1994 toy head gasket

Hello,

I was involved in RCRC for a little while a few years ago; some of you might remember me.  I have a red '94 toy xtra cab (22RE).  The reason I'm writing now is I am hoping some of you Toyota experts out there might be able to shed some light on my problem!

Last Thursday I noticed the truck was getting a bit hot when sitting at a stop light (it would go back to normal temp when I started moving).  Since the thermostat seems to need replacing about every 3 years, and it had been 2.5 years since the last one, I figured this was the problem.  Coolant level was good.  So, I had the thermostat replaced last Friday.  Temp was good driving home (40 miles).

Saturday, I drove back into Huntsville and temp was good until I had been driving about a half hour, when it suddenly overheated in a big way.  The check engine light came on, it boiled over, etc.  After it cooled down I added water to the radiator and drove it to my destination (about 10 miles) with temp OK.  Later though, I couldn't drive it home because it was getting hot again.  (To me, this seemed symptomatic of a bad thermostat.)  I had to have it towed.  Now it is in the shop and they are telling me the head gasket is blown.

Other history: on a trip to Colorado at Christmas, the fuel economy was bad (as low as 12mpg) and performance was poor.  I discovered later that the air cleaner was very dirty and thought this was the culprit.  With a new air cleaner the truck seemed to perform better, but I haven't driven it enough since then to know for sure.

My questions are:

- Would it be "normal" for this truck to have head gasket problems at 165K?

- Does anything I have mentioned here (performance, fuel economy, running hot) indicate that this problem may have been developing for some time?  (I.e., could it have been a head gasket problem from the start, and not a thermostat problem?) Or did the head gasket perhaps get blown when the truck overheated last Saturday? (I.e., it was only the thermostat to start with, the new thermostat was defective, and the subsequent overheating caused the head gasket problem?)

I know you can't actually answer these questions, but any info that helps me understand the situation better would be most appreciated!

Thanks!

--angela

Hey Doc (should I call you Doc)? --  Thanks for your reply!  It helps a lot to know that this is not an uncommon thing.  (I've been grinding on the thought that this happened only because I let it overheat one time.)  But jeez, I hope the new one lasts way past 208K!!

--angela