[TyWebb]

I took my truck to my mechanic last weekend because it was running very bad when the engine was not very warm. He called me back today to say that he thinks I need a valve job becase the valves on a couple of the cylinders are not seating properly when the engine is not warm. He said he would try adjusting the valves and get them to work better, but he didn't sound too confident of this working. It should be noted that my mechanic speciallizes in older land cruisers like these, so I have a decent amount of trust in his opinion.

My questions are: Is there anything specific that usually causes this problem? What is a reasonable range to pay for this kind of work? Is there anything else I should have him do while he is doing the valve job? Are there any other ways to try to fix this type of problem before taking the deep dive and doing the full job?

Please don't torch me too bad if I have any of this worded incorrectly as I don't have a whole lot of experience working on cars. I tried searching the archives, but didn't find a whole lot of answers to my questions.

It's going to be a sad day if he calls back and breaks me the bad news on the valve job. I've only owned the truck for 6 months, and since it only has 111,000 miles I thought I would have better luck avoiding major service items like this, but I guess you never know.

Thanks in advance for any advice/feedback. This board is awesome.

[grant5127]

Have him do a leak down test and get a good overall evaluation of the whole motor condition... no use spending $$$ if there are other weak areas in the equation.........and you may want to get a second opinion........

[CruisinFJ60]

a leak down test was something i always did when i was working on porsche... so many customers never had theyre valves adjusted properly and as a mechanic it was money to me and as a customer they knew what was goin on with theyre cars.

just my .02 leak down test are easy and can tell a-lot about a motor

[TyWebb]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I'll make sure he has done the leak down test before we do any major work.