1996 Tacoma- Sell or Repair or ?

Dang you have a fun weekend ahead of you!

My exhaust is stock near the engine (muffler and cat replaced a while back), to my knowledge the manifolds have never been removed. I think a couple weeks of Aero-Kroil are in order before I start messing with the studs/nuts. Even the heat shield bolts look to be a challenge, they are only 1/4" so you know they are snapping!
I was poking around on it today, and noticed the top of my radiator is leaking too! When it rains it pours. So if I keep this thing, I now need to do- Radiator, Head gasket (and maybe heads), timing belt/tensioner/water pump, ITR's, OTR's, CV Boots, and LBJ's. Might have to set some driveway space aside for a few weekends of work!

On the stop-leak...Not my favorite product to use by a long shot. I went back and forth on using it, even returned it once to the store. But ultimately I poured it in, and followed the directions. It works well, and supposedly will flush out with a cooling system service. Hoping it isn't what caused the radiator to leak! Anyways, i wanted to eliminate a few things to help make a decision.

This is the flavor I used: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Bar-s-Le...75035&wl11=online&wl12=52628131&wl13=&veh=sem

 

Well let me just say I just finished replacing the heads. Was unable to get any pictures, but as you can imagine, trying to replace heads in a time crunch is not an ideal situation.

Took us about 15 hours to do. I mean as you're going down to the heads, you can replace everything you need to replace along the way. I was ready to cry by the end though. 2 "you *beep*ing piece of *beep* what the *beep* is wrong with you?" moments at the end. First came right after we put it all back together. It didn't want to crank over. Turns out our TDC was set on the exahust stroke and not the Compression. 20 Minute fix. Second moment came after we turned it on. We just started seeing white smoke from the exhaust again. As if we did not just spend 14 hours replacing the heads and all the gaskets. I figured there might have been a little water still in their so give it some time and it would go away. but it was getting worse. We checked the spark plugs and they were still dry. We turned it back on for a while checked coolant level which stayed full, no overheating, after about 30 minutes the white smoke stopped. My buddy thinks it was paint and grease on the block, I really don't care what it was so long as it stopped.

When we got down to the head and gaskets, I'm glad I didn't even try to use stop-leak. Stevie Wonder could have told me the gasket was blown. The real question was how much damage was done to the heads. No.2 Cylinder was steam cleaned and full of coolant. Due to time, we couldn't take it to a machinist to see if it was cracked or warped. I just had to bit the bullet and replaced the heads, there was no way I was going to get it all back together, drive a week, see the smoke, and not drive the truck straight into a forest, let it explode, and watch the forest burn just to make me happy.

 

Dang, sounds like an epic battle, man vs truck! Glad you emerged victorious. The steam at startup is really weird though...seems like the water had to come from someplace?!

You said you replaced the heads, did you source new replacements? Were they ready to go with valves and everything loaded up? I'd be more inclined to DIY this if I had heads ready to bolt on. Luckily I have another rig so I can take my sweet time. 15 Hours is a long haul for a weekend!

And driving the truck into the forest to watch it burn...I think we've all been there!!!

 

The onlything I could come up with is there might have been a lot of coolant at the bottom of the engine that it was trying to get rid of. Its a continued to monitor process haha.

 

As for time, if you have any other side projects in the engine bay that you'd want to do, now is the time do them haha. I replaced every gasket as I went down to the. I'm still mad at my buddy for not replacing the fuel injector orings when we had a set of them on hand haha. And now we are wondering why it smells really fuelly. I hope it's leaking like crap just so I can throw it in his face.

 

Yes you can throw it in his face as the fire company is hosing down the area where your truck was sitting .

Let us hope not in your garage attached to your house !!

I would not wish that on anyone burning down one garage and house was enough for me.

 

I was in your same situation a year ago except my head gasket blew at 489,000
. These engines should last 500,000 if taken care of, so your in the middle or so,
I was on the fence about just doing the heads repair then found a low mileage engine
out of a rolled truck that had 100,000 miles,only get an engine that is in the truck and you can carfax the truck, cost 1500 for the motor and 1000 to have it swapped.
Was a much better choice for me to get the newer engine, the old engine with the blowen head
Ended up having both heads with cracks, so I would have thrown money away
if I went that route.
30,000 miles a year later still running perfect zero issues,
Once you decide to fix the engine then you have a green light to work on the rest
of the stuff needed, definitely keep it if you can


Read up on my post last year,
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...89-000-miles-repair-or-replace-engine.397363/

 

Just saw your post, and read your thread...very encouraging! Wish I could find a low-priced, low mile engine. And rates must be much lower in CO, all the shops say it's 19 hours to swap an engine, and usually charge ~$90/hour.

My picture has changed a little, I bought another '99 Tacoma with 280K miles, head gaskets replaced around 220K miles. So this '96 is sitting in the driveway for now. I may sell it, trying to figure out if I will sell as-is, or do a head gasket job then sell. So many options...

 

Since you put the question of selling in the title I'll give you my insight and experience of the past week.

I had a 1997 xtra cab 4wd for the past ten years up until yesterday. I sold it with an oil pan leak for $5500. Posted it on craigslist and it was gone in less than 6 hours. Trucks from Georgia sell quick in upstate New York.

It would have been great to keep it and learn how to fix the engine over time, but my income doesn't support owning two vehicles right now and I needed 4 doors, especially when I need parts for one of them.

What I'm getting at is that a broken but otherwise clean 1st gen Tacoma will sell, but if you don't have to then I would keep it and fix it. It will be a fun project and you will learn a lot. I cried a little when I watched someone drive off in my old truck.