fun but shifting sucks!! felt like a billion pounds of pressure was needed to shift near redline.


LOL I got to ride in a ZR1 @ sema last year on a drift track, waited like 3 hours, but totally worth it. CRAZY power.


My friend has an older Z06, 06 I think? It hauls though. He's a speed freak
 
I'm actually okay with the $600. The repair cost and downtime if I blow a head gasket will be double that amount.

If the crossover pipe is the culprit, instead of replacing it with headers, how about thermo wrap it to reduce heat around that area? Just a thought.

Installing new head gasket every 50k miles is equivalent to 7-10 years for me since I average 5k miles yearly. However, additional horsepower and maybe mpg maybe possible if I install headers.

Question I have for those who have headers, how many miles has it been since the install and how's the head gasket?
 
My 88 runner with 3.0 was an early model and didn't fall under recall. Parents had it for the first 229xxx miles all stock and engine has never been open. I installed headers shortly after I got it. Its no longer a daily driver. It's just a trail rig and tow vehicle for my quad to pismo. 3 hr one way. I did the headers mainly to get rid of crossover.
 
I understand that the headers will make a world of difference. My question is thermo wrap should make a difference too right?
 
In theory it will make a difference, carring the heat out the pipe instead of letting it build up. I have mine wrapped...butttt good luck wrapping it with the engine in the truck.. little to no room to work back there.
 

Members online

No members online now.

Forum statistics

Threads
278,310
Messages
3,554,079
Members
248,016
Latest member
Advally Service

Trending content

Back
Top