If it was a leak you would think a 2-3 quart loss would be visible somewhere.
Yeah, like leaving drops on the ground.
O2 sensors are nothing, coolant in the exhaust can kill cats and they get expensive.
You are lucky.
Very lol. You should see my OTHER vehicle.
I had one of those leaks that never hit the ground over 10 years ago. A Toyota shop foreman tried to tell me it was the intake manifold. It was the coolant transfer pipe or something like that and was only a $200/250 repair.
Just curious how much did it cost for repair? If or when mine goes wondering what cost would be now!
I had a lot of work done. In addition to the head gaskets, the radiator was leaking, I had both cv axles replaced, and new tires all on one repair order. I'm a parts counterman at a Toyota dealer, so employee rate for labor is $100 per hour. It was 22 hours for everything, plus parts and machine shop. While torn apart, we put in a new timing chain, water pump, spark plugs, thermostat, idlers, and various other parts. With the intake off, the knock sensor sub-harness was also replaced, since it was 22 years old and the intake was already out of the way. When all was said and done, right around $4k. She runs like a champ now, and has had no issues since the repair was completed in December of 2024. With the updated head gaskets now in place, I don't anticipate any issues of that nature in the future, at least not for another 200k miles. She was at 248k when the blown head gasket was discovered, and now she's at 264k and running beautifully.
If you are doing it yourself, that seems like a reasonable number. The odds and ends category is the true wildcard.
22 hours? Wow, that's a lot of time. Looks like a lot of work was done, but still, 22 hours is huge.
