just posting to vent a little frustration and add to the general knowledge base.

my tacoma's exhaust was a little thick last week, and smelled a little too much like coolant. i figured head gasket, and i was more than a little POed. i thought that those issues were solved by toyota when they introduced tacoma engines.

well, my shop guys took it in for a head gasket job, and after they got her taken apart, they informed me that the gasket was fine and that the problem was a crack in one of the head cylinders. i checked it out, and sure enough, three exhaust ports had minor carbon soot and the last one (#3) was washed out with a coolant residue. all this with only 115000 miles on a pampered 2.7L engine (believe me when i say pampered). luckily they were able to locate a nearly new head at a local junk yard for $250, versus a grand or more at the dealerĊĊĊĊ.

has anyone else had similar problem with any tacoma engine? i've never heard of it. i guess just bad luck.

 

I just had a lengthy discussion with my independent Toyota service guy on this topic. Seems I am suffering from either a blown head gasket or cracked head in my 95 3.4 Tacoma. It's very small at the moment, but will get worse.

He pulled his repair records for cracked heads over the past couple of years, and he didn't have any trouble finding them. While they are not common, they do occur and fall into the "crap happens" category. With 192k miles on the vehicle and up to a $5k repair cost (which was his typical bill for a cracked head) my solution is to get a 2007 Tacoma.

Tom

 

I believe there was a head gasket recall on the earliest of the 3.4s (i.e., the '95 MY). You might check with the dealer and see if yours is still eligible

 

I wish it were that easy. Unfortunately I already had the head gasket replaced by a dealer, as part of the recall, at 114k miles.