LX450 Potential Head Gasket leak / Cracked Head

[Miamedia]

I bought a well maintained ‘97 LX450 from a neighbor a few weeks ago. It has 188K miles, just had an oil change and it was running like a top before I took it to a local Midas yesterday for new belts (a/c, alternator and v-belt). Midas also replaced the fluid in both differentials and my transfer case with Valvoline 80W-90.

While driving back to my house from Midas yesterday, I noticed that the vehicle was rocking a bit, while at a stoplight. I continued to drive home and then the vehicle sat in my driveway for a few hours before I drove it roughly 3 miles before the check engine light came on and the engine sounded like it was missing while also rocking quite a bit.

I started to drive it to Midas this morning and I noticed the temp gauge jump from cold to hot in under two miles. Long story short, I immediately pulled over and had it towed back to Midas. The radiator had little to no coolant when it was towed into Midas. The technician filled it with coolant and ran the engine with the radiator cap removed; the coolant bubbled quite a bit. He then ran a head gasket test via the radiator and the fluid in the test kit changed from blue to yellow almost immediately.

-The oil dipstick shows full and the oil is very clean & honey brown in color.
-There was no sludge or water.
-The coolant looks bright green (previous owner had an after market radiator installed at 160K miles).
-There is no milky white residue on the underside of either the oil cap or the radiator cap.

I had the vehicle evaluated by three different mechanics before I purchased it.

Is this just incredibly unlucky or a bit suspect given that the vehicle melted down immediately after Midas worked on it? I had the vehicle towed to a local foreign car specialist in San Diego so I should know more tomorrow. Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[scottryana]

What is the check engine code?

I would check a few other things before trusting Midas on their diagnoses. Like plugs, wires, etc.

 

[Miamedia]

What is the check engine code?

I would check a few other things before trusting Midas on their diagnoses. Like plugs, wires, etc.

Midas did not give me an explanation on the check engine code. I had it towed to a local foreign auto specialist in San Diego, so I should know more tomorrow morning; I will post updates when I have more info. Thanks for your help!

 

[BILT4ME]

If the oil is clean, the coolant is clean, and it's not blowing massive amounts of smoke.......

Check the engine codes and post up. A local OReillys or such can run the codes for free.

Otherwise the shop needs to tell you ALL the codes.

If they did an oil change, look for disconnected wires at the distributor (Spark Plug Wires) or ignitor wires.

Someone jerked on something they shouldn't have.

 

[tplane2]

No digging, but don't ever take any of your vehicles to MIDAS again. Especially with so many solid Toyota specialists here in San Diego.

 

[NorCalFJ100]

Curious what the true diagnosis is...also if the radiator was empty where did it leak to? If you had a pre buyer inspection, they would've hopefully caught that. With a bad HG leak you would have a lot of white smoke upon start up.

 

[Miamedia]

No digging, but don't ever take any of your vehicles to MIDAS again. Especially with so many solid Toyota specialists here in San Diego.

Good point - I normally take my vehicles to Hi Tech Auto on Balboa, but they are not big fans of installing customer provided parts and I am picky about the type of after market parts I put on my vehicles as well as fluids, etc. But they are one of the better shops, so lesson learned on this one.

 

[Miamedia]

Curious what the true diagnosis is...also if the radiator was empty where did it leak to? If you had a pre buyer inspection, they would've hopefully caught that. With a bad HG leak you would have a lot of white smoke upon start up.

I am definitely seeing white smoke now upon start up, which I did not see prior to yesterday. Other than the missing coolant, the white smoke is the main symptom that I am seeing. I will post updates after I get a full report back from Hi Tech Auto in San Diego later today.

 

[BILT4ME]

If the test kit changed almost immediately, then, yes, it's toast.

May as well find a local Toyota specialist that the local LC group recommends.

 

[chap79]

There are a few good Toyota specific mechanics in the area. Also check out the local SD club houses for more advice.


Toyota Lexus Repair and Service Toyota Repair | San Diego, CA - San Diego Trux

CA- San Diego Cruisers

CA- Beach-n-Toys

 

[ariff]

One thing that helped me diagnose my bad HG and is an easy test you can do yourself. Remove the radiator cap and put a balloon over the cap hole. Start the vehicle if the balloon inflates that means the exhaust is leaking into the cooling system pointing to a bad HG. If it does nothing then it is a good indicator that there is nothing wrong with the HG. I could also smell a strong exhaust smell in my overflow tank as well as actual exhaust smoke in the overflow tank.. You can also look for bubbling in the overflow tank also pointing to exhaust gases in the cooling system. To be on the safe side I sent an oil sample to Blackstone to verify that yes there was signs of coolant in my oil. After I had all that info off came the head and gasket was replaced.. Good luck!

