Head gasket repair, is it worth it on a 2004? v6 SR5

New to the page, hello all! Wondering how to get this done without breaking the bank.. well for one. I have an 04' and its ran great up til now. well, last year now. it was sounding a bit clunky and needed to get a tune up is what I thought. To my knowledge, its never overheated so hopefully the heads are okay? Thoughts? Ive been told almost 5k to get this done these days?!

 

Yes, i have heard prices of over $4,000 to get it done
It should not be that expensive, but i am assuming the shops are all also pricing in all the other stuff they have to take off like water pump, timing chain, timing chain tensioners, timing cover gasket, valve cover gaskets, the radiator has to come out, new belts and hoses, new thermostat housing and gasket ect ect. I think the only way they are getting those prices is due to also replacing everything else they take off. The head gaskets are relatively cheap, the time and labor to get them off isnt that outrageous, i cant figure out how they are getting the prices unless they are also adding in new everything they pull off into the price list.

For example i did one last summer, it had 250,000 miles and it developed a water leak on the thermostat housing. All it really needed was a thermostat housing gasket but the owner wanted to do some "preventative maintenance" and opted to replace everything on the front of the engine and i mean everything ALL with OEM Toyota parts, zero china parts.

pulled radiator out, replaced
water pump
water pump gasket
thermostat housing
thermostat housing gasket
fan clutch
AC compressor
belt
tensioners
pulleys
recharged AC system
Refilled radiator with Toyota long life coolant

This was $2,400 using ALL OEM toyota parts and yes that was including the OEM Toyota AC compressor.
There is no way you are going to get the head gaskets to be $4,000+ unless you are also replacing all those parts as well just because you are taking them off.

 

ALSO: the first few years of the 4,0 1GR-FE was known for head gasket problems, those are the ones that blow head gaskets, i have not researched into why but its the only ones you ever hear of head gaskets letting go, the 2003-2005'ish year models. I can only assume there is a casting flaw, a water passage hole drilled too close to the cylinder, there is some underlying issue why those models blow the head gaskets but i cant say what it is.

I will say, the Tundra / Sequoia 5.7 is well known for head gaskets at high mileage now that they have been on the road for so long and are getting 250,000-300,000 miles on them. The underlying issue is the coolant, nobody EVER replaces the coolant. The coolant gets electrostatically charged over time and eats away at the coating on the head gasket that seals the water passage. This electrostatic charge slowly eats away at the black rubber seal on the head gasket around the cooling passage which eventually allows water into the cylinder. Every one of them is the same, the only thing we can come up with is the coolant gets that static charge over time, but it doesnt seem to happen on vehicles that get the coolant changed every 70,000-100,000 miles. Its always the ones that are one owner and that one owner has never touched it because "toyota reliability" and they just keep driving and changing the oil, brakes, and tires and never thinking about the rest of the fluids.

How long have you owned that 2004? Have you changed the coolant before? If you bought it used do you know if the coolant was ever changed? Maybe this is also the reason the 4.0 are eating head gaskets up.

 

I have the same 2004 V6 SR5 I bought with 105k miles in 2014 and my headgasket started leaking last month around 181k miles. I did a lot of research and found out the head gasket replacement itself is a lot of labor just to remove the heads. That not including the tedious task of cleaning the mating surfaces before installing the new HG. And while you're in there it's worth replacing the coolant system as well as having your heads inspected and possibly serviced as well. It adds up to an expensive job quickly, especially if you're paying a shop to do it. My 4runner also needed new suspension, UCA and LCA, tie rods, tires. I was already planning on putting $4k into it to replace all that stuff then the HG job just doubled it. I am pretty mechanically capable and I decided not to fix it, but for me it wasn't worth it to put that much money into it, especially just not having the time to work on it right now. I ended up buying a used 5th gen and I am going to pull off some stuff from the 4th gen and try to sell it for what I can to someone who has the time and ability to fix it.

 

The reason it's expensive is the heads warp and need machined to seal properly again. Might as well replace components while you're in there like water pump etc.

Or buy a used 4.0 and swap it out.

 

Gonna try to get a few quotes, but does look like they wanna replace it all along the way. I am not that mechanical to do such a big job myself. I have been told getting another engine could be cheaper? but then places like the dealership or another one quoted me $13k for a new engine.

 

I haven't thought to do any more maintenence than what was recommended. I have owned this 4runner since 2009 and bout it under 99k mi.

 

Smart man - using all OEM.

 

It's financially risky to do head gaskets on a 21 year-old engine. The technician can do all the right things and use good parts, but something else on the bottom end may go in the near future and put all your efforts/expense to waste.

Typical advice is to drop in a lower mileage / newer year used engine from a salvage yard. Tacomas had this engine up until 2015.

 

If you go with a used engine, try and find out what the build date is on the vehicle it came out of, 12/05 and later build date will have a newer designed head gaskets, a build date before 12/05 will have the older designed head gaskets and can possibly fail.

The build date can be found on the VIN decal on the driver's door jamb.

 

IIRC, Tacoma top ends of these engines are slightly different as 4runners have Dual VVTi

 

As for whether it's worth it, you'll have to think about how much it'll cost to replace the vehicle, whether current vehicle's meet your standards (ex. the 4WD system you can use anytime is now gated behind Limited trim, climate control is no longer standard) and the rest of the vehicle's condition. If the rest is in good shape I'd repair, just a question of how.