I am looking at 1992 Isuzu Trooper for sale with 195k miles on the odometer, and in the past year, the head gasket was replaced as it was beginning to leak. I thought that was reasonable for its age, but the owner said after about 2000 miles (mostly highway), it's in need of a new gasket. Does anyone know what could be wrong? I don't believe it to be from negligence, as the gasket was replaced during a service, not a repair. I don't know if this is a common issue or not, but needing to replace a head gasket within a year is unusual for any car.

 

If the car suffered a major overheating issue there is a possibility that the head was warped or deformed, in which case the head is not compressing the gasket evenly. A decent shop should be able to mic the head and resurface it if necessary. Is it possible that the head was improperly torqued during the last install?