Is the motor destroyed? Blown Head Gasket. What is it worth to Sell?

2000 3.4 L Auto 4x4 Tacoma with 262,000 miles.

Just took it camping and drove it 150 miles one way. Right before I arrived, the Check Engine Light comes on. I thought it was my airbox which has been throwing codes. I start it up two days later ready to head back home and it blows a ton of white smoke. I drive 10 minutes all downhill and it overheats, the radiator is bone dry. I add a gallon or so of water and top it off, and 30 minutes later the motor drank 3 liters, and another 30 minutes later it drank 2 more liters. I was determined to get home with all my friends and their stuff. In hind sight I know I shouldn't have driven it home, but the damage has been done. Now it won't start, and sounds like grinding metal when you crank it.

Did I bend some internal parts? Is it toast?

If this is the case, I'm gonna sell it. I want a more reliable truck. What do you guys think is a fair price? It ran excellent before this, with solid power. Im in Los Angeles area. No rust. Its got new timing belt at 238 k, fairly new AT tires, shocks, new plugs, wires, camper shell, its got its dings and isn't in perfect condition. Needs rear brakes.

 

Just drop another engine in there and you'll be good for another decade or 2.

 

New motor if you hear metal, cheaper to replace than fix at this point unfortunately

 

Yeah it sounds like it's cooked...figuratively and literally. Sorry for your loss, on the bright side 3.4l motors are relatively cheap and plentiful.

 

Metal grinding is bad. If you just have overheating and hearing bubbling in your overflow tank, then you could pull the heads and have them resurfaced

 

More reliable truck?

It made it 262,000 miles. If you had a domestic it would’ve been broken 200,000 miles ago.

 

Take this as an opportunity to rebuild the truck, you're at 260k now, if you drop in a completely fresh drivetrain another 260k should be no problem and probably cheaper than losing a bunch of money selling the truck as is and going and buying a much more expensive truck.

 

I’ll buy it for 500$ lol

Already have a 3.4 motor for it

 

Look at buying a new radiator while you’re in there. Edit: or Dude above is salivating

 

Source another 3.4 and drop it in or have it installed if you liked everything else about the truck before the gasket took a sh!t.

Not sure what you mean by more reliable truck. You got a lot of miles out of it. You said it ran strong beforehand.

 

250k on any truck is not exactly ground breaking news. Unless it's a dodge, then it's ready for the record books.

If you pay to have it done, you'll drop 4-6k on the swap for a salvage engine, the rest of the truck will still have 260k on it. If you go new or reman it will be quite a bit more. I swapped a 2.7 into my 96, doing everything myself I was in for about 2k, and it took more than 1 engine. The first one they sent me was garbage.

 

Bro, drop a new engine in. It'll cost you about 2 grand. That's it you're good for another 250k.

Not worth taking the loss on a non running vehicle that someone is going to give you $500 for and then you buy the same truck for $7k

 

Mine engine blew a head gasket at 480,000,
Found a used engine in the truck running that was rolled that had 100,000 miles complete for 1500.00

A bit expensive but I was able to hear it run and did a carfax too, figure I was going to do this once,
No guessing on what I was buying

 

They work well, when they work

I've had too many dodges to depend on them anymore.

 

This truck I passed by last week, probably has a good motor in it and will be at some salvage yard soon.
You need to find a good engine from a salvage yard with the engine in the truck
so you can get an idea of how it was cared for and u can run a carfax too

 

I lost a head gasket, and given the evident previous history of abuse and neglect(thanks PO!), I opted for a salvage engine with 112k.
About 3k so far runs better than the original. Ditto on a new radiator, I went with a Champion, don’t really believe that a radiator is a wear item....

 

Same boat here, cost me around 2500 for a 100,000 motor still in the truck and new clutch, timing stuff, with Champion radiator.
Honestly I love the all aluminum Champion radiator the best, quality item for the money.