seafarinman

I am having a problem with my truck. Based on the many good inputs of all the guys out there, I seem to have a burnt valve on my head(s). I was asking around here and on the 4x4wire site and it sounds like is is going to be very expensive ($1000+) to fix this. I was looking into another option, ans that is to rebuild the heads myself (not too viable an option since I haven't rebuilt anything since I rebuilt the engine in my old Datsun 210 many years ago) but it would probably be better to rebuild the whole engine anyway as I have like 196,000 miles on the engine. I would be interested in getting the truck back on the road ASAP so that is not a viable option either. I looked into replacing the engine with another one, and have found 2 places on the internet so far. Here are the deals so far:

1.) www.a1engines.com- (special right now) $2000 for 3VZE longblock with FREE shipping and NO core exchange. (They will honor this special when I return from my military deployment)

2.) www.engineplace.com-$1495 ($1995 -$500 core charge) +$200 shipping= $1695.

In either case I would be planning on doing all the removal/install labor. I have a cherry picker and 2 engine stands but they are useless to me since they are my family's house in CA. I can't go drive home to get them since the truck is down. Bummer. I would have to go and buy new ones now. Failing that, I am toying with the idea of swapping to the 22RE or the 3RZ-FE. I know that there are a lot of you out there in the know, so please share your ideas and experiences. I am hesitant to sell the truck but I am not willing to spend the money that it would cost to make the truck into a serious crawler (SAS, dual cases, etc.) at this time. I am considering just doing the minimum to make it good again, and spending the money on a Samurai that is already built. I love my truck, but it will cost too much to make it into what I want it to be from what it is right now. Any ideas or experiences? I am out here and all I can do is research and plan.

Rome

Praufet

I know that the 3vz-fe and 22re would require new transmissions. Or you could always do the hybrid 5vz-fe swap dan talked about (5vz with mechanical dist. so you can use 3vz computer)