Steel seal?

My little dude's 99 4Runner v6 has a coolant consumption problem. 1 inch lower in the expansion tank for a tank of gas. If it sits for a few days big white smoke. I assume we have a head gasket issue, as we had a little overheating incident in the fall. Wishful thinking has not fixed it. He needs the truck to go to training with the Air Guard for a couple months before we have any time to actually fix the heads/gaskets. 
 

So- internets say steel seal sorta works? They have a warranty, I guess. Any experience, or other band aid recommendations?  The radiator, while not currently leaking, is the original, and we already have an oem replacement for when we actually fix the heads/gaskets. 
 

Appreciate the help as always. 
 

BR. 

Not for me.

The scenario you described is an easy one. Every tank of gas pop the hood and add top up the bottle. I'd avoid putting some product into your system than may clog it up. Nurse it along until you can take the time to repair it properly.

You are the voice in the back of my head. 

I agree with Eddie, but I also recommend doing a little diagnosis. Maybe do a compression check, also see if any of the spark plugs come out wet? It's likely you've warped/lifted a head rather than blew out a gasket. The proper fix probably involves a bit of machine work, but if you're lucky it's probably only one head.

We will do that as well. Just hoping it holds for another couple thousand miles until we can get it fixed properly. 
Are there any good sources for exchange heads? It would be nice to make this a one day project when it comes to it. 

I drove my E36 for 5 years and ~3000 miles adding coolant every tank of fuel. Was getting about 500mpg of coolant! Got me by until I could afford to have it fixed this year.

Have you checked the torque on the head bolts?  If you are lucky retorquing the head bolts might temporarily fix it or slow it down some.  

I have used BlueDevil before successfully. Follow the directions exactly. That engine was still sealed up when it went down the road a couple of years later. 

Avoid any mechanic in a bottle fixes for a vehicle you are not immediately selling to someone you don't know.

There is no bandaid for a bad cooling system.

Fix it now and test it before tripping it. You can thank me later.

Alumnaseal fixed a 22R that froze and had a visible external crack.

My 3.0 4 Runner received fresh heads due to a burnt valve, the head torque sequence involved a breaker bar and three foot pipe for the last 90 degrees.

Also found an extended warranty card in the glove box for factory head gaskets up to 100,000 miles, they had issues.

lf you plan a full tear down and proper fix later, a little extra crud to clean out would the the worst.

K-Seal has worked for me in the past.

Update: the boy came home after 7 months of boot camp and tech school and it has been so awesome. Love your kids while you have them! 
 

The 4Runner came out of paint the day after he arrived and it was a great surprise. Almost overheated on the first two miles driving home. Filled 'er up and go it home. Had to get a new battery also, fer gods sake. 
 

He drove it around for a whole week and it used about 1/2 inch of coolant. Topped it up and drove from our house to PT Mugu on Wednesday and used 1/4" of coolant. Topped up, did a couple days on base and headed back north- same result. About 400 miles each way. It seems like if it gets warm it doesn't really use much. The around town stuff uses much more per mile. I think we are going with the 'check it when you fill gas' method until he has a few weeks to get the heads machined. Still haven't had the chance to check for steam cleaned spark plugs yet as I have been flying a lot this month. 
 

Sigh. My son got the "do it right" mantra from the Air Force. We pulled the heads yesterday (what a b!tch of a job!) and took them to the machine shop today. Prognosis is two cracked heads. Or- one cracked and both failed pressure test. They want to replace them with new castings for 1400 total. 

We struggled with analysis paralysis for a couple hours after the call- worrying about putting good heads on an old block with 250k. 'Low mileage' JDM motor locally is 2400. We've already done water pump timing belt, seals etc. Went to look at the motor still in the truck- still has crosshatching at 250k. We decided to go for the 'new' heads and roll the dice with a known quantity short block that doesn't use oil and hasn't shown any bad signs. Oil like honey after 5k. 
 

Wish us luck. 

Do it right, do it once.

I seem to recall there were head gasket issues on those V6 Toyota motors

I think the head gasket issues were mostly with the (related) 3.0 from the 89-95 models. But my boy overheated this one pretty good and I think this damage is from that. 
 

The big question we asked ourselves is what is fixing it "right"? New heads or 'low mileage' engine? We went with new heads. I guess worst case is new short block at some point, but he sure is learning about fixing cars. It will make C-130's look easy. 

Good luck with the repairs. My best friend learned a lot about fixing things the right way while he was in the Air Force. 

New heads on a known to be maintained motor makes more sense to me than the mystery motor out of a wrecked vehicle, particularly if the cylinder bores look good

My oldest is in Tech school at the moment, he left for Basic July 5th and won't be home until Dec 15th or so.

Awesome man! My kid came back such a grown up, independent dude. I wasn't ready for the transition to happen so quickly. He left last December 15th and wasn't done until July. 

Took the heads to a machine shop a week ago- one is cracked all the way across the face. The other isnt as bad but my kid just decided to spend some of his hard earned money on two new castings.  $1400 now. Plus the 350 for the deluxe head gasket kit. So.... 

I'll keep adding to the saga. We replaced the heads and installed them with much pain and blood. The smog guy didn't pass us because the dipE36 M3 who installed the supercharger put the wrong EO sticker (for the 96-98 approval, not the '99 approval for the same kit). Bought a new sticker and hopefully that satisfies him. Misfire on cylinder 6 is the obd code also. So I checked and replaced plugs, wires, and coil packs. We had the injectors cleaned and tested. After having a couple leaks because of pinched o rings (son is learning), get them in.

 Code persists. Finally broke down and borrowed a buddy's compression tester this evening. #6: 150. Win. Why don't we check 2 and 4. #4: 90. 120 with oil. #2: 90. 100 with oil. 
 

Haven't checked the other bank because I'd have to remove the intake tube again, and frankly not sure it's even worth it. 
 

Sigh. 

Weighing long term options, but in keeping with the original spirit of this thread, anyone have any low compression snake oil advice to limp it until we get another short block?