I Need Head Gasket Advice

[fdbyrne]

I have 131k on my V6 and the shop just called with the bad news. Mine didn't fail in the same way that most others did but I think it would have given time. I've been hearing air in the coolant system for the last 6 months or so and no matter how many times I burped it, I couldn't get all of the air out of the coolant system. The 'air' turned out to be combustion gasses which I sort of expected which is why I took it in to be tested. It drives fine still so I've got a little bit of time to formulate a plan and buy parts online to save myself some money at the shop.

My independent shop, that I trust, has quoted me about $2500 including having the heads machined and the valves reset. I may be able to get that down slightly by providing my own parts which I would do anyway to make sure that no junk was being put into my engine.

I do also intend to have the local dealer quote it out too just for a comparison. I'm sure it will be higher, but I don't know how much higher.

My question is this... What else should I have them do while they're in there? Water pump? Reset the valve clearances to within spec while the cams are out? What else am I forgetting? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[BrianSD_42]

How remote are you? Big city area?

Consider buying a wreck and swap over the engine.

There are several threads on this.

 

[fdbyrne]

I'm in Springfield , MO and there aren't any wrecked 4th gens anywhere around me. I've been looking for quite a while actually.

I've read many of the threads about the gasket issue because I've seen this coming. I just don't recall any of the threads where the discussion was about what else to do while in there.

I'm lucky in that I caught mine quickly and still have some time. I'd like to take that time to do some homework and legwork to make it go as smoothly as possible.

 

[SkyGuy41]

I know this head gasket issue has been beaten to death in other posts here and at Toyota 120... But what are the part numbers if one were to have their head gaskets go? Can't seem to find it anywhere. the Toyota parts store lists a lot of parts for the head gasket..

 

[rick1987]

if it still drives, maybe trade it in for a 09ish?

 

[fdbyrne]

I've done the math on trading it in and it just doesn't work out. I got a good enough deal on it that even after this it's still worth keeping. Also, I have to admit that I just don't feel right about passing the problem off to the next guy. At this point it looks great, drives good, and nobody that wasn't intimately familiar with this exact truck would have no way of knowing that there was a problem in their near future. I just don't want to be that guy.

I'm still trying to sort out the parts that I need but the woman at the parts counter used my VIN to pull up part number 04112-31720 for the gasket parts kit. The full retail for it was close to $350 but they give me a discount. The final price was around $230 which is only slightly higher than the lowest price I could find online.

I'm still in the early stages of my research so I don't know if it's one kit for both heads or one kit per head. I think it's one total but I'm not certain yet.

I read in another post that it doesn't come with head bolts/studs which may also need to be replaced. I also plan on buying a good water pump to put in and it might also need a couple valve shims but there's no way to tell until they crack it open. If I'm overlooking anything or wrong about something I'd really appreciate somebody setting me straight. Better now than later.

Also, I was pleasantly surprised with the dealer. I went by there after work to see how much they would charge. It was almost exactly the same as my independent shop. I figure that I'll probably have the dealer do it since it's the same price and I'll have better recourse through Toyota Corporate if something goes wrong along the way or afterwards. Also, I figure they have probably done the same job on the same type of engine multiple times and would probably be better at it than my independent who's done head gaskets many times but probably not many on that type of engine.

 

[SkyGuy41]

I've done the math on trading it in and it just doesn't work out. I got a good enough deal on it that even after this it's still worth keeping. Also, I have to admit that I just don't feel right about passing the problem off to the next guy. At this point it looks great, drives good, and nobody that wasn't intimately familiar with this exact truck would have no way of knowing that there was a problem in their near future. I just don't want to be that guy.

I'm still trying to sort out the parts that I need but the woman at the parts counter used my VIN to pull up part number 04112-31720 for the gasket parts kit. The full retail for it was close to $350 but they give me a discount. The final price was around $230 which is only slightly higher than the lowest price I could find online.

I'm still in the early stages of my research so I don't know if it's one kit for both heads or one kit per head. I think it's one total but I'm not certain yet.

I read in another post that it doesn't come with head bolts/studs which may also need to be replaced. I also plan on buying a good water pump to put in and it might also need a couple valve shims but there's no way to tell until they crack it open. If I'm overlooking anything or wrong about something I'd really appreciate somebody setting me straight. Better now than later.

Also, I was pleasantly surprised with the dealer. I went by there after work to see how much they would charge. It was almost exactly the same as my independent shop. I figure that I'll probably have the dealer do it since it's the same price and I'll have better recourse through Toyota Corporate if something goes wrong along the way or afterwards. Also, I figure they have probably done the same job on the same type of engine multiple times and would probably be better at it than my independent who's done head gaskets many times but probably not many on that type of engine.

Thanks for the part number, good information to know. I get a lot of my parts from Toyota of Dallas. Their prices are always better than my dealer. Here's a link for that part number.

VALVE GRIND GASKET KIT for 2004 Toyota 4Runner|04112-31720

Thanks again.

 

[rooost]

Toyota of Dallas ?

Cool that is just a few miles from me..hope they stay cheap, there were right in the middle of a huge road construction project and probably were pretty bored / needed the business for the last few years. I have gotten good at good deals on some SLLC, but thanks and Ill keep checking

 

[iBison]

I PMd this to fdbyrne but I'm going to paste it here for the rest of you.

I'm not sure. I ordered the engine overhaul gasket kit off ebay from a dealer in Indiana. The seller was royalsouthtoyotascion and I payed $229.78. It comes with pretty much all of the engine gaskets including heads, intake, exhaust, front cover, crank seal, valve seals etc etc.

Did you end up using the head bolts that you bought? Should I go ahead and get those too just in case?

I bought felpro head bolts off rockauto. You can re-use the old ones if you measure them and they are in spec. It was either buy them in case or buy them and use them. I just used them. However When we were putting the last one in it didn't want to thread in. A quick roll on the floor showed it to be slightly bent. I sent back the bent one and all of the old ones.

I'll be getting a water pump too. Do they come with all of the necessary hardware or is that a different parts kit?

Water pump should have all of the gaskets needed. I went ahead and replaced the thermostat as well while things were apart. I bought an asin from rockauto for about 79 bucks.

You may find you have bearings going or gone bad on your pulleys. Search for my thread or others on replacing the bearings instead of the pulleys.

The service procedures call for removing the oil pan which ads a bunch of extra work. You don't need to, just cover the front after you have the front cover off to prevent stuff falling in there.

You'll probably break exhaust mani studs. They are of course special and around 5 or 7 bucks at toyota. I think I found some that would work at autozone.

It's a big job that is a lot of hours, don't cut corners. Replace any gaskets you can.

I took the heads to a machine shop to have checked to make sure they were completely flat. I think they took 3 thousandths off. I also had them replace the valve seals. If the truck has overheated this is even more important. I used a very good shop and it cost me about $225. If they check out flat they wont have to mill them.

I would strongly recommend measuring the valve clearance BEFORE taking the heads apart. That way if you need to order "shims" you can do that ahead of time. If you look at my thread you can read about what we did with that.

Chang the oil. Use new Toyota antifreeze, it's expensive as hell, $60 for 3 gallons. I used about 2.5-2.75 gallons. I also replaced the plugs with long life plugs. Get plugs at advance auto online with discount code. If you don't have a code search on slickdeals.net.

I also replaced the #6 injector that looked suspect.

Also, if you use rockauto dont forget the 5% code. You enter it where it ask for email or something.

I believe this is the gasket kit I bought, toyota of dallas has it for 254, I paid 229. There were some gaskets I didnt use.
OVERHAUL GASKET SET for 2004 Toyota 4Runner|04111-31343