1996 Tacoma 4x4 LX (1st Gen) motor head rebuild or swap?

Long ago my parents purchased their first Toyota truck, a red extra cab 1994 manual 5 speed. It was my moms daily driver. She upgraded to a 1996 Tacoma LX extra cab 4x4, this time in automatic. Needless to say, she loves Tacomas. She upgraded to a 3rd Generation SR5 4x4 last year. I've been waiting for this day to come. Moms passing this Tacoma down to me. 300+k miles and still running.

Here is the issue...water got into the head, not sure how...or was it radiator fluid leaked into the head. She took the taco to a local guy for repairs. The dude couldn't find a 3.4 head and instead put in a 1992-1994 head and rebuilt this motor this way. this was about 3 years ago. This is all second hand info from moms.

The taco drives fine however it idles high like around 1500 rpms warmed up and about 2100 rpm during start up. A full tank of gas would last about 140 miles at the most. prior to the dude working on it, a full tank of gas would get roughly 300-310 miles.

So my question would be, should I just swap the motor or have it rebuilt with the proper parts?

I would love to to keep the motor original and hopefully reach 500K.

 

Has it had that high idle since the rebuild or is that something more recent?

I'd start by checking all the vacuum lines. I had a high idle a little while ago and it turned out to be the fuel pressure regulator's vacuum line had been severed.

 

Easier and probably cheaper to swap the motor to a low mileage than having a shop rebuild.

 

Started right after the rebuild.

 

I don't think a 3.0 l head will fit a 3.4 engine block, 2 different engines. If they did make it fit it would be interesting to see, maybe that's why it has a high idle. Massive vacuum leak.

 

Thanks for the info. i'm not really mechanically inclined but I would think it wouldn't fit. I'll check the hoses.

 

Up to you @techfinsoup. I'd help ya with either. I have a cherry picker to do an engine swap or we can replace the head with the proper one. I'm sure we could find a head. I'd suggest pricing it out. See what you can find a head and gaskets for vs buying a used or remanufactured engine

 

Thanks a bunch for your help and offer. I'll browse around for parts and a engine. This will be an enjoyable project for sure. I still have those CV boots of yours from TW express. I'll send you a message when I'm in your area, i'll drop them off for ya.