My 2007 5.7L 3UR Tundra engine suffered a head gasket failure at 316k, the failure was due to poor maintenance practices by the previous owners that ran the engine low on oil more than a few times. I bought the rust free truck cheap 7 years ago and drove it about 46k before the failure, during that time I replaced a lot up worn parts and made some modifications. My mechanic is installing a low mileage used 3UR this weekend, along with a number of new OEM parts including a starter, the alternator, the entire cooling system and a new evaporator for the AC. My grand total investment after all is said and done will still be less than half of the original MSRP, or pretty much what it's 'book' value is today.
Do you think it's worth keeping an otherwise solid truck on the road as am I doing, or did I just flush money down the crapper?
Warmest regards,
OrangeMan
It is a little scary when they are higher mileage, but it is a very reliable platform. If in good, no rust condition, could last a while.
At least you will know what has been done to the truck, and with the price people are asking for newer trucks these days, you may not be able to buy much better for the same price.
If you had said you spent that much on any other truck on the market, it would be a totally different story.
@nlord It is an expensive job but I would do keep that car too. It won't exceed its book value, so yes.
@nlord Yes sir, there is no way for me to buy another reliable Toyota vehicle with this much V8 power for this little money.
It's a rare low production model but book value isn't really important to me because I plan to drive the truck for another 10 to 15 years... my future wear and tear repair will be installing new control arm bushings and ball joints.
The heart transplant was a success! Purchased in 2017 for $5k, drove it 46k, head gasket failed @ 316k, drove it home with a new 80k ticker yesterday and I plan to drive it another 10, 15 or 20 years.
@orangeman Glad to hear it!
Chuck Tobias, thank you for correcting the font size - I tried to fix it and failed.
Note: the head gasket failure in my original engine occurred in cylinder #7 ... the original head gasket in the 80k mile engine I am now using showed signs of a future failure in cylinder #7, we installed new head gaskets.
@orangeman No problem, it looked pretty bad the way it was.