Blown Head Gasket With Only 3K Miles

[wrangler]

Anyone know why a head gasket would fall apart in as little as 3K miles (it did not overheat)? This is for a 1984 Toyota Land cruiser.

Oil and coolant were mixing in an alarming rate (about a gallon of coolant was being consumed every 10 miles of driving). Not sure where it went; some ended up in the oil but the rest??? I didn't do a UAO but the oil looked very foamy and almost white... Prior to installation the head was checked for cracks and warping and it received a clean bill of health…

The gasket was NOT a Toyota gasket ($120 I think) but a knock off for $25. Could that be the reason?

 

[wrangler]

ohh and the head was re-torqued at about 1K miles.

 

[got boost?]

the first thing to check would be whether the head is warped, then look at the block surface, the surface finish has to be just right on some of those toyota engines. I wouldn't put the fault for the failure on the gasket, something else is going on. have a machine shop recondition the head, it may have had a small crack that has opened up. also, check to make sure none of the head bolts have broken, and use new head bolts next time.

 

[Rhymingmechanic]

A head gasket blew on my Pontiac 400 at about the same mileage, not long after break-in from an overhaul. Mine went all of a sudden, though--coolant/oil spraying out the dipstick tube, somewhere above the speed limit.

Had to have the heads milled, and used Fel-Pro gaskets. Each gasket cost about as much as the original "budget" engine gasket kit. After the repair, the engine endured plenty of 1/4 and 1/8 mile runs without problems.

 

[M3 Mitch]

I would guess the knock-off gasket is the problem. You might be able to get a Fel-Pro or NAPA etc. that will fit and work, but with the joy of doing the job again you may want to bite the bullet and get the Toyota part. You might get a better price on genuine parts on the net.

 

[Drew99GT]

Likely the cheapo gasket. Could be a number of things; over/under torqued cylinder head, misaligned when the head was placed on the block, block or head not totally true. "Stuff" happens I guess! "Stuff"'ll get the best wrenches from time to time.

 

[Mitch]

Are you sure it is a head gasket. On most 2f engines there is a oil cooler that is bolted to the side of the block.If the gaskets or the cooler leak you have your symptoms.Since this is a cast iron head and a cast iron block they are more forgiving than aluminum head/cast iron block engines.

 

[The Critic]

If you recall, there was one member on here who had a highly modified VQ35DE. His headgasket began seeping after only 1,000 miles, which caused the coolant leak. About 5,000 miles after the headgasket was replaced, a larger coolant leak sprung, but this time from some other place, possibly the sleeves.

As for why, I dunno. Perhaps you just had a defective gasket.

Mike

 

[wrangler]

Just got word from the machine shop, it’s a cracked head. It cracked right by the valves on cylinder #2. That makes a lot of sense since piston #2 looked so clean you would have sworn it was brand new. The other five had some carbon built up and so did their valves (intake was a little black and all exhaust valves had a white build up). BUT piston #2 and its valves looked like they were just dipped in chrome.

I guess that water cleaning theory might have some merit to it after all. Don’t know if it breaks other things but it sure cleans out the combustion chamber.

anynone looking for a beat down 1984 land cruiser?