replace head gasket or the entire enginee

I'm still quite confused on how this head gasket could have failed at under 100k miles. Most of the reported failures are well close to 200k miles.

Anyways, oil changes at 5000 miles or every year should be sufficient. No need to do 3500 mile oil changes when you're using synthetic oil.

I would monitor the oil level for the first couple thousand miles. Check after 1000 miles to make sure it isn't burning through the oil. If the engine truly has 60k miles, then the oil burning/usage should be minimal.

 

Wait a sec, are you thinking your odometer should be set back, to the miles of the donor car? That does kinda make sense, but that's not how it works. Or legal, lol.

That sounds about right, and maybe the smart money is to clean the EGR every 50K miles. My 2 cents, it's the clogged EGR that's doing in the head gaskets.

 

Don’t think so.

 

With the US version you could just run the VIN with carfax that is what I did when Hybrid Pit gave me three engines to choose from and I picked the one with the least amount of miles on it to rebuild.

 

The VIN is on the engine? That’s good.

 

Yes on the back of the engine on the passenger side.

 

Most salvage yards pull the vin plate. The JDM engines never had one.

 

That is not a vin. I would tell them you installed an engine in May 2022 which was reported to be xy miles. If you can honestly tell them it's not burning oil or leaking, do so. Obviously if it has a vin, run a carfax on it and give the report to them if it backs up the mileage. Most of this is for your benefit; eg to command a better price.




Engine Vin Plate

 

You’d need a boroscope with mirror view to get a clear pic of that VIN.

 

First, a JDM engine never had a vin. The year and low mileage claims are completely arbitrary. Most are early models with the flawed rings.

It escapes comprehension why members continue to be surprised about gen3 head gaskets from 2010-2014. The proof is some shops do several a week. Not all victims check in here first. It is a deeply flawed design and the egr is a red herring. Age and miles combined with poor oil change habits do them in. Toyota implemented the fix in mid 2014.

You can see the vin panel on non JDM engines from underneath with the panel off. Still, most salvage engines I have seen don't have them. I think they are either JDM engines (almost all ebay listings) or the salvage yard does not want you to know it was an early high mile engine. Many clearly have the rivets drilled out.

A few yards like LKQ will provide the car vin they came from. Unfortunately. Toyota's sales were large in 2010 decreasing fast as gas prices moderated. So the mid 2014 or 2015 engines are rare and still can be abused. Bottom line, a rebuild that updates the pistons is the smart solution.

 

The best solution is to buy a gen 4 engine and install it into a gen 3 car. Not all mechanics can do this, but the ones that can do it, this would be the best repair option.

A lot can go wrong on a rebuild so although changing to updated pistons and rings, the rebuild can still be much worse off than installing a lower mileage 2010 - 2014 engine.

 

I’m sceptical. Maybe both the EGR and earlier style rings contrib to head gasket failure, but I think the EGR clogging is the main factor. But who knows.

 

Exhaust cloggs the cooler, causing excessive back pressure, more pressure on the head gasket.
Any blow by from the weaker oil ring just adds to the exhaust gases, clogging the cooler.

 

There seem to be multiple overlapping theories as to the main factor. Are you totally discounting stresses due to thermal gradients? What about the head gaskets that fail on engines that don't use much oil, and have had meticulously cleaned EGR systems?

 

If the EGR cleaning is done with advancing miles, after head gasket failure symptoms have started, a case of too little too late?

@ASRDogman is around 260k miles on his 2010, on top of all this stuff, and it appears to have payed off.

 

271905, today.