Broken head gasket. Worth fixing?

[Normenvanamersfoort Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Normenvanamersfoort]

120 serie 4 cylinder 3.0 turbo diesel.

the head gasket is blown, no question about it. Although it never over heated my mechanic tells me I should replace the engine. I never had a turbo diese before and I have replaced headgaskets a few times. And the cars were always fine after that. This guy reckons that this is not the case with turbo diesel.

he recommends a refurbished engine. Aka 6900 dollars plus labour. He says in some/most cases you can’t even get the head machined and you end up spending money trying that first, and than still end up replacing the whole lot.

what are your thoughts? Try to fix the head and get rif of the car? Bite the bullit and replace engine?

anyone wants to buy a prado?

[Leethal Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Leethal]

My first thought is find another mechanic, second thought is same as the first.
If you apply his logic to the reconditioned engine then how or what was done to the cylinder head?

I would not be replacing the engine just because of a blown cyl head gasket, to help with responses how many kms has it done? is it a D4D? Have you had any other engine issues? The full picture is needed to get any sort of informed advice.

It is possible to buy a new cyl head for a 1KZ which might be the best option but again more information is needed.

Lee

[carco Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close carco]

I think you'd have a 1KZ as your car is 2003?
Quite common to crack their head although not so much in the 120, more so the 90.
Can get an AMC complete head and that will quickly have her running again. Google search SMS diesel spares.
Don't try to repair etc your old head, simply not worth the hassle as for sure another crack will appear.
Once she's going, check your viscous fan hub as that's the usual reason they crack heads.
Engine overheats and by the time the heat gauge is in the red she's cooked.
You could go the complete engine route as an engine that's been cooked will always be down a tad on compression, rings lose their tension. But it could be overcapitalising.
Mine was absolutely roasted and after her new head, she still pulled well, used no oil etc.
Make sure you have a trusted mechanic !!!!

[RedAdventureWagon Member Find all posts View Profile Close RedAdventureWagon]

Repair I'd say - surely that's gotta be cheaper. $6900 (plus 1k odd for other stuff you'd get done at the time) that's a fair chunk of another comparable model (or maybe a whole 90 series).