 

[Miamedia]

One thing that helped me diagnose my bad HG and is an easy test you can do yourself. Remove the radiator cap and put a balloon over the cap hole. Start the vehicle if the balloon inflates that means the exhaust is leaking into the cooling system pointing to a bad HG. If it does nothing then it is a good indicator that there is nothing wrong with the HG. I could also smell a strong exhaust smell in my overflow tank as well as actual exhaust smoke in the overflow tank.. You can also look for bubbling in the overflow tank also pointing to exhaust gases in the cooling system. To be on the safe side I sent an oil sample to Blackstone to verify that yes there was signs of coolant in my oil. After I had all that info off came the head and gasket was replaced.. Good luck!

Great advice. Really appreciate it. I am thinking the the head might be cracked - it's just weird that the vehicle was fine until I brought it to Midas and it started to act up on the way back from Midas to my house. I know with 188K miles on the engine, anything is possible, but I can't help but wonder if they removed a coolant hose to get to the belts, and did not clear the system of air when reattaching the hose. An Air bubble in the system could have cause the engine to overheat. Will find out more once the folks at Hi Tech take a look at the vehicle, hopefully at some point later this afternoon.

 

[Miamedia]

Quick update on my '97 LX450: the head gasket is indeed blown; coolant is leaking into cylinder #6. It is a bit of a bummer as I brought the vehicle to Midas in great condition, but it is what it is. There are probably a bunch of scenarios, but I just have to chalk this one up to bad luck.

The quotes I have received on a head gasket replacement have ranged from semi-reasonable to nuts. That said, I found a low mileage Toyota V-8 long block from the West Coast with a warranty -- will that thing bolt into my LX450? If yes, what types of modifications would I need to make? The engine will run me $1,200 and the installation is $600. I would have the mechanic put on a new water pump, radiator, radiator hoses and thermostat as well as a reman Toyota power steering pump (mine is after market and groaning). The total would be the equivalent to the lowest priced quote I have received just for a head gasket replacement. Thoughts? Thanks!

 

[Miamedia]

No go on the V-8 as my mechanic just told me I would have to change the transmission and a ton of other stuff. Was a good thought for about 3 minutes, though. I will keep looking for a replacement I-6 4.5L with low miles and if I can't find one, I will just bite the bullet and get the HG work done, with the head cleaned, polished, pressure tested + a valve job.

 

[ariff]

As someone that just did the HG last year I can say it was not as bad of a job as I thought. It was the first one I had ever done and I am glad I did it.. I learned a lot about the tuck and it was good satisfaction on a job well done.. But if you don't like working on these kind of things I guess it would be better to pay someone to do it for ya. There are lots of us here that have crossed this bridge and are willing to help out ;>)
Good luck on whatever you decide..

 

[Miamedia]

As someone that just did the HG last year I can say it was not as bad of a job as I thought. It was the first one I had ever done and I am glad I did it.. I learned a lot about the tuck and it was good satisfaction on a job well done.. But if you don't like working on these kind of things I guess it would be better to pay someone to do it for ya. There are lots of us here that have crossed this bridge and are willing to help out ;>)
Good luck on whatever you decide..

Thanks again for the advice. Changing a head gasket is a bit out of my wheelhouse, but hopefully I will have the skills to take on a job like this in a year or two. I also thought about dropping in a new engine, which still might be the way I go if I found out the block is cracked. Hopefully the head simply warped. Should know more next week.

 

[Miamedia]

What is the check engine code?

I would check a few other things before trusting Midas on their diagnoses. Like plugs, wires, etc.

There are a few good Toyota specific mechanics in the area. Also check out the local SD club houses for more advice.


Toyota Lexus Repair and Service Toyota Repair | San Diego, CA - San Diego Trux

CA- San Diego Cruisers

CA- Beach-n-Toys

I stopped into San Diego Trux and spoke with John. Wow - they have a cool shop, but he will only install a new head, which comes bare from Toyota for $1,700 before adding in all of the good stuff, so their minimum price for a head gasket replacement is $5K. If I had bought a lower mileage Land Cruiser, I would have John's shop do the work, but Hi-Tech will do the job for roughly $2k, which entails sending the head to a machine shop. Now if the head is cracked or the block is cracked, I am looking at spending way more, so will have to see how things look next week when I hear back from Hi-Tech.

 

[Pin_Head]

1. Take it back to your neighbor and get your money back?

2. Put a can of Bars leak head gasket repair in it.

 

[inkpot]

Cracked head is pretty rare. Cracked block is even more rare. Blown head gasket is fairly common.

 

[DSRTRDR]

and it shouldn't cost 5K