hey guys, just had my 92 pickup brought to the toyota dealer to find out if i am runnin on 5 cylinders or not. well turns out my #4 cylinder has no compression... so they say its most likely a valve.... my engine has 330 000km on it. so im wondering what i should do. the guy at toyota says that the new headgasket set that toyota has "modified" to be better is 300$ alone, plus if i have to resurface all the heads, around 800$ plus labor and he said thats probably a 12 hour job. then if i do all of that ive still got a 330k motor which could lose a bearing or something else in no time. this truck has been running on 5 cylinders for over 3 years now, and runs great to say the least, lacks a bit of power, and hogs gas, but still. so now should i look for a low mileage motor and swap it, or if i should look into a rebuilt motor, which are around 2500$. or should i do the repair of the original motor?

the motor is a 3.0l v6 btw.

thanks all

 

wellll FIRST off your truck is NOT a tacoma...the tacoma line was started in 95.5 i think...or 95...whatever...but if your headgasket recall has not been done..then get that done..its free...then go from there..lol..or just swap a 3.4...lol

 

i dunno if the recall has been done or not, sorry i didnt mean to write tacoma lol. i dont wanna do a 3.4 swap, just want the original motor in it. no headaches just a motor that runs like it should.

 

drive it till she blows

 

well get the vin and have your local dealer run it (i think is how you do it) to see if the recall has been done..i was kidding bout the 3.4 swap...some guys on here go with wrecked 3.0's from a junkyards....just as long as the motor is fine...i.e. no MAJOR problems...like cracked block...or something similar...motor swaps are not my territory...even though i plan on doing a cummins 4BT sometime in the future...

 

if it costs $800 for the heads to get resurfaced then I would buy brand new ones. Seriously...I got mine resurfaced for $50...hot tanked, and a valve repaired for $120. Its fairly cheap...so what jack ass quoted you?

 

Get the motor rebuilt.

Unless you can compression test a used motor, meaning it is still in the truck and running, you are gambling.

I bought a used tranny. Installed it, and it took a dump within 1500 miles. Now I am getting my old tranny rebuilt, and installing the thing twice. No fun.

Do it right the first time, trying to save a buck now will invariably cost you a lot more $$, time, and frustration down the road.

 

Oh btw...please don't tear into it before you KNOW the problem. I ripped my head off assuming it was my head that caused my low compression and it wasn't.

I did find out you can do a leak down test on it to figure out if it is the rings or the head.