Is a 2013 totaled Tacoma worth $3,500??

Do you know why it leaks? Cylinder wall crack at the deck would be fatal. WTH, buy the engine and sit on it a while until your engine pukes a con rod or something.

 

We live way up in the mountains and a lot of people up here are dummies and don’t get insurance or let it lapse. We are 2.5 hours of winding roads to the nearest city/wrecking yard. Average price in a wrecking yard for a 1grfe 4.0 is 4k$, about the same to have a shop replace the head gaskets

 

There’s a crack in the plenum just after the throttle body on the doner truck I was hoping to get. It’s been sitting in the weather for a few years so the engine is seized.

 

Yeah, obviously, with that information, hard pass.

 

I meant why does your '06 head gasket leak, not the engine you were going to get. I'd pass on that one too once you said it was seized and out in the weather for "a few years". Probably full of water by now. It's good as a boat anchor, maybe.

 

Thanks for recommending that car-part site! I already found an engine on there out of a 2011 with 127k miles for $3750. Has a 90 day warranty and they do a compression and cylinder leak down test before selling it. ToyAuto mart in Sacramento. 4 hr drive

 

I’d have to pull the heads to find out for sure but my guess is it’s the weak faulty head gaskets they were putting in the 2nd gen 4.0’s from ‘05-‘06? My 2006 was manufactured in September of ‘05 so it falls in the range of having the weak gaskets. Most everything I’ve read on here which is a lot, says it’s about the same price and less work to just get a newer lower mileage engine rather than have the HG’s replaced

 

DIY, it's not a bad job. Especially if OP is planning to swap an engine after modifying new model year features.

 

Yeah the HG job on these trucks is a PIA and I don’t have the tools or facilities or time to tackle that right now. The only modification that would have been needed to make the 2012-15 1grfe work for my ‘06 is simply an SAIS delete and $20 dollars to cap the headers. You don’t have to change out the wiring harness or ECU or anything. Now if you put a pre 2012 into a post 2012 then you run into those problems. I have a 5 hour round trip drive to the nearest head shaver/warpage analyzer so that would be 5 to drop it off and 5 to pick it up, plus I’d want to do the timing chain/tensioner kit going that deep too. I’m gonna get a newer engine and put the old one on a stand and do the job myself as time and money allow… then I’ll have an extra motor for either one of my two ‘06 and ‘08 Tacos should anything happen in the future