Steel Seal Blown Head Gasket Fix Repair Sealer - 8 Cylinder

Toyota 4.7L V8 225k miles. Was bubbling (not bad but definitely bubbling 1 good sized bubble every 2 or 3 seconds) w radiator cap off. Building pressure in cooling system, actually blew COLD antifreeze all over me one morning after sitting all night, and the next morning, I popped the radiator cap, and the whole system was pressurized and sprayed me, the engine compartment, and half of my garage with COLD antifreeze. While driving actually blew off top radiator hose off while the wife was driving it (that was the last straw, as you can imagine) as it left her stranded on the side of the interstate (with an almost dead phone battery, you can imagine how THAT conversation went). Heater wouldn't work, or would work intermittently and coolish/warm air at best. Definitely a head gasket issue. Tried everything because was in denial about head gasket leak. New heater core, flushed, flushed, flushed, reverse flushed, acid flushed, did I say FLUSHED the cooling system. Finally decided to "bite the bullet" and make the decision to face the music of it being a head gasket issue. Called a few buddies and inquired about replacing the head gaskets. Quotes came in anywhere from $1500 to $3000. Much more than I wanted to spend. Saw some good YT videos on this stuff, and figured, with everything else I tried, may as well take one more "hail mary" before I bite the bullet and spend the big money to fix it "right." So,I bypassed the heater core, because it was brand new and didn't want to take the chance of this stuff clogging it, and I took out the thermostat, drained the entire system and filled it with fresh water, and put in 2 bottles of this stuff. Ran it at idle in the garage for about an hour, the temp never did get above the middle of the gauge (its winter and outside temp was low 40s). Didn't want to risk anything (with everything I had been through) by driving it, so I just idled it. After I figured it was as hot as it was going to get,I decided to shut it off, let it cool down a bit, and put the thermostat back in and take it for a drive. So,I let it cool for about an hour, and then put the thermostat back in, filled it back to the brim w water, and drove around town, up and down hills, and stop and go traffic and everything looked good, no weird temperature fluctuations, needle stayed right in the middle of the gauge. Came home, let it cool over night, drained the water, refilled it w water, and hooked the heater back up, and drove for about an hour in stop and go and up and down hills and again, the temp gauge was perfectly stable and the heater worked great. Let it cool down again, drained all the water, and filled it to the brim w antifreeze, and the wife has been driving the kids around in her SUV like nothing ever happened ever since, and has been about a month and a half now and about 1500 miles, and there hasn't been any fluid loss in the reservoir, when I pop the radiator cap the antifreeze is right to the brim and absolutely no bubbles when its running, and I would have to say, in my case, IT WORKED. Only question now of course, is for how long? But, for now the bandaid is holding, it got me out of a pinch, got the wife and the kids heat again, and I'm pleased with the results.

the first time "steel seal" ever failed and it was a huge failure, Ive used this product in my other dodge durango'ss with the 4.7 and 5.9m engines with absolute awesome success!! this time, in my last 5.9 durango, i got 5 mi on the freeway, after I visually checked the coolant system, temp went into "over temp" I pulled over and shut down water was pouring out of the radiator cap, basically telling me I sti;ll had a head gasket issue... so bummed out,... seems I cant trust anyone or anything these days... seems no ones word is worth the toilet paper they wipe their asses with... O integrity...

Best $148.00 ever spent. If it last. I'm hoping for another 100,000 miles. I own a 2005 Tacoma 4x4 with 260,000 miles on it. The truck still runs great isn't overheating. We live in the rocky mountains where we have solid 5 months of snow. So keeping the Tacoma going is important. The head gasket replacement cost is around $4000 and up. I followed there instructions as close as I could. The only thing I could not do was unplug the #6 injector. I did remove the #6 spark plug. The bubbles stop showing up in the coolant reservoir. I drained the coolant. Filled it with distilled water and 2 bottles of Steel Seal. It had 260,000 miles on the antifreeze and probably what caused the head gasket to leak. I followed the "If vehicle is not roadworthy": After that I drove 20 miles. I was still getting bubbles in the coolant reservoir. I let it cool over night and drove it 32 miles to work. When I arrives I left the truck running and checked for bubbles. There were still bubbles in the coolant reservoir. I drove 32 miles home and checked for bubbles again while the truck was running. Still had some bubbles in the coolant reservoir. I drove 3 more times to work and back (64 miles) and finally the bubbles stopped. What I should have done to double check is use a burping kit to see if bubbles were still showing up. Anyway I drained the distilled water/Steel Seal, replaced the thermostat (did want the Steel Seal to muck it up) FYI the original thermostat looked amazing. Since I had a new Toyota thermostat I used it. I also changed the upper and lower hoses, new oem radiator cap. I used Toyota super long life antifreeze. I will update this review if something changes. Morally of the story. Follow the instructions and leave Steel Seal in the system for as long as you can.Update 4/26/24: Amazing! Still running great No bubbles or antifreeze leak. I have driven the Tacoma 17,000 miles in 10 months.Update 7/14/25: Still going strong. 284118 miles.