Life After 300K? (1 Viewer)

[80ToRunner]

My good partner of 27 years may have to go. My 1997 80 had 265K when a head gasket leak caught me by surprise. A used engine was swapped in, and all was well until a few weeks ago, when an engine knock started. It seems impossible to find people willing to open up an old engine on a reasonable schedule. An LS swap was considered until the timelines and pricetags made it unrealistic.

As an original owner, I am very fond of this 80. It has been on most of Colorado's back roads and high passes, and has delivered us to numerous trailheads and ski resorts over the decades. But I need a DD I can count on today. So I broke down and got a 4Runner to fill the gap. We really don't have room to park 4 or 5 cars around the house. But how do you sell a car with a busted engine? 80 team, your thoughts?

'97 80 series, red with brown cloth interior, lockers, and on the 2nd engine, 298K miles but solid

 

[CJF]

What's your question?

 

[Rusty Marlin]

I'll give you a 100 bucks for it.

Just funning with you. You've got the 4 runner for the stop gap, so being without the rig is not a hardship.
How long will it take a shop to rebuild the engine?
If it's missing from your drive for 6 months or a year, is that a problem?
Can you rebuild the engine yourself. They really aren't that hard to rebuild, just heavy aand akward.
If there is no machining to be done and just swaping bearings, seals and parts, I could see it taking a weekend warrior 6-8 weeks of dedicated weekends.
But I haven't been in an engine this big. I'm scaling up experiance with in-line Jap bikes.

 

[Fj80oregon]

I’m sure after this post lots of people will be willing to pay you for it. Might even get someone to offer you $2500!!. First decide what it’s realistically worth then what you think it’s worth and meet in the middle. Your truck has lots of desirable features obd2, original owner, lockers, and cloth interior. If this was a local truck to me in the PNW I would pay 3-5k for it. Then make a for sale add in the classified section with lots of pictures and information should be sold in a couple weeks.

 

[Augustiron]

Really 2 basic paths

Since you don't have a place to keep it now, it's going away, either running or not so....

- Buy another used engine if you can find one and someone to swap it in. But that's at least $5k all in that you won't recoup $ for $ if you're just selling it now. This only works if you want to keep it.

- Sell as is at a discount to someone who has the resources and will to swap either stock or ? Engine in and say goodbye and thank you.

 

[Fj80oregon]

Or like rusty said fix it. Not what area you are in but cruisers and company will swap an engine in for you there are in Erie.

 

[tmxmotorsports]

Just fix it

 

[PIP]

I'd say the value is all on condition. If the paint was nice (it appears the clearcoat is in rough shape judging by the mirrors), the interior was nice, there wasn't any body damage and it was mechanically great shape other than the engine I'd say it's worth $5k, maybe more.

If the clearcoat is gone, the interior well worn and it has typical body bumps and bruises associated with 300K miles of offroad use then I suspect the value is closer to $2k as a fixer wheeler, axle donor or maybe an engine swap candidate for a Cummins or LS.

 

[80ToRunner]

What's your question?

I guess for starters, is it sellable as-is? Otherwise, what prospects are there for repairing a knocking engine? What level of damage would I expect to face?

 

[Brindleboxer]

Like said above, it is sellable but what you need to come to terms with is what is it worth vs what you want for it. Being a one owner you have history with it and seeing as you have had it over 27 years you are biased toward it.

I personally would keep and either rebuild the motor or do a swap.

If you are selling it, follow the suggestion above and take a ton of pictures and post in the classified as the tech forum isn't the place for a FS listing. When taking pictures think about what MUD members are going to be looking for and get good pictures as that will reduce the amount of "Does it have this or Can you send a picture of" scenarios.

Good luck with whichever route you decide to go.

 

[TXMeatball]

I would do heinous crimes for your cloth seats.
That said I vote rebuild it.

 

[Fj80oregon]

I guess for starters, is it sellable as-is? Otherwise, what prospects are there for repairing a knocking engine? What level of damage would I expect to face?

Yes its sellable as is I prefer to buy them like that so I can rebuild and sell. But I rebuild 1fz engines so that is easier said than done. If your engine was not ran for a long time with a knocking rod you may be able to just polish the crank and install new bearings. But if you’re going that far most would rebuild the engine. Now if the crank was damaged from the rod knock you could possible get it ground if the damage was minimal. This engine is fairly easy to rebuild with a good machine shop doing most of the work. Probable looking at $4k with you doing the work. Then you got another 250k mikes of memories!

 

[80ToRunner]

Like said above, it is sellable but what you need to come to terms with is what is it worth vs what you want for it. Being a one owner you have history with it and seeing as you have had it over 27 years you are biased toward it.

I personally would keep and either rebuild the motor or do a swap.

If you are selling it, follow the suggestion above and take a ton of pictures and post in the classified as the tech forum isn't the place for a FS listing. When taking pictures think about what MUD members are going to be looking for and get good pictures as that will reduce the amount of "Does it have this or Can you send a picture of" scenarios.

Good luck with whichever route you decide to go.

Ah, thank you. So IH8MUD has a classified section that is appropriate for selling vehicles? That might work for me. I'll look around for a bit and see what I can learn.

 

[mudgudgeon]

My good partner of 27 years may have to go

We really don't have room to park 4 or 5 cars around the house.

Seems a little extreme to get rid of the wife so you have more parking spaces, but I appreciate the Cruiser owner logic . . .

 

[80ToRunner]

Or like rusty said fix it. Not what area you are in but cruisers and company will swap an engine in for you there are in Erie.

I'm going to call these guys just to see what options they have for me.

 

[mudgudgeon]

Ah, thank you. So IH8MUD has a classified section that is appropriate for selling vehicles? That might work for me. I'll look around for a bit and see what I can learn.

Go to the forum menu at the top of the page, and scroll down to classifieds

 

[COYS]

304K here. Never been better.

Wouldn't sell it for a penny less than $60K today.

 

[Cruisers and Co]

I'm going to call these guys just to see what options they have for me.

@Fj80oregon thanks for the shout-out.

@80ToRunner not sure where you're located but we would be happy to help if we can! Feel free to call us or shoot us an email

 

[ZackR]

I'd get it fixed and then decide if you want to keep or sell. The market for a non running cruiser is much smaller than for one that does.

My guess is that once its back in action you'll be happy to drive it and the 4 runner will be sold... Pretty cool you are the original owner!

 

[greentruck]

The LX 450 I recently bought is pushing 325,000. It had a new Toyota engine dropped in about 35,000 ago and seems eager to go another 300k.