Leaky head gasket at cylinder 5. Is this common?
- Thread starter roscoe67
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Yeah with certain generation and model. What do you have; are you not the original owner? That looks like green coolant and as far as I know, the coolant for the these vehicles is either red or pink.
My bad, the green must be the dye.
It's a 1997. I bought it in 2005 at 100,000. I had a cracked head at 250,000, and only got 30,000 out of this one. Same spot - passenger side rear (cylinder 5).
I don't think your generation is prone to HG problems. With my generation, 4th, there are two cylinders that go and five is one of them. I can't believe you only got 30k out of current one. I'm sure others that know more will chime in.
30K miles? Makes it seem like something wasn't quite right with either the head or block when you did the HG last time. Or it got overheated for some other reason, which caused the HG failure.
What type of HG did you use? Toyota went through at least 4 revisions on the 5VZ headgaskets. Starting out in 96 with a largely conventional style gasket with metal fire rings and that paper/fiber stuff everywhere else. These tend to fail on an iron block car with aluminum heads, because on each heat cycle when you start it cold, the head and block expand at different rates and will scoot against each other, and the conventional style gaskets get worn out from being between them while they do that.
The revisions at first added more metal covered areas to one side of the gasket, increased wear capability. The final revision was a full metal 'MLS' style gasket, that really should last the life of the motor. Unless it's overheated, of course, that will warp a good head.
But for some reason, I think Toyota still sells some of the earlier revisions/styles. But AFAIK there's no reason to use anything other than the last style if you're replacing one.
IN your case, whip the head off and check everything for flatness.
What type of HG did you use? Toyota went through at least 4 revisions on the 5VZ headgaskets. Starting out in 96 with a largely conventional style gasket with metal fire rings and that paper/fiber stuff everywhere else. These tend to fail on an iron block car with aluminum heads, because on each heat cycle when you start it cold, the head and block expand at different rates and will scoot against each other, and the conventional style gaskets get worn out from being between them while they do that.
The revisions at first added more metal covered areas to one side of the gasket, increased wear capability. The final revision was a full metal 'MLS' style gasket, that really should last the life of the motor. Unless it's overheated, of course, that will warp a good head.
But for some reason, I think Toyota still sells some of the earlier revisions/styles. But AFAIK there's no reason to use anything other than the last style if you're replacing one.
IN your case, whip the head off and check everything for flatness.
T4R2014
Elite Member
Coolant type doesn't mean jack with regards to head gasket failure. Whoever has the cleaner coolant is the other better off. My guess would either be technician error during the last job, but more likely that radiator failure you mention. You'd have to verify flatness of block and head now. How do your heater, oil cooler, and throttle body hoses look? Worth getting new OEM hoses and clamps if they look old.
brillo_76
Elite Member
You take a 5vz-FE to H. The chances of the head warping or gasket blowing is extremely high. The Cast block with Aluminum head will cause the head warpage from the different expansion rates. Sucks but you see it heading to 3/4 to H best to kill the engine and let it cool. Or changing heads with new gaskets will be in your future. :-(
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