[Mountain Goat]

I have an 89 v6 regular cab with about 116000 miles on it. Today a bad knock started in the engine and it got worse until I got to work where I had a Tech listen to it. After a half an hour of puttsing with the truck he said I had a piston slaming the head on the #4 cyl. I trust him so i am taking his advice to crack open the engine and take a look. Before I do this though I need some opinons. In the best case scenario I replace the rod, piston, valves and head. Worst case scenario, I do an engine swap. I have spent a great deal of money in this truck and have yet to even pay it off. Should I:
1)Rebuild engine
2)Swap engine
3)Part out truck and try to make some money back on it.
4)Sell it to one of you guys as is.
5)Smash it up and report it stolen.
<IMG SRC="smilies/devil.gif" border="0">
Any advice is great but I need to be realistic, and spending thousands of dollars to fix this is not realistic. <IMG SRC="smilies/frown.gif" border="0">

 

[rocktoy4me]

unless you have a lot of modifications that are not listed, you are not going to get much for your truck as is (even if you part it out). realistically, the best thing would be to fix the engine or replace the engine.

you are going to loss money either way, just decided if you want to keep the truck or not.

 

[pmurf1]

Considering a good one of that style here in Phoenix goes for only about 5K, you need to decide if you want to dump another grand or more into fixing it. Did the mechanic do a compression check on the "dead" cylinder? I'd pull the head off first and see if there's any obvious signs of damage and go from there. Hopefully you've got a place to work on it and another ride to work.
Does the engine run bad other than the knock? Does it feel like it's running rougher or minus one cylinder?
I'd get a second opinion, even if you trust this guy. I really like Right Toyota, they're the only good dealer in town. Talk to a guy named Mike Bauer down there, he's always treated me and a lot of other guys fairly. See how much they'd charge to diagnose it and go from there is another option.

 

[ranger]

Didn't toyota do a recall on these engines for a similar problem?

 

[zags]

I'd definately get a second opinion. I ve seen carbon buildup on the piston cause the exact same symptoms you are describing in the V6 Toy.

 

[Mountain Goat]

I know it is not a carbon problem for I did a top engine clean, injector clean and a tune up about a month ago.

 

[MCFLY4X4]

replace the broken parts if you can, you still owe $ on it, but i take it its no longer under warrenty?

 

[OOP'S]

I am still trying to figure out how a piston is hitting the head, a valve yes if is bent and staying open. But the only way I can see it hitting the head is to have a streched rod, very unlikely or a piece of the piston is broken loose. I would pull the heads and see what exact is really wrong!! <IMG SRC="smilies/usa.gif" border="0"> <IMG SRC="smilies/usa.gif" border="0">