Engine swap?

I picked this truck up about a 10 months ago, 2002 Doublecab Sr5, 150k when i bought it and now on 190k. (KM) 3.4 auto. very mint truck. ran trouble free for those 10 months. kept up on all fluid changes. Well maintained. or so i thought.

So, a little while ago, my truck was making this flutter/click sound under load in the rpm range of 1800 - 2500. I figured it had something to do with the valves. I know the 3.4's have a little ticking normally so i never really thought anything of it. The noise Progressively got worse, almost sounded like rod knock, but more investigation lead me astray of that idea as these motors are not known for said problems.

Fast forward about a month from me first noticing this noise, and driving around. The truck felt very sluggish, so i changed the plugs thinking that little spark was the culprit for my tik tik tik tik. So i changed the plugs and to my suprise, they look horrible, i mean reaaaallly bad. After changing the wires and plugs with OEM, feeler guaged to .43 gap. the truck ran great. no tikking in the above rpm range, everything was great. problem solved.

NOT! after the plug change, i took it out on the high way to go snowboarding, 5 mins on the road. boom, chug chug chug... engine light starts flashing and the truck was shaking bad. pulled over.

Codes read P0300 for a bit untill i reset that, and then a steady P0305 Cyl #5 miss fire.

So i hobbled it home and now the fun begins..

I have checked : plugs, wires, musical coil packs. Ohm tested all the injectors on that bank (reading 13.5-6 oHms). changed fuel filter. seafoamed the breakbooster vac line, and threw some in the gas tank. double cheacked vacume hoses. new air filter. cleaned TB and MAF. nothing changed the missfire. finally, my last test was the compression test. cyl #5 is dead as dead as dead...

SOOoOOo.. valves must be toast right. I really don't have the time or resources to work on my truck myself, like take apart the head and send it away blah blah blah.. and finding a new head and gaskets and labor would be waaay to much money to justify not swapping the motor. I had a leaky rear main seal and i blew mad smoke on start up and figured my rings were done any ways. Now my only option is to have some one just swap the motor...

Basicaly after this novel i Just wrote:

What would you guys do in this situation? to swap, rebuld, or patch up and sell?

If i were to get a used, low k motor. would it be seized up from sitting to long or something crazy like that?

Said and done I'm planning on dumping about 3k into this. motor is probably going to have less than 80k on it. compression is AAA quality. apparently. sit worth it?

any thoughts or comments would be greatly appreciated. hopefully this thread is in the right place, I'm new here ha.. any ways sick site, and thanks for reading!

of course pic's

 

i would do it but idk how you are going to get it done for $3000. i have about that much into the engine i just refreshed and that was no labor costs

and i wouldnt sell. idk about where you live but where i live double cab first gens are worth huge $$$$$

 

My mechanic hooks me up big time. I help um out when i can, too. shaves down the cost a lot. I'm still in the process of getting the used motor into town, so the cost may go up a bit in that department.

And yea, double cabs here are gnarly rare, so i would love to keep it and not sell it, but if this endeavor is costing a bit much, I may have to take a hit on this.. But that's like a last resort kinda option. lol

 

ill buy the truck off you. im in alberta

 

neewwwp.. Don't think ima sell it. sorry man.

UPDATE:

used motor with 63k on it is on the way to the shop.. should be here tuesday and running hopefully by the end of next week...

midaswell start a build thread, i think this disaster has finally convinced me to just start dumping cash into this thing now aha..

Couple more questions:

Anything you guys would recommend changing out on the new/used motor?

This is a good opportunity to switch everything over to synthetic oils now, thoughts??

 

http://dieseltoys.com/

Swap it out for a Diesel.

 

i would just freshen everything on the motor
plugs
wires
oil
valve cover gasket
belts
and clean the throttle body and intake manifold

 

Change injectors on the motor your getting. Remember it's been sitting

 

you can get them cleaned and it is much cheaper than replacing them. Unless it has been sitting for years like 4 or 5 i wouldnt worry about injectors

 

update:

Got the new motor. looks like its pretty minty. I think out of a 4 runner. had to swap around a mount. ?

replaced:
water pump, timing belt, toyota long life coolant.
The idle bearing was toast on the new motor. just packed some grease into my old idle bearing and slapped er on.
plugs and wires.
new seals and gaskets where ever i could.
new accessory belts
as mentioned, got my injectors flow tested and cleaned.
cleaned the intake manifold best i could
synthetic castrol edge
new battery should be here sooon.

have new diff, atf and TC fluids.
breaks look good, but have replacement shoes and pads anyways.

I don't have a decent phone for taking pictures, or a actual camera. atm. *sigh*. but i will deliver some photo's eventually lol..

should be all buttoned up on saturday wooo!!! might have the newest cleanest motor in all of canada at this point ahaha.. a whole month without my taco. oh well, gives me a chance to give some loving to the celi ; )

stay tuned!!..