seacoats

title says most of it. selling my f250 and buying a toyota truck. i've been scouring craigslist and reading as much as i can about them. i do have a few questions. first, what's the deal with solid axles? as best as i can tell, they're better for rock crawling/off roading. i'm trying to optimize for reliability and ease of maintenance. i don't intend to go rock crawling or wheeling. i'll be using it as a daily driver as well as for road trips to climbing areas. this means driving on forest roads, as well as wet weather/snow driving. gonna put a canopy in the back so i can sleep in it. it seems like i have a choice between a solid axle or fuel injection. does the fuel injection handle elevation changes better? a lot of the trucks i'm finding have rebuilt engines. as a novice mechanic, should i trust someone who says they rebuilt the motor themselves? i know the timing chains go at ~100k miles, do most people rebuilt the motor then because you have to take it apart to replace the chain? what are things to look out for with a rebuild?

thanks!

sea

seacoats

i found this thread which helps to answer some of my what to look for questions.

http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/80...ota-truck.html

wyoming9

iTrader: (1)

You might want to tell us were you live??

These trucks have a regional market to a degree .

The problems in the South West USA are nothing like the North East

Rebuilt engine it seems those words mean so many different things to different people . Some just being clueless.

One seller was positive replacing the gaskets was rebuilding the engine.

Solid Front Axle / Independent Front Suspension

The battle seems to wage over that on a daily basis Read and come to your own decision .

Just what year of Truck are you thinking of ??

As much as I love the 22REc engines for being so easy to work on the @ 120 Horse Power does tend to seem really slow .

If your coming form a Ford V8

I am spoiled by my 3.4 engines Thinking about going back to a22REC just to commute 5 miles to work for about 2 years just have not done so yet.

No matter every truck I bought always takes a $ 1000.00 plus in parts to bring up to my standards something to think about as well.

Things to think about!!

kbpickens

seacoats, I'm not a mechanic (which is why I hang around here - these guys tend to be encyclopaedias), so here's a book-(forum-)learned with no experience view/understanding:

IFS vs solid-axle:
Solid-axle can allow for a lot more uneven terrain underneath; you know those pictures where they've got a big rock under the front-left and rear-right wheels? I'm pretty sure almost all of those are solid-axle.
IFS is what came standard (on most, if not all).
If you're not expecting to get really rough terrain, I would say solid-axle is a nice-to-have, low-priority item.

Reliability and maintenance:
I have an '89 Pickup Deluxe Extended Cab (yes, Pickup is the model; this will confuse shops and maybe your DMV). I am at least the fourth owner (my dad bought it used a couple years before he passed, my brother inherited it and had it until he injured his back bad enough he couldn't drive a stick). There have been two 'big' issues (of which I'm aware): the gas lines needed to be replaced when my brother had it due to rust, and I had to get the timing fixed (despite my brother being a mechanic).
The short version is: I have to pay someone or ask how to fix something, and I'm comfortable with the reliability, so the factory build should be pretty reliable for you (anything that isn't factory is up to your analysis).

Solid-axle vs fuel injection:
Toyota basically stopped making solid-axle pickups around '85 (in the US). That's also when they started offering fuel injection. So, it is possible (in theory) to find an '85 with both.

Fuel injection and elevation changes:
My truck has the 22RE (has EFI). It does not like hills at highway speeds. The way it handles at different elevations is very similar.

Rebuilt engines:
As a novice mechanic giving advice to the same, I would have an experienced mechanic look at any rebuild not done by a shop unless you know the person who did it and trust them. I would give that advice to anybody simply because you don't know exactly what they did (I once looked at a used car where one of the vacuum lines had a twig in it).

Even if I get another truck, there's a good chance I'll keep this one.

As wyoming9 pointed out, the 22RE is very easy to work on.

seacoats

even worse then coming from a v8, i'm coming from a diesel v8. i've really loved the IDI motor, it's the first vehicle that i've owned that's been simple enough for me to start to work on it. this is partially due to the huge amounts of room everywhere...i've never needed jackstands because i can just crawl underneath. hell, in places i can sit up underneath. changing the air filter means climbing into the engine bay and sitting on the radiator just to reach it. Enough of my rambling...

