Gen 3, 170,000 miles, purchased from first owner, dealer serviced. Started cold start shakes, replaced EGR valve with OEM, cleaned intake manifold, new spark plugs. Fitted remote oil catch tank with PCV valve in vertical position in breather hose to catch can.Coolant level constant over 2,000 miles. Motor shudders on 5th or 6th start up. Made enquiries re head gasket replacement by an independent, suggestion was replace the motor with a "good' used one. That does not make sense to me, a replacement engine could be inferior to what I have now. I have the garage, tools and mechanical experience to replace a head gasket but my old body does not like that much bending! So, no warning lights on, ceep watch onthe coolant level? If I decide to get the head gasget replaced I am ok with going out of my area to a reputable repair shop, any suggestions, I am in the birmingham area of Alabama. Thank you for this informative forum.
I think I saw once where they figured out this was due to cold air entering somehow. I truly do not remember the details, sorry.
You're at the mileage where all the fun starts You need to bone up and read up throughout this forum at least and you should come to the conclusion that this is not a game you want to play especially in Birmingham Alabama. This is getting to be an old car in that area resale is non-existent practically so there's always that this is not really a keeper car unless it's forced upon you to do so because of financial situations or whatever I would get out right now some people have trouble with that.
oem plugs from a dealer? it's probably a very tiny head gasket leak that could take a long time to start seeing coolant drop. keep your eye on it, you don't want to overheat, then you will have to replace the engine
In case you mechanic doesn't have Techstream access or equivalent, see the bottom links in my signature (if on a phone turn it landscape to see signature), some relevant links, info, Repair Manual excerpts. The last link is the full engine section, which should have all the head gasket relevant info. I'd recommend to get Toyota's full gasket kit (04111-37315), and new head bolts (90910-A2011, 10 reqd if I'm not mistaken?) . My 2 cents, the only way to avoid this is a full stem-to-stern clean of the EGR system, every 50K. Others may be along shortly, to explain where I err.
For what its worth, I had a head gasket issue and instead of pulling the head I opted for a JDM engine for $1200 that came complete with throttle body, water pump, ac compressor, etc. These engines generally have about 40 - 60k miles on them. $1500 later (I did the work), the car ran great again and has gotten at least 100k more miles since replacement.
