Blown Head Gasket

And I'll bet his phone is ringing off the hook from local viewers wanting their coolant changed.

 

I wish I never watched the Car Care Nut video now. The first thing I did was pop my hood and check my coolant level (it was fine) and discovered that both of my cam towers are leaking. I only have 49,000 miles and I baby this damned thing.

 

Did you blow a head gasket?

 

No - it’s not a common failure for these engines at all from what I’ve seen. I don’t think you’ll find many. I’d say valve springs take out way more 3URs than head gaskets.

I’m not promoting neglecting to change coolant but this doesn’t keep me up at night. Avoiding a valley plate leak is reason enough to stay on top of changing the coolant.

 

I was thinking the same thing. I can't name enough people on one hand. A couple have surfaced today, only because that car care nut video came to light and people are searching (this thread). And the engine in the video had 200,000 miles on it. That's higher mileage if you ask me.

 

Not buying coolant acidity as the cause of failure.

 

I was wondering that too. Was thinking, isn't that what the inhibitors in red coolant are for? There's probably thousands of people who never change their coolant and never have an issue. Seems like all the people with very high mileage have never done much for maintenance to their vehicles other than the very basics.

 

Maybe blew a seal?

https://youtu.be/6l1GvDWtccI?si=iPu4KBFEmKozWnLm

 

Yep his example was an over 200,000 mile vehicle.

I have a 2018 with just shy of 40,000 miles on it. Got it last year with 32,000. If the job situation stays the same (I have a company vehicle as part of the compensation) this truck will never see 200,000 miles.

I'm going to do all of the fluids in a few months, transmission, coolant, differentials and oil change because it is 6 years old due to watching his videos on this motor and generation of truck. I won't need to do them again for another 5 or 6 years. I'll take the advice of an experienced mechanic that gets into these vehicles often for maintenance.

 

If I hit 185,000 miles and the head gasket goes, I'd think well something was bound to happen that requires replacement at this mileage.

Friend has over 300,000 on his 2007 Titan and replaced the transmission last year. He says it's so much cheaper to fix it and continue on than pay $70k for a new truck.

 

I wonder if it's possible that some blocks were slightly out of spec from the factory which has lead to some developing HG leaks over time. I don't see how a block can deform from overheating but not the head.

 

I have a 2012 5.7 DC. Bought at 135k miles. Now, 149k miles. NO CAM Tower Leaks. Timing chains were bad. Dealer took $5k off price.

I am concerned but look at this video of a very neglected/abused high mileage 5.7 on this YouTube channel. Whole locked up engine was disassembled. Destroyed due to overheating.

Here:
https://youtu.be/Fr1LUnFh8wA?si=to8zowS-PFn1SdUO

Head removal around 12:15 into the video.

The black head gasket material applied to the MLM gasket do not look as 'eaten away' as on the Car Care Nut video. But the CCN video showed bunch 8 and 6 cyl gaskets(?) I did screenshots of the gaskets of the I Do Cars video. There is another 5.7 strip down video he did as well on another abused 5.7. From what I see. It looks like most of the black HG material held up on the I Do Cars video. But why would Toyota put coolant passages mm from the bore??? NUTZ.

 

I topped off my reservoir yesterday before watching the video and now I'm paranoid. Especially after a period of getting smoke on start up, but that has since cleared away.

 

This is out of a 2015 2GR Camry with 149,434k with day one OEM coolant. I'll test it tomorrow when the coolant testing strips come in.

 

He said "skim it", I think? You get to make the surface clean. Totally doable in garage. I did it. 4 years later the car is still on the road.

 

Same. Nothing beats 31 lbs of paper manuals.

 

I have a high degree of confidence this is not from acidic coolant. Showing one spot damaged, but the rest of HG is fine makes no sense. Something else is going on.

 

Seems more like an over pressure situation to me but wtf do I know… injector going lean?

 

Another good illustration. This is my engine head partially skimmed. See dark depressions between water channels and fire ring?



Same must be happening with 3UR. Also see cylinder sleeve imprint into the head. It was lifting it up and would eventually cause a head gasket failure.

 

Please keep this info coming, makes it easier when I need to make the case of fully sleeved engine to the wife.

"new truck costs too much, but to make this thing really lasts I need to replace head gaskets and sleeve the block"

 

Is there such a thing like a colder thermostat for 3UR? Opening a few degrees earlier is all what it may need to avoid overheating locally.

 

Yes - Mishimoto sells a 165 degree unit.

 

What’s weird is that we have seen trucks with the 5.7 achieve very high mileage with the engine untouched. Hopefully we can find some commonality, or hopefully it’s just being overblown (ie more extreme/difficult cases are taking their trucks to Carcarenut rather than their local shop).

 

Middle Eastern markets have the lower temp one as well, I believe Mishimoto is based off the same design.

I believe key here is following the maintenance schedule, honestly at 50k miles/3yrs flush, its really not much to ask.

 

Funny how this blew up overnight.

 

I watched the video and he has some conflicting info, but he is speculating as to the the cause of failure and assuming there is actually a common issue. If I'm to throw my supposition in to the ring, I would guess that it has more to do with cold driving/warm up than a manufacturing issue or design error.

My theory, in short, is that the block and head are expanding at dissimilar rates without time for equalization - equalization being the issue, not the dissimilar expansion since that's what the multi-layer steel head gasket is for.

I see two failure-inducing modes: 1) running a cold motor hard without warmup; and 2) short trips in cold weather. For example, people who travel short distances in high traffic areas (i.e. - more populated areas; I believe he said he's just outside of Chicago) that see cold temperatures and/or large temperature swings need to hammer down on the throttle on a cold motor to merge in to traffic. If it's cold outside, I would think the block is going to hold more heat in cylinders 5 and 7 as 5 is in the middle of motor, 7 is up against the firewall on the side of the engine bay that is more cluttered with battery, steering, brakes, etc that limit airflow. Also, both are further from the radiator, fan, water pump, etc than the front cylinders with less airflow than the passenger bank. The front cylinders are cooled faster during the warmup process and cool faster after shutting down the motor.

Without running the vehicle to full warmup, the block and head aren't able to equalize. Hammering hard on a cold motor would cause that expansion to be more uneven as well. Mr. Sweers noted something about hammering on a cold motor in an interview; I think he said it was ok to use the throttle, but not to floor it. I may be misremembering.

Either way, my theory is that the motors he is seeing is due more to localized weather, traffic patterns, and driver behavior. That is the commonality between them, not a design flaw. Trucks with high mileage motors typically see sustained steady speeds for some period of time rather than frequent short trips. This would lend credence to my supposition. My three cents..

 

I saw this years... years ago and forgot about it entirely. A deluge of ocean jokes

 

just do a coolant flush it’s like $60 and a half hour if you can do yourself