Blown Head?

Just purchased a 2003 tundra SR5 3.4 with around 230k miles on it. Told these motors were bullet proof but now i’m concerned it may have a blown head gasket or cracked head. Seems that it seeps oil between the engine block and cylinder head that was cleaned before selling it but it doesn’t loose coolant. Looses a bit of oil without having an obvious leak where I park it. Any advice?

 

Tighten your valve cover bolts first before you panic. 10mm and just snug'em up. Doesn't have to sasquatched, or really torqued too awfully correct unless you're putting a new gasket in

 

Given you just purchased, first chance you get, blow that engine off or if semi cautious take a water hose to it. As @Tundra2 suggested, snug up all them valve cover bolts. Congrats on Best Gen purchase. If you don’t have a base line of whats been done to it lately, you’ve come to right place for suggestions


If you haven’t already, grab a bucket of patience and have a read….

https://www.tundras.com/threads/so-you-wanna-buy-just-bought-a-1st-gen-tundra-eh.115928/

 

That first pic just looks like spillage or leakage from the oil fill.

 

And it looks like it has the typical valve cover leakage. Sadly, there's no info on valve cover gasket replacement for the two different V6 they put in our trucks, but Bubba linked the thread @SunRunner34 needs to read to get the Service Manual, understand what the hell they just bought, and understand if there are bigger problems at play than the valve covers. These trucks have much bigger known issue.

 

^^^THIS^^^

These VC bolts will loosen over time. With the plenum on, you won't be able to get to all of them, but you'll get to most of them. Mine were so loose at one point that I could turn them by hand. The torque spec is very low. 108 in lbs which is like 9 ft lbs. Clean it all up with some brake clean after tightening and keep an eye on it.
Most likely it's your VC gaskets leaking. Here's a link to the parts list when I did mine. You won't need everything on this list, but everything for the 5VZ is in this list.
https://www.tundras.com/threads/1st-gen-lunch-table-general-discussion.60450/page-1984#post-3495496

https://www.tundras.com/threads/wha...-gen-tundra-today.2558/page-1913#post-3519185
https://www.tundras.com/threads/wha...-gen-tundra-today.2558/page-1914#post-3519783
https://www.tundras.com/threads/wha...-gen-tundra-today.2558/page-1919#post-3524815
https://www.tundras.com/threads/wha...-gen-tundra-today.2558/page-1929#post-3535095

Edit: This video was helpful https://youtu.be/N5fAXAuGozI

 

Bolts were definitely pretty loose. I just got done snugging them down and cleaning around it. I’ll keep an eye on it for now. Thank you for all the help. 1st gen community is strong I can see.

 

All these guys are on it!
It's a great thing

 

I've had the 3.4 for a long while, and the 4.7 for a short while.

 

Bulletproof is, of course, relative. No matter how good an engine is, there can be manufacturing or assembly flaws. And no engine, no matter how good, can stand up to years of abuse and neglect.

But yes, before you go to worst case scenario, see what the valve cover nuts do.

I had a Tacoma with the 3.4 and just sold it last year with 330,000 miles, still going strong. No major work. I have a friend with the same truck, less than 200,000 miles, plagued with problems. His was a ranch truck, did work meant for a full size, rarely got out on the highway - lots of stop & go.

 

I'm betting your engine is okay. You mentioned you were not losing coolant and didn't mention over heating. 20+ years on valve cover gaskets is pretty good. Don't go crazy if you tighten it or it will really leak.

Valve cover gaskets aren't too involved to replace on the 3.4, especially with Tundra engine bay space.