Seized cylinder
11-30-2016, 12:25 PM
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Seized cylinder
Hello,
There is a 94 4x4 toyota pickup for sale in a town Ill be going to next week and was thinking of checking it out.
The price is really good but the seller says 1 cylinder is seized, as told by his mecanic. He doesnt know why it seized or if it is a minor problem oe the engine needs rebuild.
He said the valve gasket is also leaking.
Does this sound like more trouble than it is worth?
The seized cylinder isnt promising but I dont think hé looked into it much so am hoping its something minor that I can fix at home.
Any advice ?
There is a 94 4x4 toyota pickup for sale in a town Ill be going to next week and was thinking of checking it out.
The price is really good but the seller says 1 cylinder is seized, as told by his mecanic. He doesnt know why it seized or if it is a minor problem oe the engine needs rebuild.
He said the valve gasket is also leaking.
Does this sound like more trouble than it is worth?
The seized cylinder isnt promising but I dont think hé looked into it much so am hoping its something minor that I can fix at home.
Any advice ?
11-30-2016, 01:04 PM
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Wow. It's hard for me to think of too many things that could happen to an engine that would be worse than a seized cylinder.
So IF it's just a seized cylinder, you may be able to fix it by re-boring all the cylinders and putting in new pistons. Do you have a cylinder-boring mill at home? No, that's not where you find them. It's a big, expensive job.
But you don't even know that's "all" it is. The mechanic doesn't even know that. I'm sure he didn't do an engine tear-down. Probably, he found he couldn't easily turn the crank with a wrench, made an intelligent guess as to the cause, and told his customer (your seller) that it would cost a lot to find out more. I'm going to guess the seller isn't intentionally lying to you (what he's told you is pretty bad), but how often do sellers tell "the whole truth"? Is the transmission okay? Is the A/C cold? Is there a hole rusted in the fuel tank?
But maybe, just maybe, it isn't even a seized cylinder. If you know a lot about these trucks (more than I do), you could take a chance on out-diagnosing the unnamed mechanic, and actually fix it for a few hundred dollars. More likely, the engine really is toast. But if the rest of the truck is top-notch you could use your knowledge of these trucks to source a good rebuilt engine for a few thousand, and you'll have a good truck for what turns out to be not-too-bad out of pocket.
Do you think you know a lot about these trucks? Do you think you can tell if the rest of the truck is top-notch? (As in, worth putting a new engine in it.)
So IF it's just a seized cylinder, you may be able to fix it by re-boring all the cylinders and putting in new pistons. Do you have a cylinder-boring mill at home? No, that's not where you find them. It's a big, expensive job.
But you don't even know that's "all" it is. The mechanic doesn't even know that. I'm sure he didn't do an engine tear-down. Probably, he found he couldn't easily turn the crank with a wrench, made an intelligent guess as to the cause, and told his customer (your seller) that it would cost a lot to find out more. I'm going to guess the seller isn't intentionally lying to you (what he's told you is pretty bad), but how often do sellers tell "the whole truth"? Is the transmission okay? Is the A/C cold? Is there a hole rusted in the fuel tank?
But maybe, just maybe, it isn't even a seized cylinder. If you know a lot about these trucks (more than I do), you could take a chance on out-diagnosing the unnamed mechanic, and actually fix it for a few hundred dollars. More likely, the engine really is toast. But if the rest of the truck is top-notch you could use your knowledge of these trucks to source a good rebuilt engine for a few thousand, and you'll have a good truck for what turns out to be not-too-bad out of pocket.
Do you think you know a lot about these trucks? Do you think you can tell if the rest of the truck is top-notch? (As in, worth putting a new engine in it.)
