craiga

Our 1998 tacoma 2.7 with 189,000 miles on it started to have misfire codes. I did a compression check and the value were 60,110,110,180. With a little oil added the values were 60, 120,120,180. I can get a new head and gasket set with bolts for 650.00, I can get a new engine for 1,625.00. My son wants to keep the truck for another 4 to 5 years. So new engine or new head. I have heards that putting a new tight head on a old bottom end can cause the bottom end to go out quiker.

team_gforce

i have also heard that a tight top end can cause failure of the bottom end. most of my experince is limited to the 22re 4cyl but for the price of the replacement engine i would suggest going that route, the truck will last much more that 4-5 years that way. Also compression problems may not always be solved simply by replacing the head. If the piston rings are failing you can get exhaust blow-by into the crankcase. If you can afford the new engine, its really not much more work to pull the whole engine than it is to take of the head. Haynes manuals usually have a good enough play by play to get the old out and the new in.

eddieleephd

I would pull the old head off and have it checked for flatness you could get away with having it ground and putting it back on. or it could just be the HG and that is easy to replace.
as gforce has said in the long run a new engine is less trouble and more efficient if you have to depend on this vehicle.

Jin_Chris

I don't see clear reasoning to replace entire engine with given information. I dont see enough reasoning as to why you are replacing entire head either... I would check more....
With the compression testing result (number 1 being so low), it could simply mean headgasket or piston ring etc. Either case would be quite fun and "doable" project to tackle. (replacing piston ring is somewhat stretchy for DIYer though...) more over it is straight 4cylinder, which is much easier to take care of than V6 from my opinion.

So, if you enjoy fun of messing with car, try to identify the cause in a little more detail. then, if it is just head-gasket, I would do it self.. If you are not much inclined mechanically, then, obviously, next bet is new engine... (but it does sound you are pretty inclined... aren't you??) Either way, Good luck!

Kiroshu

Ok are all cyls miss firing or just #1? I would check deeper into what is causing the missfire. Buying a new engine is crazy... but if you want too thats all you. If i had to guess of the top of my head i would say you have a blown head gasket. Die you check the oil? Is it milky? Does it consumer alot of coolant? Does it smoke white smoke out the tailpipe? If all of these apply its a head gasket and or possibly cracked head. I'm guessing someone ran the truck hot once upon a time and blow out the gasket... if this is that case then its possible the head warped..... What about the valvetrain? sure its not jump timing? Has someone recently done a chain job on it and put it on wrong thus the valves are out of time?.....anywho to answer you intial question with my opinion. I'd say a head job should do it good.