Get new motor? Yes/no? Decisions decisions!

[T4R_Finally]

Chic, I live less than 2 hours from Va Beach, so I was shopping that area a lot on Craigslist when I was looking for mine. There seemed to be something out there for sale most every day, though I ended up buying in the other direction. I didn't even look at a single dealer up around there. Right, wrong, or indifferent, I'm just more comfortable buying something that old, with that many miles, from an individual that can tell me about it and maybe even provide some history. So, I didn't even look at dealers.

 

[PitbullRescuer]

I don't see how a rebuild would be less ....

Rebuilding the top end of the engine, both sides is going to cost $3000+ from any reputable shop. The truck is probably worth less than $4k.

Better to sell it for $3.5k then add to that the $3k you would have spent on a rebuild / used motor. And then buy a 3rd gen 4WD with 150K miles on it for $6.5k.

:cheers:

$3000 for a top end rebuild? Wow!

Chic, stop worrying! It runs fine. Just stay up on the maintenance and it will continue to run fine. The lift won't stress the engine at all, not one bit. Tires might but you could compensate for that with lower gears if you really needed too. Save your money.

 

[BrianSD_42]

yes and $3000 is a low number.

technically i didnt even get a rebuild, only 2 new (non-OEM) heads and the Toyota gaskets.

Brian2Sun did the full rebuild with after market parts.

Toyota internal engine parts are very expensive. You can find a Toyota head for sale online but that is just the aluminum shell for $800. That is why people buy rebuilt heads and I guess aftermarket if you can find them. The owner of the shop i went to said the ones he installed on my truck were made by JE which is a Japanese company. Price was $800 x 2 + Toyota gaskets + labor. It all added up to over $3000. The rest of my engine is original and i hope it lasts to 300k.

 

[Stick Figure]

Rebuilding is sketchy.

This is only true if you either take it to a place that doesn't know Toyota engines or try to do a rebuild cheaply. I've never actually paid a shop to assemble an engine for me, but I've had my fare share of machine shops **** up engines doing crap work. The good thing was that since I was measuring and assembling it all, I caught it before it became a real failure.


as for the original question ... yep sell it and buy a 4x4 especially if you are going to mod it for off road, then the best mod you could do to the current truck will already be done for you.

 

[PitbullRescuer]

Brian, you replaced two heads. That's beyond a rebuild in my book, it's a replace and rebuild. Take the $1600 for the heads out of the equation and you're much closer to the cost of a rebuild.

 

[BrianSD_42]

Brian, you replaced two heads. That's beyond a rebuild in my book, it's a replace and rebuild. Take the $1600 for the heads out of the equation and you're much closer to the cost of a rebuild.

Ahh I dont see how. Have you paid for a rebuild? What was the scope?

The Toyota gaskets alone will cost of $500 + 10-12 (or more) hours labor.
At least that is my understanding. I have never done it myself.
Brian2Sun did it. I will let him chime in on $ and scope when he reads this.

Either way, I think any reputable shop will charge at least 10 hrs labor + parts. You can hit $2000 very fast but just doing the gaskets isnt a rebuild.

 

[maxspeed96ct]

Not worth rebuilding a 2wd unless you had a large amount of other mods.

You can buy a nice 4x4 99 like mine for example for under 7k

 

[brian2sun]

I paid $2250 for my rebuild and had nothing but problems like I said. A decent rebuild by a competant shop is going to be around $4K. The parts alone will be $1500-2000. R&R is going to be ~16 hours so.. $1500. Plus a few hundred to the machine shop for each head.

 

[PitbullRescuer]

Wow! You guys obviously know better than I do, I've never had to do anything major to either 4Runner. I did a top end rebuild on my Grand National after blowing a head gasket. Added a cam, cleaned up the heads, new springs, roller rockers, etc and didn't have that much in it. Guess these 5VZ's ain't cheap. LOL

 

[jrm]

You cant polish a ****

sell it now and walk or install the motor, then sell the truck so that you get some kind of return on the truck +engine investment w/o replacing all the other parts.

 

[VA4runnerchic]

ok you guys talked me out of it! thanks for all the info :thumb3: