Headgasket question

@rjparker posted this image not long ago in another thread. But I don't know the backstory.

 

Yes... There's also problems with the electric water pump for the engine. My friend who was the last Gen3 person I knew who didn't have symptoms of a blown head gasket because he was constantly getting coolant change, EGR cleaned and had a oil catch can had his water pump go bad and then the spare pump Toyota Stealership sold him went bad after a day and that's all it took for him to blow out the head gasket. He's the kind of dude that doesn't drive with warning lights too.

Craziest part is almost no one knows about this problem with Gen3 headgaskets and the dealerships won't address it at all when coolant is being lost and engine is running rough, only when the misfire codes show up.

 

It's not something you want to keep past 140 or 50K if you have a family and a life to live If you want to become a mechanic and do a bunch of work and still have to get another car to continue to work on this one or people taking you places then just try not to do it Read about it enjoy it and forget it this is not a car that makes you think things are worth keeping the interior trim is very cheap and everything is not so well but if you like it this is the thing you're going to be doing well we'll all be interested in reading about it I'm sure and see how long it takes and how many posts in a thread until you throw your hands up and say this is not the Toyota I signed up for some people it will take longer than others but that's with everything as Don Cornelius would say I wish you love peace and soul.

 

Personally, I don't think there's any relationship between the EGR system and headgasket life.

 

Do you still have a Gen 3?

 

I cleaned my EGR system about every 30-40k starting at 100k and blew HG at 220K, but it went right when I was due for a clean, and it was pretty clogged up. I want to think there's some validity to the EGR thing, but it's still conjecture.

I'd like to know who has the highest mileage without a blown head gasket, any 300K?

 

@ASRDogman made it to 300k before his blew, did regular EGR cleanouts. I'd be curious to know at what intervals he did the cleaning, and miles at the first cleaning.

 

Yes. ~110,000 miles, 2013. Doesn't burn oil and no catch can. 10K mile oil and filter changes but for the last two changes I switched to 5K miles.

I see plenty of folks reporting a headgasket failure in this subforum at around 250,000 miles that haven't ever cleaned the EGR system. That being said, I do recognize that the intake manifold has small EGR passages where there is uneven clogging depending on what cylinder. Since the intake manifold is a lot easier to clean, I may do that but won't do the much harder to access EGR cooler and wait till a CEL is set and deal with it then, if that ever even happens.

IMO, you're much more likely to get headgasket failure if you don't change your coolant or use substandard coolant, have water pump degradation/failure, or overheating, or drive in heavy traffic where the engine is put through a lot of thermal cycling. Gasket Masters says headgasket failure is caused by thermal cycling of the headgasket due to the hybrid design where the engine turns on and off all the time as opposed to a regular ICE engine that stays at a constant operating temperature.