Hello all,

I found a 3.0 ou of an 89 truck that had been rolled. The odometer showed 106k miles and the truck seemed to be well taken care of (other than crushed from the crash). The guy is wanting 800.00 firm for the engine. It is complete with everything except starter.
Is this a decent price? (I haven't really found any others around here to compare).
Is there a way to tell if it has had the head bolts replaced?

Thx

John

 

That's a pretty good price, most junkyards around here want around 1500.

 

Good price for a private sale...I assume there is no warranty. Thus, beware. Also, can you get any engine history.. Like the headgasket, has it ever been done? It is known to fail on a lot of older 3.0s.. Toyota had been fixing them for free. The problem is, a failed head gasket if not taken care of, could cause more damage to the engine.

A friend of mine had the gasket go at before 70k.. and kept on driving it till it got real bad. Then, when it eventually went to a dealer for head gasket recall, they had to do a heck of a lot more to fix it up then simply replacing head gasket. Either way, if you get the engine, I would open it up and do the head gasket, a lot easier on the engine that is out. I would also get some kind of guarantee from the guy that, if you open the engine and find damage from head gasket failure, that you would get some or all of your money back.. and in writing!!!

 

Thx for the replies,
Is there a way to tell if the head bolts have been replaced under warranty? I didn't know if Toyota marked the engine somehow, or if I could run the block #'s.

In the event that there is no way to tell, is this something you guys recomend doing? I bought the engine and it is on the stand in the garage. Looks like the oil pan gasket was leaking a little, so I will replace it. Any other 3.0 specific things I should do while it is out?

Thx for the help..Again

John

 

you can probably get a toyota mechanic to lookup the vin and see if its had the headgasket recall done