I've been poking around here a bit and am curious about the collective opinion. I bought a '94 3.0 SR5 with 120k last year that had the recall done. I just found out this one is toast. The mechanic said Toyota redesigned the HG after all the problems and mine was probably the older design. Of course, no telling what additional damage might be hiding until stuff is pulled apart.
There are 3 other 4Runners from '91-'95 in his shop with the same issue right now. He estimates $1800-$2200 after all is said and done.

Should I cut my losses and sell the thing as is? Any idea what I could get for it with the blown HG? Should I bite the bullet and hope this isn't a cascading situation? It's a real heartbreak because I've always had awesome luck with Toyotas and hate to think that this one is just a lemon.

Thanks for your insight.

 

Hmm tough to say. If it indeed was the older style of HG, then getting it repaired with the new one and seeing what happens may be an idea. Personally I wouldn't buy a truck with a blown HG, at least not for very much.

 

another option is to drop in a 3.4
more HP, use less gas.

 

Most people have good luck with the latest HG.

 

i buy tore up trucks and sell after i fix em. 2200 is outrageous,find a reasonable mechanic or sell it to me.i didnt pay 2200 for either one of mine ;tore up or running!h/g sets run about 200 ;labor aint that high .....YET!

 

I think it would be pretty tough to sell a vehicle that isn't running. You may know how it drives/sounds, but a perspective buyer won't. They'll have no idea if the tranny or remaining driveline is noisy, if the brakes are shot, etc.... But, it could always be worth a shot. If you caught the failure quickly, you could possibly get away with just replacing the gaskets yourself and save a lot of money, then sell it. The gaskets are about $100 or less from the dealer. Aftermarket gaskets are cheaper, though I don't have any experience with aftermarket 3.0 gaskets. $1,500 was the bare minimum cost I got from our Toyota dealer here, assuming they only replaced the gaskets and any gaskets to get to the headgaskets. Dealers will also include the knock sensor wire because it gets brittle over time sitting between the heads and under the intake manifold.

 

I paid <$1K for HG R&R in '01. But with new head bolts it was about $1100 total. That doesn't include the $1500 for DOA head porting...

 

You won't get much for it with a blown HG; I'd guess maybe $500.

If it were me, I'd get a second opinion on the repair cost, then make a decision from there.

If you're mechanically inclined you could do it yourself, thus eliminating labor charges.

 

Thanks for everyone's input. I don't have the skills or time, frankly, to do the work myself. The truck is in great shape otherwise so I probably will shop around for better prices on the labor and bite the bullet. The price did include machining. I'd go ahead and have the timing belt done at the same time.

 

If you do have it repaired, id have the head bolts replaced with studs.this would give a much better seal than the factory head bolts.