Toyota Tacoma '96

#1
SOLD.
Posting this for a friend. He has Tacoma 4x4, 2.7 liters, manual, with front locker that has bad engine, most likely head gasket is blown, it turns over but almost doesn't start, and if we make it to start finaly it has lots of white smoke coming from exhaust, coolant level is droping fast, no signs of it under the car, so assume all is inside of the cylinders, oil on deepstick is milky, car has about 170K on it, manual. No knocking or other unusual noises from engine, just wont start. Everything else exept AC works fine, 4x4 engages and front locks. Body in OK shape for the age. Need some advice on what to do with it. We see two possible options:
1st: is there any mechanics that can rebuild this engine, probably easier to swap whole engine, for less than 1.5K
2nd: sell whole thing as is, but than what is the reasonable price for it, car was running very good before engine went bad.
maybe but don't really want to do it part it out.
Please help with advice what to do with this car.
Thanks.
 
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#4
Easy enough fix... grab a service manual and dig in. I just rebuilt my own. Right around $1100 using quality asain factory stuff. If you swap head gaskets make sure you buy factory Toyota replacement. Those motors don't like the cheap advanced auto stuff....

Sent from my Obama phone....
 
#5
Op just stating the obvious...I wouldn't take advice from a guy who has a man with 2 first names as his avatar. Ol Jim Tom makes a fine licker steal though!
 
#6
We have opened valve cover and decided to stop there, there is plenty of rust on valve axels, or how they are called correctly, forget to take picture of all that rust but it seems like car was running on oil with water for atleast 1K miles or maybe even more and water had made some damage, so probably rebuilding this engine will end up being to expensive, better to replace whole thing, or sell car as is. Is there any place in close proximity from upstate that we can get good cheap engine and good mechanic to replace it for reasonable money. Don't have enough of spare time to mess with all work needed around it. Thanks.
 
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