Bad head gasket, engine swap?

02 Taco with a 2.7, RWD, 2 seater.

Love the little truck and have had it for about 8 years, about 400k on the meter.

Recently developed a pretty nasty engine misfire, swapped out the plugs hoping it was the easy fix but no luck. My head gasket has always been a little rough and I think its gotten to the point where I'm loosing compression between coils or to external.

I want to do what I can to keep it, the body is in amazing shape and it has a lot of sentimental value, but I'm pretty strapped for cash.

Just looking for general advice here, considering the labor involved in a gasket swap i've had people recommend just switching out the entire engine, but I'm a little hesitant. I wouldn't even know what years are compatible.

 

I don't think parts and labor for head work on that 2.7l would be anywhere near what it would cost for parts and labor on an engine swap. But, most mechanics will tell you, at that high of mileage you fix the top end and the bottom end might be next to go. Maybe, maybe not.

 

Welcome to the forum!!

Can you do all the work yourself?

Will you need to pay shop labor for either job?

Skilled friends that would be willing to help??

I have seen very high labor to do both these jobs .Either case it can get expensive real quick.

I always look at and expect the worst.

In any case you have no idea just what your dealing with till the head is removed and things inspected.

At 400,000 time for a timing chain with the head off.

It comes down to if your paying labor or not.

Best of Luck!!

 

Assuming you need this truck repaired quickly and don't plan to do the repairs yourself, you may want to shop around for rebuilt engines from reputable companies (that don't have excessive lead times, might be hard to find for the 2.7) and put the charges (for engine + labor) onto a credit card that offers interest free balances for 12-24 months (then obviously be sure to budget appropriately to pay that off before interest eats your lunch). If you try to do a bandaid fix now, because money is tight, it may cost you far more money over the long haul when that bandaid fix fails. I doubt that many parts of that engine are worth saving, if the "head gasket has always been a little rough", during your ownership.

Then again, I think you should really take inventory on the overall condition of the truck before sinking big money into it. What other major components are original at 400k miles? Tranny still shifting smooth? Diff getting clunky yet? How's the rest of the routine maintenance been? These trucks can nickel and dime you to death if all those bushings, ball joints, steering rack, brake booster, throttle body, wheel bearings, drivelines, etcetera etcetera all start to fail, especially after you dump big money into a major component's repair or replacement.