Any chance of head gaskets blowing on this used 90 4Runner?

looking at buying a 90 with 208k on it, i can see the guy has taken pretty good care of it and done good things to it, has all the carfax, i’m worried that the heads are going to blow and it going to have a bunch of problems. how likely is it for the head gaskets to blow. All i hear is how bad the 3.0L is but is it really all up to the hype. thank you for your insight

 

Lots of hype. I’m not saying to not do your homework on the vehicle but at that mileage the head gaskets may have already been done.

People are scared of the 3.0L because of some head gasket problems and also the internet has tons more info on rebuilding a 2.4L. Think about that though...... is it because besides the head gasket issue the engine is still a strong engine?

The 3.0L can be difficult at times to work on due to close tolerances but come on, no worse than a modern engine. The best part is if you do blow the 3.0L, a 3.4L is an EASY swap.

I just turned 307,000 miles on my 3.0L in my 88 pickup. Fingers crossed I get many more happy miles from it.

In my personal opinion a 3.0L is much happier mated to a 5speed vs. an automatic. Go for the manual version.

 

I 100% agree with @Dark Knight. The internet is scared of them because they don't know how to fix them. I have 2 3.0 5 speeds, one with 263k and the other with 218k. The main think to remember is to keep up on your cooling system maintenance and try to keep them out of super hot environments because that's what causes the head gasket to blow. If you can keep that engine cool it'll run for a very long time

What is the guy asking for it?

 

we talked and got it to 3500.

 

That sounds like a good deal to me. Looks like a pavement princess too so not too much abuse. I was thinking of selling my green one for that