looking for advice regarding head gasket

Getting another two years out of the car will be no problem with just the headgasket job. If you want to have the car for another 5-10 years though your high MPG pistons and rings are gonna start burning oil and I'd recommend http://www.skimmilkhybrid.com/ in Oklahoma. He rebuilds all the problems out of Gen3 engines for a very reasonable price.

 

sounds like a lot of money for a couple years, but there's a difference between $2,300. and 4k, plus the quality of the repair.
otoh, you could fix it, sell it, and use the money towards a newer car.

 

If you go through with repairs, it’d be prudent to clean the EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation) system too, including the EGR passages in the intake manifold. It’ll be severely clogged with carbon; It’s my conviction that it’s the culprit in this all too common scenario.

more info in my signature (on a phone turn it landscape to see signatures)

how’s the oil consumption? That’s another factor to consider, when deciding how to deal with this engine.

 

(Very first thing: This is the subforum for the gen5(2023-27). You might want to repost or have this moved to the gen3(2010-16) subforum to get a wider range of responses.)


The most important questions are:
What's the current overall condition of the car?
and:
How well have you taken care of it over the last 14 years?

What have you been doing for oil changes? 6m/5k, 1y/10k, something worse? Have you used good quality oil and filters or the cheapest? How about coolant changes? Have you done 5y/50k or have you gone longer? Transaxle fluid replacement; has it ever been done? Have you regularly checked your HV battery cooling fan filter and kept it clean?

And what's the condition of the body? Any rust, damage from accidents, peeling paint, etc.? How's the interior? Are the seats torn, headliner sagging, big scratches or burns on the plastic? Have you had the suspension, brakes, engine mounts, etc. checked recently and what're their conditions? Even consider the condition of the tires. Are you going to need new ones soon or do you have years left on them?


See, if you've taken care of it well and the car is perfect other than the head gasket, then it's probably worth getting fixed. But if you've done 10k mile oil changes(or worse), never replaced the coolant, never replaced the transaxle fluid, the body is showing signs of rust, and your seats are torn, then it's probably not worth it. Or if it only needs a head gasket now, but you get it inspected by a trusted mechanic and it's got a bunch of other stuff(struts, brakes, other major powertrain work) that's just about to go, then it might not be worth fixing.

When you start getting into situations where the cost of the repair comes close to the value of the vehicle(especially on older cars), the overall condition of the car becomes the most important thing. Don't drop $3k-$4k or more on a car that's going to need another $2k next year, $5k the year after that, $1k six months after that, etc.


At least that's my $0.02. Take it with exactly that much value.

Here's a video on this general topic from someone that works on dozens of Toyotas each week:

 

I expect the range of cost is because the mechanic won't know if the head/block is warped until they get it off. If the head and block are still within spec, then it's just a new gasket and button it up. But if something is warped, then those parts need to go to a machine shop to be fixed before it goes back together. It's bad enough if the head is warped, but if the block is warped, it really shouldn't be reused. Machining an aluminum, open deck block is not a great idea. And sanding it while it's still in the car is probably an even worse idea.

And if the mechanic pulls the head and sees major scoring on the cylinder walls(very possible at 220k miles if the owner has been doing 10k oil changes and the rings are locked up), then it's really game over for the block. In fact, I'd want the cylinders boroscoped to check for possible scoring before spending any more money on it. Putting a new head gasket on a scored block is the definition of putting lipstick on a pig.