Starting to maintain my girlfriends '95-overheat probs

[sbflyer]

O.K. finally able to post, got some big questions. Total Toyota newbie (Mercedes diesel guy), started using my girlfriends '95 (105,000 miles) and man it needs some help. It keeps losing coolant and the oil pressure is seems to go very low intermittantly. It had the head gasket replaced by a dealer at 43,000 along with the timing belt, and a new radiator put in at about 85,000. When rolling it's fine, but if caught in stop and go traffic starts to overheat. Could the head gasket be going again? On the oil pressure, it starts out fine, then sometimes stays fine all day, but other times as the engine heats up it drops dramatically to the lowest mark on the guage at idle, and comes up to about a third of the way up when the engine's revving. Could it be debris in the pan clogging the screen? Like I said, the only cars I have much time fixing are my series of old Mercedes diesels, so any tips relating to anything on this thing will be greatly appreciated....




Spark plugs? What the hell are spark plugs? (diesel joke... )

 

[jhinderliter]

you need to determine where the coolant is leaking from or if you are burning it...the 3.0 is notorious for head gaskets tho...its not to bad of a job if you know how to handle a wrench...dont sweat the oil pressure...its normal for them to sit on the line between low and normal at an idle...i run 10w40 and a quart of Lucas oil treatment and it helps...helps quiet the top end down a bit as well..
if you do the top end and need any tips feel free to ask..

 

[Sidney]

Yes the headgasket failed again and recalled again:

22 Toyota headgasket & oil sludge recall sites:

http://www.brian894x4.com/V6headgasketrecall.html
http://home.off-road.com/~kemanuel/V6-HG.htm
http://www.showmesome.info/hilux/info/recall.htm
http://www.off-road.com/toyota/4runner/topqs.html
http://www.yotatech.com/~corey/4runner_faq.htm
http://www.thecomplaintstation.com/...opicID=00035588/firstrecord=0/finalrecord=14/
http://www.babcox.com/editorial/ic/ic110028.htm
http://www.alldata.com/recall/make/Toyota_Truck.html
http://www.alldata.com/TSB/60/94601650.html
http://www.yotarepair.com/Campaigns.html (3.4L,V6,headgasket recall)
http://home.off-road.com/~bibelheimer/3.4v6_headgasket.html (3.4L,V6,headgasket recall)
http://home.4x4wire.com/erik/t100/3.4v6_headgasket.htm
http://www.jasperengines.com/pdf/5SFECoolantLeaksTB.pdf
http://www.lemonaidcars.com/secret_warranties.htm
http://www.nordicgroup.us/oil.htm#Toyota Sludge
http://www.toyota.com/about/news/product/2002/04/03-1-consumer.html
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2002/04/04/toyota-sludge.htm
http://www.petitiononline.com/TMC2003/petition.html
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/TSBScans/sb621323.pdf
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/TSBScans/sb628694.pdf
http://groups.msn.com/ToyotaOwnersUniteforResolution/headgaskettsb.msnw
http://groups.msn.com/ToyotaOwnersUniteforResolution/headgaskets.msnw
http://www.babcox.com/editorial/ic/ic100052.htm

Sidney

 

[sbflyer]

Thanks for the tips,hopefully I can get some action on this without going to war with Toyota. In the servise record it describes shaving the head as much as they could, is it possible they weren't able to shave enough to take all the warping out, thus leading to early failure of the second gasket?