I'm in the Pacific Northwest, Seattle to be precise. The upper end of my budget is ~$4000. I've been looking for 4 cylinder trucks with either a 22r or a 22re motor and a manual tranny, early 80s to early 90s. I decided that i wasn't looking at anything over 200k miles, but I don't have a solid reason for that. Do parts of the body/frame/driveline start falling apart at a certain mileage? I've come across a few trucks that are in the 225-275k mile range with rebuilt motors. Is this something to stay away from?

Sounds like an 85 would be the way to go. Perhaps i'll get lucky.

My truck is supposed to get 185 horsepower, but it weighs just over 3 tons. I wonder how that'll compare to 120 horse at 2500-3000 pounds. I'm already slow, but being smaller and slow sounds nice. I've gotten good piloting a big rig in the city, but i'd rather not.

Janos01

Hey seacoats welcome to the forms.

Regarding this, A rebuilt motor is not necessarily a bad thing as most Toyota trucks from 85-95 have 200K+ miles and most would more than likely have a rebuilt motor unless they just drove it from the corner store and back. My 90 4Runner has 270K+ miles and I just had my rebuild done in April to May of this year. For any rebuild, as long as the block is not warped and the engine was rebuilt properly, you should be fine but have a Mechanic look it over as they can tell you for sure if it is running fine or not.

Generally most 85-95 trucks if taken care of do not fall apart. The most common issues due to age are minor surface rust, cracked dash. holes in the seats. Otherwise they are very tough.

4x4 goo roo

I seem to think when something is rebuilt you bore the motor, change the Pistons, cam, crank, rods, bearings, timing chain, caskets ect. If someone has rebuilt the engine definitely ask what all was done to it and who did it and don't give them a lot of time to respond to you cause that gives them time to look up stuff and if you want to make sure call the place where he got the parts from they usually keep purchase history.also check gaskets and for any oil leaks rebuilt motors don't leak. But if your looking at a 5speed manual truck and the body is good you can get a rebuilt engine for 1000 bucks ( not like replacing a v8 $3500-$6500 I found that out )as long as you have a core but that doesn't include none of the engine components and I just changed the engine in my truck and I replaced water pump, radiator power steering hoses, all the belts and hoses, motor mounts, oil pump, I think I did all that for a little more than 500 bucks. So if you are using it as a everyday driver like me I would just go head and spend the money and know for a fact when I'm on the trails in -5/120 degree weather I don't get stuck. Also I don't know where you get parts from but when you order parts get them from advance auto parts and when you go to check out enter trt50 in the promo code box and it gives you 50 to 60 percent off anything over a 100 bucks but has to be online. So if you have to order two things and one cost 102 and the other is 125 order them separately so you can get the discount already but just try it it will save you a bunch on both. And yes I know if you have a commercial account you get a discount but it will still save you a little.

imhousing

just to chime in:

if you're just getting to climbing spots and not doing hd wheeling skip the solid axle search. they ARE awesome, easier to apply lockers, more durable, more travel, cheaper than lifting/building a durable IFS.

if you're dealing with real elevation changes you'll want a 22re.

rebuilding the 22r/e is a piece of cake so I wouldn't be concerned about a previous rebuild than say, any v motor, multivalve, or anything with vvt.

seacoats

Thanks for all the useful tips everyone. I was planning on taking whatever truck I end up buying to a shop to get it looked at before purchasing. It wasn't clear to me if the mechanic would be able to tell if the motor had been rebuilt. I thought a lot of the rebuild was buried inside and difficult to see and the part of me that likes to worry wondered if it was possible to do that work badly and have it be hidden but it doesn't sound like that's the case. Are the IFS trucks significantly more difficult to work on?

wyoming9

iTrader: (1)

If the engine runs it is a good sign things may have been done correct.

A compression Check will tell quite a bit about a recent rebuild.

Yes some can be done quite poor.

Rings never seating so it burns almost as much oil as gas.

Do your self a favor and find a Mechanic that knows This era Toyota Vehicles .

They know what to look at and are not baffled when there computer does not plug in anyplace.