Blown head gasket?

Hello all, I am wondering if anyone can help me diagnose this problem I’m having. My AC compressor went out about a week ago and I’m going to get that changed. As I was inspecting everything else I checked my radiator fluid reservoir and saw that it was low. I proceeded to open my radiator and saw it was low there too. Yikes! Should be on that more often. So I grabbed some prestone mix and filled it back up because I didn’t want to run it dry. I drove it for a couple days while waiting for my Toyota red coolant to come in. As I go to check it now it looks all milky/thick like soft butter! I’m afraid it’s the headgasket but I’m hoping maybe it’s because I mixed the red and the prestone? Can anyone confirm or guide me to a diagnosis? I attached a picture of my dipstick, my oil doesn’t look milky but sure looks like it needs an oil change as well.

whatever that is it seems like it’s mostly floating to the top and collecting there.

Truck has 224k and just had a radiator flush last year. No leaks that I have noticed. It does burn a bit of oil and does have a small exhaust leak. Truck doesn’t over heat stays at a good running temp. I commute about 100 miles a day. TIA

 

Check your atf. Coolant mix with atf if it's an automatic. That's a possibly

 

mhhh peanut butter.


that very well could be engine oil and coolant mixing but could also be atf, ide drain your oil and look for anything out of the ordinary

 

That is a classic symptom of head gasket leak. But to be sure check your transmission fluid level and color. To me it looks like oil leaking into your coolant so I would say head gasket leak..... Check your oil and see if it is milky as well. It may also smell different.

 

Apologies for the ignorance? What am I looking for exactly? To see if the ATF is low? If the ATF is also looking milky?

Drain the engine oil or ATF? Again apologies for the ignorance. This is the reason why I am asking.

 

It's your vehicle is an automatic, the radiator is known to crack between the radiator and atf cooler. Verify if your atf is still good

 

engine oil sorry, that would be my first go to since is easy to do

 

Ok, so just checked my ATF. Does not look red anymore. Really dark....oil?? Doesn’t look milky for sure. Definitely dirty at least. What do you guys think?

 

Looks like the 4Runner pink milkshake.

That's a good sign that your transmission has been overheated. When I bought my truck, I didn't realize how bad the transmission was abused and thought it was ok, maybe needed a flush. Turns out my trans was completely screwed and I paid almost $3k for a fully rebuilt one, new torque converter and warranty.

I'd recommend figuring out if you do have the pink milkshake ASAP.

Either way, I'd recommend stopping by an ATRA shop for an inspection https://www.atra.com/shopfinder

 

Also, the gauge on the dash really isn't a good gauge of your real temperatures.
Are you relying on this or are you watching the actual temperatures over ODBII with a ScanGauge, UltraGauge, or other device?

 

Uff! I hope this is not it! Its a 2wd and I don't tow anything or load anything on it at all. To me it looks like its just a top layer by the cap. Guess I will have to flush it and go from there.

 

I am going just based on my dash gauge. I do not have any other gauges to measure this.

 

Good luck if its a HG. Im at 125k miles and the PO mustve overheated the truck before dropping it off at the dealer. One blown hg and cracked cylinder head later for 3k installed. I had no milky fluids and even a negative block test bc my coolant was going the other way of urs out the exhaust

 

I had a rough idle on hot starts and missfire above 4k rpms with coolant loss. No other symptoms. Chased it for months with coil, plugs, and injector finally deducing it was the hg

 

$3k...hmm would you say it was worth it? Any further issues? I've had my truck now for around 8 years and its at 224k. I just don't want to start replacing part after part on it. (money pit). If I had 125K probably a no brainer but im at almost double that.

 

If u have a hoist and a couple days to do it u can save urself half that cost. I didnt have either so i paid for the labor. Problem is, if ur hg went u need to have the head checked for warping or cracks and determine if it can be resurfaced or u need a new one too. I got a new oem head from toyota for 1.2k of that price. Id say as long as ur block and bottom end is stout that youd be fine and worth it to re do ur top end.

 

For example if u do ur top and not ur bottom if its decent ur not gonna break that next and one into another if ur worried about that. Others can chime in too

 

Unfortunately I am not a DIYer like that to tear my engine apart and change the head gasket myself. I guess I will be looking into getting it into a shop and if they can diagnose this for me. I will keep the thread updated on what happens next. Thanks for the input guys. Might have parts available lol

 

Drain oil & ATF into clear glass containers. Let it sit and see if water drops out. This may take overnight.

Drain the cooler and again let it separate. This should tell you what the contaminant is.

If ATF check radiator cooler. If oil it could be either head gasket or the oil cooler if you have one.

The block leak check as mentioned can sometimes be inaccurate but is still a very good test to run.

If you do let the fluids separate. Post photos.

 

I would suggest replacing your radiator with the Denso on Amazon,

$168 Denso 221-3138 Radiator

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0096BA8Z6?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

flush your engine well, make sure to do it with the old radiator before swapping as to not flush any of that sludge into the new radiator.
Then drain and refill your transmission, and drive it for a little and drain and refill. My truck has the the pink milkshake from previous owner. I’ve put 13k miles on it plus whatever the previous owner put on it, started slipping so I added a bottle of Lucas slip trans stuff and it’s been fine since.

Wether it’s a head gasket or pink milkshake, that maintenance should be done. And if you take it to a mechanic and they say it’s a head gasket, I would ask for proof of a compression test to see the psi of each cylinder and a leak down test.