diagnosing bad headgasket

There are a few ways to check for a headgasket problem.

1) Check your antifreeze level...is it low? Is there oil in the fluid?

2) Check our engine oil. Is there a milk white substance on the dip stick?

3) Does your tail pipe continuosly shoot bright white smoke?

4) Check your spark plugs. They should all have a light brownish soot on them. If there is one that is really clean, you have a headgasket leak

5) Check your engine compression. This is so much easier than people make it out to be. You can buy a cheap one from your local auto parts store for less than 30 bucks. When you take your plugs out, plug the compression of each cylinder. If one cylinder is way low, you know you have leak.

What you're experiencing doesnt sound like a head gasket leak. Were you having this problem before the maintenance?

Tom

No smoke, no white sludge in the oil, antifreeze level is ok. I'll check the plugs and do a compression check.

Just bought the truck a few months back. I immediately flushed all oils with synthetic and changed antifreeze/thermostat. None of the fluids looked suspicious. Installed new oil sender and dash gauge. The low oil pressure when hot has been a problem from day one.

Haven't had time to drive it much - usually short trips of 15-20 minutes at a time on weekends. When I pull up to a stoplight, I have to heel and toe the gas pedal to keep up the revs or the oil pressure will drop too low. I really need to fix this......

or leave it alone. My 22RE oil pressure drops way down on the gauge once the oil gets hot but it's got 150k miles and is running fine. Ditto for my previous 22RE that I sold with 200k+ miles on it.

do a leak down test that should tell you where the leak is coming from.

Please excuse my ignorance - but - what is a leakdown test?

A couple of thoughts...

1. are your idle rpms too low?

1. have you checked with the previous owner to see if he had this problem? also ask him if he changed the oil regularly. If the engine was real dirty inside (rarely changed oil!) then your new oil would get dirty quickly. he might have been hiding the problem with very thick oil, in which case he probably won't remember ever having this problem...but still worth asking.

2. when you're driving at speed what's the oil pressure...is it normal (what's normal...does your gauge read in psi?) or is it also low. Oil pressure lights go on (and off) at fairly low levels, I remember aircooled VW's had a 6 psi trigger point and those were very heat sensitive engines. If your oil pressure is also lower than normal at speed then you want to look for the reason (worn oil pump, worn bearings, plugged passages).

1. find out if this type of engine has a history of this kind of problem...ask the shop foreman at the local Toyota dealership.

2. what happens when you're driving the car and the engine is hot, on the freeway at

60-70mph, and you take your foot off the pedal...does the oil light come on then? You don't want that to happen if the idle speed is normal.

You need as much information as you can get to figure out this kind of problem.

John