After doing all the cooling system work and making the car happy, it was running good. Thats when the had gasket decided it was time to go.

No. 6 cylinder is obviously shot. Now the question. Would you just do the one side or both? Money is tight. The car was running great before the gasket let go so I'm really torn.

I'm on the way to the machine shop now to get his opinion but I was curious what others have done or would recommend.

I suggest doing both. You are going to need to buy a gasket kit, which will include everything needed to do both heads. If the bad head needs to be surfaced, it would be a good idea to have the other head surfaced to. It would also give you a chance to clean out the carbon in the heads. The main difference in cost should be just having the other head surfaced

One Other consideration, I would suggest replacing the valve stem seals, especially for the rear head. This is what causes the typical puff of smoke on startup.

Sorry to hear about your probs. Once you're done the repairs, I'd use some LC20 from Lube Control to help clean and maintain the engine, rings, and seals. Besides keeping the cooling system in top form, with the sludge issues the ES has had, I'd make sure the crankcase is well ventilated by cleaning/replacing the pcv regularly.

Thanks all. I pulled both heads and sent them off for resurfacing. I know its the right thing to do. The extra 65 bucks now verses another ten hours of labor if it breaks in a month.

It's geat when the answer is right there in front of you isn't it! Should be like that all the time!

Who makes the head gaskets for Toyota/Lexus? The machine shop I use and really trust says go with OEM on stuff like this but OEM pricing sucks.