3rz new head vs valve job

Hey guys, new to the forum and the tacoma. Should have upgraded my old toyota pickups for one of these a long time ago, so far i am impressed.

My question is for people who have had valve jobs done on their 3rz motors. Mine has some burnt exhaust valves and i am wondering what the best thing to do with it is. I got a quote from one local auto machine shop to do the valve job for $450 plus valves.

When i looked online i found that i could get a whole new head from as low as $525 from websites like these

http://www.toyotatruckengine.com/ne...runner-2-7-2-4-dohc-cylinder-head-cam-shafts/

or a little more

http://www.japanengine.com/products...ategory=5&subcategory=27&size=0&search=&page=

Are these heads any good? I want to do it right so this truck lasts me a long time.

Better off having the factory head redone? I will try and get some other quotes from other places for the valve job because that seems a little high to me.

Any help would be great

 

If you are looking for a replacement head, check out LC Engineering. These guys have killer stuff for our Toyotas.

Good luck.

 

It's actually really easy to do it yourself. Unless valves are bent, you can clean them up on a wire wheel, taking care to not use too much pressure. Lapping the valves is easy too- just need to buy a little tube of valve lapping compound and a drill to stick the valve in.

 

So your saying that i may not even need valves i can clean up and re-use the valves that are in there?

I was pricing it out for replacing all the valves, figured that i should probably do them all while i am in there? I thought that the valves actually stretch over time and that it what causes the cam clearance to get tighter.

It has 175,000 miles and i dont know if the clearances were ever adjusted, except for me just trying, and it is still running pretty rough.

 

If they aren't bent, I would reuse em. That's what I always do, haven't turned out a bad rebuild yet, and some of the engines I've rebuilt are now high mileage engines again.
But valves aren't that expensive, especially if you buy them from rock auto. So if it makes you feel a little more secure, you can always go that route.
Edit: Rockauto currently has a little discount code you can put in and save a bit.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/rockauto-discount-code-introduction.86042/

 

Okay, i guess i have just been reading a lot of people have found that their head is cracked and that it seemed to be pretty common so i was figuring a new head might be a good call, but if i can work with what i have i will try it.

 

Good luck, buddy!
I would definitely inspect the head very thoroughly- straight-edge it and check for any gap under the straightedge. If you don't have em already, you can get a set of feeler gauges from Advance Auto for a couple bucks. If there is warpage, there is a backyard way to plane it down, but it might not be something you're willing to try.
Oh, and I missed the part about valve stretch. Yes, they do stretch, but after a while, they don't stretch any more, then they start wearing down due to use. Chances are, at that mileage they are already long past the point of stretching.