Hi everyone, first post so please excuse ignorance. Hubby and I have been stewing over this for some time and have decided to ask for help from you knowledgable Prado owners.
We have a 2005 GXL 3.0L TD 1kz with about 210,000 km on the clock. We've only had her for 18 months but she is starting to show signs of age.
About 6 months ago she began intermittently starting rough and puffing white smoke. After months of testing this and that, changing batteries, glow plugs and injectors, busting a thermostat, then discovering loss of water into exhaust, we have finally discovered she's got a crack in the cylinder head. Have had a tablet called 'seal-well' put in the cooling system and this has stopped the rough starts and loss of water. (For now)
While checking all this out we also discovered that the oil gets very grotty very quickly (ie 2000km). Turbo is full of same carbon build up. Have also noted in the last few days a possible fault somewhere in the electrics (outside thermometer giving funny readings and secondary fuel tank not engaging. Oil level light came on a while ago before an oil change, level was fine but oil dirty. After oil change has been fine).
Our question is pretty simple - to fix or to let her go? Engine rebuilders have quoted us about the $5k mark to replace the cylinder head and give the engine a thorough going-over. They have also mentioned grotty oil is not a good sign of engine reliability. Previous owners towed very heavy loads on a daily basis which has got us wondering about how long she'll last...
Any experience would be much appreciated. Thank you.
We have a 2005 GXL 3.0L TD 1kz with about 210,000 km on the clock. We've only had her for 18 months but she is starting to show signs of age.
About 6 months ago she began intermittently starting rough and puffing white smoke. After months of testing this and that, changing batteries, glow plugs and injectors, busting a thermostat, then discovering loss of water into exhaust, we have finally discovered she's got a crack in the cylinder head. Have had a tablet called 'seal-well' put in the cooling system and this has stopped the rough starts and loss of water. (For now)
While checking all this out we also discovered that the oil gets very grotty very quickly (ie 2000km). Turbo is full of same carbon build up. Have also noted in the last few days a possible fault somewhere in the electrics (outside thermometer giving funny readings and secondary fuel tank not engaging. Oil level light came on a while ago before an oil change, level was fine but oil dirty. After oil change has been fine).
Our question is pretty simple - to fix or to let her go? Engine rebuilders have quoted us about the $5k mark to replace the cylinder head and give the engine a thorough going-over. They have also mentioned grotty oil is not a good sign of engine reliability. Previous owners towed very heavy loads on a daily basis which has got us wondering about how long she'll last...
Any experience would be much appreciated. Thank you.
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