Advice Needed for 95 Taco

Think I found the problem.

 

Looks like a cracked head, happened to me as well. Ended up having a new head built for my truck, all is well over 50K later.

 

Yep, new head for you. So looks like those cracks are on Cylinders 2 and 3? from your initial tests it looks like cylinder 2 was ok. It was 3 and 4 that were giving you problems. Any indications on the 4th?

 

Yup, 2 and 3 are where the cracks are ... 3 being the worse. Not sure why I was getting bad compression on 4; its look pretty good. Is this something I can send to a machinist to fix? While I'm at it what else should I do?

 

I'm certainly no expert, but I think your best bet is going to be to get a new head. These are the cracks you can see, there are probably lots of others or micro cracks just waiting to get worse. Definitely wait for others to chime in, but that's my opinion.

 

Let the machine shop tell you. They usually charge around 50 bucks. I have seen cracks like that on aluminum heads before and they were just surface cracks. Just peace of mind letting them confirm before throwing parts at it.

 

I'm thinking I'll send both the block and the head to a machinist. Might as well dot my i's and cross my t's. This is turning into a build project.

 

If the block is cast iron, just get some roloc disks and clean up the head deck, odds are it's not damaged, if it's aluminum(idk about 4cyl taco motors, I think they are all cast iron but not sure) have it checked. The rusty looking bore concerns me, I would think the rings would have kept it wiped down if they haven't failed also.

 

Just send the head to a reputable machine shop that specializes in heads. They can weld that head up and drive new seats/guides in for you. Make sure you send the cams and they will set your lash too. My head rebuild was about $600 including welding up a few cracks.

I’d leave the bottom end alone if there are no obvious signs of scoring and still crosshatch in the bore.

 

Could probably buy a remanufactured head for not too much, then take the machine shop out of it, get gasket kit and put it all back together probably for less money.