I've got a 94 80 Series Landcruiser. Owned it for about 14 months. 4.5L straight 6 known for headgasket problems. Checked for white smoke,. oil in coolant or vice versa when I bought it 14 months ago. No evidence of problems. A month later headgasket failed. White smoke (steam) and smell of hydrocarbons in coolant overflow tank. Had a local Toyota indy replace the headgasket. It had failed at cylinder 6--typical failure point. One year and 7k miles later I've got white smoke again. Virtually certain it's getting coolant in the cylinders again since the smoke is very moist. My wife drives it, and I became suspicious and began looking more closely about a month ago when I noticed the coolant overflow tank low by a couple of inches.
Not sure what course of action to follow. I'm going to take it back to the shop that fixed it to confirm the failure. (I can't smell hydrocarbons in the overflow tank). But I'm not sure whether I should get the headgasket replaced again. Two failures in one year is not a good record. Any advice out there.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Did you had them shave the head at a machine shop? Maybe the head just needs to be re-torqued?

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1979 Black on Black, 300CD (sold), 1990 Black 300SE, Silver 1989 Volvo 780, 1988 300CE (vanished by the hands of a girlfriend), 1992 300CE (Rescue).

It should have been re-torqued after about 1k miles.
The head maybe warped. replacing the HG is often just a quick fix. Need to always find out why it failed in the first place.

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Grumpy Old Diesel Owners Club group

I no longer question authority, I annoy authority. More effect, less effort....

1967 230-6 auto parts car. rust bucket.
1980 300D now parts car 800k miles
1984 300D 500k miles
1987 250td 160k miles English import
2001 jeep turbo diesel 130k miles
1998 jeep tdi ~ followed me home. Needs a turbo.
1968 Ford F750 truck. 6-354 diesel conversion.
Other toys ~J.D.,Cat & GM ~ mainly earth moving

When the head was removed was it checked at a machine shop for cracks? Once I have an overheat, that is the first thing I will do

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01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

It was never overheated to my knowledge. The shop checked the head before replacing the headgasket. Why did it fail?? All 80 Series Landcruiser headgaskets will fail eventually. It's just a question of when. Almost all fail at the back cylinder. Inadequate Toyota engineering.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

There's your answer.

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1979 Black on Black, 300CD (sold), 1990 Black 300SE, Silver 1989 Volvo 780, 1988 300CE (vanished by the hands of a girlfriend), 1992 300CE (Rescue).

I know purists will cringe, but have you tried some alumaseal? I have a 1986 F350 with a 6.9 diesel that I put 100,000 miles on after blowing a headgasket by dumping some alumaseal in the radiator whenever the coolant started leaking out of the back of the head! At first I did it just to get the truck home, and like a lot of "temporary" fixes I figured what the hell, I'm living on borrowed time anyway so lets see how long it lasts. After an additional 100k miles and about 3 more alumaseal treatments at 330k total miles I have finally retired the truck, but only because the valve stem seals are so shot it is burning a quart of oil every 50 miles. Could be worth a try on the landcruiser,

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1984 300TD 1981 240D

If it was leaking out the side of the block I'd think of it but it's leaking into the combustion chamber I think since I'm getting steam.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

I don't remember if I was getting any steam, but I definitely had oil in my coolant. No water in the oil that I ever could tell though.

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1984 300TD 1981 240D

A quick search on IH8MUD indicates that the newer OEM HGs are a bit more robust, so I'm guessing that the shop either used an inferior version, didn't install it properly, or your head needs a good going over. ARP also sells a stud kit according to the post I read.

Studs are certainly the way to go. Much more reliable clamping force. Solved a lot of HG problems on VW motors and turbo motors. And yeah, make sure the head is crack free, dead flat and that it has the correct combustion chamber volume.

But the PO could have had this problem and left it too long and fixed it but didn't do it right.

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01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

OK, I drove the thing to school today and when I got here, the smoking/steaming was gone. Now I'm suspicious about my diagnosis. Was I just seeing condensation at colder temperatures before the exhaust system warmed up? I made sure to warm up the engine fully yesterday when inspecting it and it was still steaming warm then. I also compared the exhaust on the Cruiser with the exhaust on my Sidekick and the Sidekick (although recently having been driven home from work by my wife) had no exhaust smoke at all. Or, did driving it under load expand metal enough to seal up whatever was leaking into the combustion chamber? I guess I'm going to have to drive it for a while and keep a very close eye on the coolant level.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

I once had a trans that hesitated. Took it for a fluid change and we saw crud in the pan. Clean fluid later and it ran like a champ. Broke down 500 miles later in a city 400 miles away and left me stranded.

Best way to do it is to pressurize the cooling system and see what it does. Get it tested and also do a leakdown test

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01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

Test the oil if you want to know for sure, coolant will show up if the engine is burning it.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200