jonnybravo9
New member
I'm looking for advice on what to do with a potential blown head gasket or cracked head. I know this post is a little long but trying to give all relevant information.
I just traded for a 92 4runner that was 3.4L swapped from a 98. It came with the paperwork and the VIN from the donor vehicle was listed; I ran a carfax, and it looks like the thing had about 260K miles when they did the swap, plus another 20K driven in the new car.
I have been driving it for almost 3 weeks and it is white smoking progressively more. Exhaust smells of coolant. The smoke gets better/goes away as the engine heats up.
So far oil looks clean and I haven't lost significant coolant, although I only drive it about 5 miles every day. When I have driven it farther, the temp stays put mid range on the gauge (no actual numbers, just gradient). Truck has plenty of power and no rough running/idle.
So no, what steps to I take? I'm thinking leakdown test and maybe chemical testing exhaust+fluids to determine the exact point of failure. But at this point it's running great, can I just monitor the fluids and keep driving it? I do plan to go wheeling later this year, so getting stranded out in the boonies would really suck.
Now at the risk of getting ahead of the diagnosis, I've been looking into head gasket replacement vs. new/used engine swap. I'm pretty torn between engine swap vs top end repair. Like I said the engine is solid and powerful, so repairing the top end seems to be the logical move, but with close to 300K, does it make more sense to do a swap? My thinking below:
Top end rebuild: there is the risk of cracked heads, at which point I'm looking at another $1000ish, plus gasket kits, timing belt/water pump, this could end up costing close to $2000, plus probably a couple weeks of my time overall.
Engine swap: JDM engine zone has ~$2000K motors with <60K miles and a 4 month warranty. Would still need timing belt/waterpump+gaskets, so with shipping let's call it $2700ish. I've also found XP engines has new long blocks for just over $2000, and after all adders I would probably be in the same ballpark price. Anybody know if they are reputable? Toyota 5VZ-FE 3.4 Long Block Crate Engine Sale, Remanufactured. I'm fairly confident I could knock out the swap in a weekend.
I plan to call the shop and talk through what they did in the swap, but my guess is they didn't do any rebuild work on the motor when they swapped it. Going to see if they will extend any type of warranty for labor but at this point I highly doubt it.
Any advice and guidance you guys can give would be hugely appreciated. Thanks for reading.
I just traded for a 92 4runner that was 3.4L swapped from a 98. It came with the paperwork and the VIN from the donor vehicle was listed; I ran a carfax, and it looks like the thing had about 260K miles when they did the swap, plus another 20K driven in the new car.
I have been driving it for almost 3 weeks and it is white smoking progressively more. Exhaust smells of coolant. The smoke gets better/goes away as the engine heats up.
So far oil looks clean and I haven't lost significant coolant, although I only drive it about 5 miles every day. When I have driven it farther, the temp stays put mid range on the gauge (no actual numbers, just gradient). Truck has plenty of power and no rough running/idle.
So no, what steps to I take? I'm thinking leakdown test and maybe chemical testing exhaust+fluids to determine the exact point of failure. But at this point it's running great, can I just monitor the fluids and keep driving it? I do plan to go wheeling later this year, so getting stranded out in the boonies would really suck.
Now at the risk of getting ahead of the diagnosis, I've been looking into head gasket replacement vs. new/used engine swap. I'm pretty torn between engine swap vs top end repair. Like I said the engine is solid and powerful, so repairing the top end seems to be the logical move, but with close to 300K, does it make more sense to do a swap? My thinking below:
Top end rebuild: there is the risk of cracked heads, at which point I'm looking at another $1000ish, plus gasket kits, timing belt/water pump, this could end up costing close to $2000, plus probably a couple weeks of my time overall.
Engine swap: JDM engine zone has ~$2000K motors with <60K miles and a 4 month warranty. Would still need timing belt/waterpump+gaskets, so with shipping let's call it $2700ish. I've also found XP engines has new long blocks for just over $2000, and after all adders I would probably be in the same ballpark price. Anybody know if they are reputable? Toyota 5VZ-FE 3.4 Long Block Crate Engine Sale, Remanufactured. I'm fairly confident I could knock out the swap in a weekend.
I plan to call the shop and talk through what they did in the swap, but my guess is they didn't do any rebuild work on the motor when they swapped it. Going to see if they will extend any type of warranty for labor but at this point I highly doubt it.
Any advice and guidance you guys can give would be hugely appreciated. Thanks for reading.
