1GR-FE 2008 Tundra Has Me Pulling My Hair Out

What little hair I have left, anyway.

Now let me start off by saying that I love driving my Tundra. It is a great truck, and I have it set up just like I want it. The 4.0 has enough pep to do what I want it to do. If I bought a new Tundra, I would have gotten a 5.7, but I didn't, so here I am.

But...

The 4.0 1GR-FE engine is driving me insane. I bought the truck used, knowing I had to put heads on it. Last owner overheated the poor thing. Had a local shop do the head job. Guy is an independent mechanic who runs his own shop and knows his stuff. I have had him tackle other jobs I didn't want to do on other vehicles and results have been great.

Yes, I can turn a wrench, I do most of my own vehicle maintenance. I feel like the motor pool sergeant with the fleet out at my little farm, with my cars and trucks, a dump truck, a tractor, the kids' cars, and all that. And I rebuilt a 1981 Ford 302 by myself about 30 years ago and it ran great! I have been busy at work and that is a larger job than I typically do on my own if I can help it.

Had truck towed to shop. HG was blown between cylinders 4 And 6. Shop re-surfaced heads, replaced a bad valve, new FELPRO head gaskets, timing chain, etc. Ran great for 3,000 miles or so. Blows head gasket. Take it back.

HG is blown between cylinders 4 And 6 again. Replaced with another FELPRO head gasket under warranty. New water pump. Lasts 10000 miles, head gasket blows again as soon as it gets hot enough to use AC. I could run it without AC and no codes, no issues. Apparently the difference in incoming water temp was the straw that broke the HG's back. Heads getting hot and warping? Not sure. Replace HG with FELPRO mostly under warranty. Put in head studs instead of head bolts. Somewhere in here, I put in a BF aluminum racing radiator to make sure plenty of coolant is available just as a precaution.

New HG lasts about 1000 miles, now popping P302/304/306 codes and steaming out of exhaust, so I presume it is a head gasket again. But now, Cylinder 2 has gotten into the act, too. Bastards.

At this point, I would love to swap the GR1-FE for another engine, but I can't see where anyone has an adapter kit or anything to swap to put a Chevy 350 or anything like that in. Or even swap for a Toyota 4.7 or 5.7 but I haven't seen where anyone has done that.

Due to lack of options, I am figuring on buying a low mileage used 1GR-FE from a junkyard since this one seems to have the devil in it. I have seen them listed as Japanese engines, which I presume have a better rep than US-made engines. Not sure how to tell which mine is.

FYI, I did get on Toyota's website and ask if they had anything they could do for me. I got an email that said to call their hotline and list the code they gave me. I called, happy that they did not blow me off via email, but talked to a nice girl who blew me off over the phone in a very friendly and polite manner. Not sure why the 2-step blow-off, but go figure. Now, I did not expect that they owed me anything due to the age of the truck, but I figured that if you never ask, you never know, and many many people seem to have this same issue. The wife has a 2005 Tacoma that has had some recalls repaired on it WAY past what I though they would do. Heck, they put a new frame on the Tacoma in 2019!

I just want to drive my beautiful Tundra! What do y'all think I oughta do now?

 

Check the block for wrap.

 

I don't think any 1GR-FE's are made in US. I know the Tacomas that use them are built in MX but I still think all the motors are made in JP. Bummer though, I thought the HG issue was resolved in '06.

 

I thought so, too! My wife's 2005 Tacoma has 303K with the same engine and (knock on wood) never an engine problem. She bought it new and I have taken very good care of it since we got married. Synthetic oil, yada yada yada. Except when she runs into something with it, the only big thing I have ever done to it is take the bed loose to put in a fuel pump. I was hoping I was buying something else like that, but no luck!

 

Op, I have 2010 with the same motor, I go over to tacomas.com when I have motor questions as the motor is much more prevalent in tacomas. Just a thought!

 

I have a 2006 4Runner with the 1GR-FE and 4th gens were notorious for HG failures from ‘03-05.

 

Put Toyota gaskets in. If they fail, you need to either have a different shop work on the car or there's something very, very wrong with the engine beyond the HG.

 

I would check the block and cylinders for any warp since it blew out again, get the block decked and get the cylinders resurfaced if needed, then get a quality MLS head gasket and new head bolts as those are not a reusable item. Also, you may need a thicker head gasket to accommodate for the material removed during machining.

 

Time to look into a replacement engine. Likely block has sustained some damage as well and those heads don’t need to be reworked AGAIN. Keep flattening the heads and you’re losing material, thus upping compression and stress on components.

 

With head gaskets blowing like that you almost certainly have the block warped and probably the heads also. Pull the heads off. Get a REALLY flat metal bar. I ordered a piece of milled stock from McMaster Carr. Clean the block surface and heads perfectly and see if you can slip a .002 feeler gage between the block and the bar anywhere. Same with the heads. If you can, that’s your problem and it has to get corrected. There are different ways to do that depending on how much you want to spend and your level of tolerance for the ingenious misuse of sandpaper and a flat slab of granite.

 

I have made a very important life decision. I have found a well-taken-care-of 2011 Tundra with a 4.6 and I am buying that from a guy. He is going overseas for a job at the end of the month and was going to store the truck but was advised it wasn't good to store it for a few years. I made what I thought was a real good deal on it and can't wait to meet him at the DMV at the end of the month.

Gonna take the 2008 back to the mechanic and let him fix it and then sell it to get my money back out of it. Solves this problem, anyway!