hey y'all, got a bit of a problem with my 95 v6 pickup w/ 266k miles on it. it eats oil, like a quart every 250-300 miles, no leaks, some smoke when I start it up sometimes, and the oil goes black fairly quickly after an oil change. put in a new pcv valve and that did nothing to quell the oil consumption. realizing the engine may be in some sort of a death spiral (although it still runs great), i'm thinking about getting the engine rebuilt b/c of the crazy price of used trucks these days. does anyone have any experience or words of wisdom about getting an engine with this many miles on it rebuilt? is it simply a waste of money? i like this truck and I want to keep it but it's also an expensive job . . . and if anyone knows of a good rebuilder in washington or oregon, please let me know. thank you.

 

A quality engine rebuild should get you as close to a factory fresh engine as you can get. The amount of miles on the engine doesn't really matter when it comes to rebuilding the engine as long as the block and other reusable parts are still machinable and doesn't have cracks.

What kind of shape is the rest of the truck in? Will you need to spend a bunch of money on repairing other parts of the truck or catching up on maintenance?

 

there are maybe four other things going on that I can handle myself, total for all the parts on those issues should be less than $1000, so I feel like generally the truck is in good shape and I'd like to keep it.

 

I'd start by doing a compression and leak down tests. Those might tell you a bit about why it's using so much oil

 

Definitely run the tests. Especially leak down.

 

My experience re: engine rebuild is there were few shops with the specialized tools and equipment who rebuild an engine, several indicated they purchased rebuild or crate engines and add the cost for the installation. In addition, found that a majority of the part and/or engine supplier warranty were less that a year and IMO definitely a gamble. At 220k I had the engine in my 90 T4r 4x4/auto rebuilt and it was not cheap.; unfortunately, the transmission soon followed.

Purchased a created engine from an engine rebuild shop out of the state of Washington, the warranty was for 7 years however since I installed the engine suspect the warranty was void, this was 12 years ago and the engine is still running strong.

 

You might try running a qt of Rislone through the engine. Do a fresh oil change, substitute the Rislone for one qt of oil and then run it for about 1000 miles and change it out. Keep a close eye on the oil level over the course of the cleaning. Sometimes a second cleaning helps. If you have stuck oil rings it could help. In the meantime you can search for a rebuilder.
I like NPR pistons and Taiho bearings, and I’d get a Toyota engine gasket o/h kit 04111-xxxxx. But that’s me.
Do you know the history of your engine? Has it been decked in the past or other machine work?