We just got a 92 6 cyl. pickup with about 260K miles. It was a gift from a family member. It's been idling a bit rough. New Denso plugs and Toyota wireset helped a lot (gap was way off on the old plugs), but it won't pass emissions.

The mechanic I took it to for the emissions test did a compression check and it's looking like it has a burnt valve. Compression in #3 is about 50 PSI, so we're going to have to tear this thing down.

I noticed that a few places on the Internet advertise rebuilt heads, ready to install, for about $200-$300 per side. Anyone have a good experience with rebuilt heads from a particular source?

With so many miles on the clock, I'm a little reluctant to do the top end without reworking the bottom end, but money's tight right now and I don't want to do more than I have to to get this thing back on the road. Would anyone do just the top end on such a "mature" motor, or am I totally nuts to even consider this?