my wonderfull toyota 3VZ motor and Bar's leak

[belial]

So i buy a 1994 Toyota 4runner with 127k. i find out the head gasket is leaking coolant into the cylinder. i wanted to fix it properly but it would be quite expensive and the wonderfull people at toyota wont even talk to me about their design flaw and inferior gaskets. but thats another story.

so i buy a bottle of bar's leak heavy duty stuff and put half the bottle into it and lo and behold the next day the leak stops.

so

1. How long should the leak stay fixed with this stuff?

2. it has supertech 50/50 coolant in it(and bar's leak). Should i drain it and put the proper Toyota coolant in it? or leave it?

 

[Buford T. Justice]

ST should be OK. Due to mileage though, you may want to do a coolant change anyway. If you do that, you could replace that bad head gasket with a Fel-Pro head gasket which are usually a bit thicker than OEM gaskets.

 

[belial]

coolant change? the head gasket leaked. the coolant was changed many times in the past month of overheating.

and sure. i could spend $1500 in labor to have the heads removed only to put a thicker gasket on a warped head or block.

 

[Buford T. Justice]

I don't think you have a choice. Have you shopped around to find a garage that would do it for less money? I had a similar situation with a 1991 Chevy Lumina V-6. The dealership wanted about $1300 to replace the head gasket. I found a local garage that had good recommendations from people I talked to. That garage did it for $300 using Fel-Pro gaskets. That engine never leaked again, lol.