New Member-old problem-V6 head gaskets

[yogmuney]

Hi all,

I hope you can help me with an old problem. I am about to buy a 1989 4 runner with a V6. It has 160K miles on it and the head gaskets have not been done. I have read quite a bit on this forum about the failures but they are primarily on the 1990-1995 where there was a toyota recall. That being said, I have the following questions.

Why was the warranty not extended to 1988 when the motor was introduced? Is there something different about 1988-89 motors?

What causes the failure typically? Can the life of the head gaskets be extended by retorquing heads? Frequent changes of anti-freeze?

If the head gaskets go, do the heads need to be surfaced?

I am confident I could replace them myself, how long does it take?

I have read that there have been several iterations of the head gasket since, is there one brand that is better than others to keep the problem from happening again?

Any help/advice is greatly appreciated. Glad to be joining the T4R nation!

Thanks and have a great day.

 

[Uneek]

I had a 1990 truck with the 3.0 V6. The head gasket failure is due to the aluminum heads and cast iron block. Since they are two different types of metal the expansion and contraction due to temperature happens at different rates. When Toyota issued the service campaign to fix the head gasket on the truck, they had the heads sent out to a machine shop according to the dealer and had the truck for three days.

IIRC another member here in another thread posted that there are newer gaskets that are more durable now.