Charchee: the 3.4 swap is the best idea so far. I forgot to OP has the 3.0 which saves so much work compared to a 22r > 3.4.

​​​And yes, the machine shop screwed me over and I felt held hostage. Won't be using them again. Note to all: get the estimate in writing, signed and wave it in their face if they try anything.

 

go find a running 3vz from the same year and truck and swap it in. if it only gets you by for another 12000 miles, thats 12000 miles yoou can save up for a new motor or motor swap.

 

I hate that happened to you. I have a machine shop that does that to me sometimes. Now, I do probably $20,000 worth of business with them every year and I need them so I pick my battles. What happens a lot of time with these guys is you have a talk with the owner or head tech and come to an understanding as to what you want done and then the guy's wife, in my case, or some book keeper records the hours of labor and then bills it out to you without having any idea what was done. Techs always have to account for their time somewhere, so if they break a tool and have to wait for a new one and can't find anything to do for three hours, they'll put the time down on your work order. If the boss isn't looking at all of the work orders, those hours will just be billed to you. Always let the big boss know what you expect and a price not to exceed. That doesn't mean they will quit and do a half-ass repair. It just mean's he'll call if there's some kind of issue.

On the used engine deal, you might post a WTB thread for a used 3.0. Lots of folks are doing swaps right now and will have used engines that they have no further use for. I'll get around to mine soon enough and I'll have one that I'll sell for a song.

 

Wow, sad story here man.

Smod, I recommend looking into the 3.4 swap. As stated previously, there are people out there who will do it for less than that 6k pricetag.

Otherwise, don't spend 6k on it! It' snot worth much as a straight out sale, but parting it out will get you some money. Not 20k, but not 2k either.

 

You know we're missing a very important opportunity here. When the going gets tough the tough get going. Maybe it's time you take that "first step into a larger world." Find you a used engine picker and yank that baby out of there. Take it apart to see how it works. If, all of a sudden, you realize that it's not as scary as you thought and that there is no magic trick as to how an engine works, start buying a few parts. With the wealth of knowledge out there on the subject and the help of your Yotatech brothers, you may become a true Yota mechanic. I am not a mechanic. I only traded my three button jacket for one with a zipper and my name on it five or six years ago. It was working on old Toyotas with the help of these guys and a few youtube videos, that allowed me to make business man money jerking on wrenches.

You can do anything you set your mind to. I just rebuilt the lower unit of a 150 horse outboard motor after watching a dozen internet videos and reading a few threads. I had no clue what one even looked like inside until this afternoon and I have to say it was so easy that I thought I was doing something wrong.

At a minimum, pull that motor yourself and tear it down to the block. You will learn more than you did in four years of high school and if you decide you aren't able to take it the distance, at least you have saved yourself over half of the labor costs the shop was going to charge you.

If you were to start a new thread on a project like that, I can guarantee that it will be extremely popular and we'll get everybody involved.

 

So what I did was told them to replace the heads only. 2900 bucks. And I am either hoping it will be ok or I will sell it. Knowing what happened with the head getting metals shavings possibly in the bottom end do you guys think that it could be ok? Also the radiator blew and caused my head gaskets to go. The radiator was old but could it have happened because the bottom end is starting to go out? My buddy said his mechanic said once you replace the heads/head gaskets and they blow again that it will probably just keep happening.

 

Wow $2900 to replace the heads?? Hope you get good work that will hold up

I was hopin you'd take Charchees' suggestion and open her up yourself.

If I had to rely on other hands, and pay that kind of labor, I wouldn't be able to keep and enjoy my trucks.

I feel for you, and I'm very thankful it's not me.

 

Did you shop around at all? The engine rebuild I got cost me $1400, all I had to do was take the engine to them and reinstall the engine in the car. It's a little bit of work but muuuuch cheaper.

That's the thing with these cars, if you can't work onit yourself they will get very pricey very quickly.

 

Come on now. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rebuilt-3-0-...-/172585542864
$2900 will buy you this and you CAN put stab this thing into your truck in a weekend with a $25 box of Stanley tools from Walmart.

 

I appreciate all the help you guys and I knew when I decided to have them replace the heads it wasn't at all ideal but that's what I decided to do. So now I am just on the fence about selling it or possibly keeping it. I know there is no way to tell but does anyone have an opinion if the engine now can be ok? I'm just worried that they said the metal shavings could have caused bottom end damage but they don't know if it did or not.

 

Any engine could have bottom end damage. Particularly a 25-year old (!!) one. Or you could have a transmission about to fail, or rear diff, or front end, ....

So you're taking a risk no matter what you do. Personally, I think you're in pretty good shape, all things considered. (I doubt your cam "shaved" metal out of the cam bearings, but it probably did grind up some aluminum. That is why you have an oil filter.) Just take it one step at a time. If the risk is more than you want, you'll need to replace it with a newer truck. But unless you buy it new, it won't come with any guarantee, either.

If you do sell your truck, promise yourself you will be honest with the buyer.