Just heard back from my mechanic. I was losing coolant, so I brought it in. It turns out that the oil cooler has been leaking. I've put about 1 gallon of coolant in over the past 3 months. One day, it got real hot getting home. I pulled over, let it cooled, drove a bit more, trying to keep the temp down. Turns out it didn't work. There's Hydrocarbons in the coolant. Mechanic suggests taking it apart to check things out ?!nd probably rebuild the cylinder head due to heat damage. Total cost = $3,500-$4,000. The truck is a '96 Toyota 4Runner Limited 4WD, leather in fair condition and has 245K on it. KBB is $4,945. Tranny and everything else is original and unrebuilt. Here's the quandry. Do I do it or cut my losses?

I'm thinking of driving it for a while, keeping an eye on the coolant level and temp and see what happens.

 

Wow, I guess it comes down to labor cost. But you can buy a complete rebuilt motor for less then that.
Or even better yet a scrapyard motor for under 1K.

Don't get me wrong a complete motor swap is a lot of work, and if you can do it your self your looking at big labor cost. But then again motor swap can be done in lets time then head job. Seams to me that your mechanic is dragging you over the coals

Just my 2 cents.

 

I think a few second opinions are in order. Maybe I'll look a couple zip codes over.