howait everyone. was kinda wondering if $500 is worth it for this truck. My mailman owns the truck and just recent, the timing chain must've skipped because he has bent valves. I personally did not inspect the engine, but a mechanic friend of his did. So, bent valve means new valves and seats, head work....etc... Would anyone know how bad the piston could get? I guess worst case scenario is a crack piston? The truck has no rust and the a/c blows real cold. Part I don't understand is its only got 50K miles. Let me know your thoughts. Alohaz.

$500 is a good price for a nice little low miles pickup. You'll be having to do some major engine work if the valves are truly bent. So, if you can do the work yourself with little help, you could have a nice little pickup for another grand or so. But if you have to have someone else rebuild the motor and do the R&R then it could get expensive. If it were me I'd jump on it. But I do all my own wrenching and rebuilding.

if the valve is bent that means a piston went through it

With bent valves you wont know how much of teh engine needs to be rebuilt until you pull it down. You may be lucky and need to just replace the valve, it kind of depends on how bent they are. I am rebuilding an '86 for my nephew(he is learning how), and the truck also suffered a broken t-chain. After puling the head off/down, only one valve was slightly bent, and there was no damage to the piston other than a very small nick in it. Others I have pulled down that had trhe same t-chain failure had large chunks out of the heads, requiring new pistons and rods. If you only have to replace a few valves, pistons, head, or all 3, either way for $500 it is a good deal. You should be able to rebuild it for about $500, check enginebuilders.com for a rebuild kit.

It may only have 50k on the clock, but the chain is 18yrs old , and probably has a lot more hours(revolutions) on the chain than the an average car here on the mainland would w/only 50K.

Hey, I forgot about this. Yesterday in the grocery store parking lot I saw a super nice little 86 2x Hilux short-bed. I asked the guy if it was one owner and how many miles. He was the original owner and it had 52K on it. So, they're out there.

thanks guys; points well taken!!!!

A mechanic can pull the plugs and scope the piston heads to access damage before really tearing into things too. Schweet.

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