The Car Care Nut talks UR V8 blown head gaskets (11 Viewers)

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I can't help but wonder if the blown gaskets are more a function of the engine with an overheat history or if this is truly "just" a coolant issue. We are all very well aware of the achilles heel radiator, valley coolant leaks, and potentially heater T's. All of these, left unchecked, will result in an overheat. Expansion during an overheat could force coolant into places to normally doesn't go and start a slow degradation of the materials in the head gaskets.
 
My truck is a 2018 w 62k. I was aware of the 100k coolant change interval (1st time). I was not aware of the 5 year part, guess "Life Long" was stuck in my head kind of like the ATF statements some dealers make.

I have some test strips arriving today.

I'll probably replace my coolant this weekend, cheap insurance if it anyway helps prevent a blown gasket. I've been very proactive with the other fluid changes so why stop here. It's a pretty easy job based on what I have read and the FSM is pretty clear on what to do.

Guess the coolant flush threads in the 200 section will start seeing more action.
 
In general not only Toyotas.
Hearing it from the horse's mouth, Victor Reinz is a well respected company. They do mention different causes for coating to flake off. If coolant was the cause of this failure, I would expect to see more spots flaking off. They state episodes of overheating to be another cause. Most of the time you see coating flaked off from the back cylinders, even on non MLS gaskets you see the back cylinders as the failure point. The back cylinders are the farthest away from the radiator and water pump, and they're the ones will get less coolant running through them when the coolant level gets lower. Creating a hotspot. Here is a link to Victor Reinz

 
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This "problem" is way overblown.

The UR and most all Toyota engines are as reliable as they come.
 
28,879 miles, 70% of those are towing on and off road.

Based on this test result, I’ll likely wait to drain and fill the radiator. I have the fluid on the shelf but I don’t feel like it’s necessary at this point. We have a big trip in December, I’ll retest then.

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I really don't know what a long coolant interval is on these since most 200's had a defective radiator that popped after 100k and was replaced along with the coolant. This probably also contributed to the valley plate leak which probably overheated the head. Considering all the tundras and sequoias still out on the road and we haven't heard about a ton of headgaskets I would say this isn't as big of a deal as it's made out to be. If anything it should just let people know they cannot run the same coolant forever. 5 years or 50k sounds like a really smart idea.
 
I can't help but wonder if the blown gaskets are more a function of the engine with an overheat history or if this is truly "just" a coolant issue. We are all very well aware of the achilles heel radiator, valley coolant leaks, and potentially heater T's. All of these, left unchecked, will result in an overheat. Expansion during an overheat could force coolant into places to normally doesn't go and start a slow degradation of the materials in the head gaskets.

Any significant overheating (enough to cause mechanical damage to components) usually escalates quickly and as a result the damage occurs immediately. Essentially you either shut it down in time or you didn't.

It seems less likely that there's a common pattern consisting of a delayed chain reaction of minor overheats that are detected and fixed before they become major overheats (causing immediate damage), with the only ill effect of the cumulative minor overheats being an eventual BHG that doesn't surface until a hundred thousand miles later. But who knows?

In either case it still points to a possible durability issue with the engine.
 
Since we have couple of folks reporting blown head gasket issues in the forum. Can we create a poll to see how many of those experienced the following:
1. Engine overheating issues
2. Noticed Radiator leak which is not fixed for more than 6 months
3. Noticed Valley plate leak which is not fixed for more than 6 months.

May be this gives us some baseline, if the vehicles had any or all of these in their history or none.
 
If anyone does this please post your results with time and mileage on the coolant, as well as your typical use-case (IE, heavy towing, freeway vs city, hot or cold climate, etc.). This could end up being good data for others.
I have a 2016 LX570 and had the coolant changed at 100k. PH test was showing coolant getting too acidic. My driving is mostly city. Living in Utah it's both hot and cold. I haven't had any leaks or issues (knock on wood) the vehicle had a perfect service record going in every 5k miles and all services done.
Used oil analysis would alert an owner to a head gasket leak well before it became a problem for the block or head.. and a whole lot less invasive than changing head gasket as PM.

I'm approaching 210k.. I'll probably do one around there.
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You have to keep in mind your going to hear about more negative experiences than positive. In my opinion this is just him overhyping nonsense and spreading misinformation as I said in my earlier post that was not popular with the community 🤣
 
I have a 2016 LX570 and had the coolant changed at 100k. PH test was showing coolant getting too acidic. My driving is mostly city. Living in Utah it's both hot and cold. I haven't had any leaks or issues (knock on wood) the vehicle had a perfect service record going in every 5k miles and all services done.

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To be clear this picture was from your 100k mile coolant before being changed?
 
Sorry, yes this was prior to the coolant change.
No worries, that's really good data, and frankly backs up what the guy is saying about 100k coolant change interval.
 
cumulative minor overheats being an eventual BHG that doesn't surface until a hundred thousand miles later. But who knows?
And there really is no data or way to prove this, so indeed, who knows.
In either case it still points to a possible durability issue with the engine.
Not really. One popular youtuber says it and it points to a durability issue? For ever one head gasket leak there are 10000 others with +250k. This is not a trend, as an occurance
You have to keep in mind your going to hear about more negative experiences than positive. In my opinion this is just him overhyping nonsense and spreading misinformation as I said in my earlier post that was not popular with the community 🤣

I agree 100%.
 
And there really is no data or way to prove this, so indeed, who knows.

Not really. One popular youtuber says it and it points to a durability issue? For ever one head gasket leak there are 10000 others with +250k. This is not a trend, as an occurance


I agree 100%.

My question, which I posted on his channel as well. How come there are million mile tundras and other which use the same engine if this sounded like a wide spread problem. I heard of desert cruisers which they use for tourist sight seeing which have 500k Kilometers on them.
 
My question, which I posted on his channel as well. How come there are million mile tundras and other which use the same engine if this sounded like a wide spread problem. I heard of desert cruisers which they use for tourist sight seeing which have 500k Kilometers on them.
right, doesnt really sound like a trend to me.

Of course, LCs are abundant everywhere else on this planet, unlike the USA where it is 100 Suburbans to one LC. Wonder how people in those countries fair?

Could it be a contributiing factor, oil viscosity, or spec? Who knows.
 
You have to keep in mind your going to hear about more negative experiences than positive. In my opinion this is just him overhyping nonsense and spreading misinformation as I said in my earlier post that was not popular with the community 🤣

It's not nonsense or misinformation but I do think there is some missing information. It would be good to know the exact coolant change service history for the failed engines.

In the video we are told the failed 200 was taken care of by the owner and that it was his "baby". Does that mean it had the coolant changes done according to Toyota specs? (10yr/100k for the initial, every 5yr/50k after that)

TCCN's recommendation only differs from Toyota by cutting the initial coolant change in half. Implying the initial extended change interval is the problem? I wouldn't be surprised if many folks are (also) ignorant of the switch to 5yr/50k changes after the initial change and they are waiting another 100k to change it a 2nd time.
 
My question, which I posted on his channel as well. How come there are million mile tundras and other which use the same engine if this sounded like a wide spread problem. I heard of desert cruisers which they use for tourist sight seeing which have 500k Kilometers on them.
He had to make it sound widespread because "Here's a quasi rare Toyota problem" doesn't generate the clicks.
 
I have a 2017 with 112k miles. Car was dealer maintained with oil changes every 5k miles as shown on the Lexus app. If the 100k service was performed, I'm assuming they coolant was flushed per the schedule.

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I’d verify with the dealer exactly what was done. It’s not unheard of to have dealers skip things and/or do extra cost things not needed.
 

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