Considering a 3 owner 330k mile 5.7

Am I an idiot for considering a 3 owner 330k mile 5.7? Carfax are pretty clean, it’s got some upgrades like an air locker and 3 ½ inch lift, body and interior are like 90%, a bit of surface rust underneath. It’s from Colorado. I want to have this truck for a long time and take it on long road trips to Alaska. I’ve heard and read that the drivetrain is bulletproof. The price is really good at just under $10k and I’m going to get a mechanic to check it out. Am I wasting my time? Any lower mileage truck right now is about twice this price.

 

I saw a 491k 2nd gen Tundra go for $7600 pre-pandemic. I think $8k would be a fair offer. They are super solid trucks. If I had bought that one with 491k on it, I would expect to stick to an accelerated maintenance schedule, and I would be applying Amsoil HD Metal Protectant (or something similar) every year to keep the rust in check.

 

I think I might have some luck low balling a bit. There are a number of things I would want to dump some money into immediately to get it the way I want. Rust levels aren’t great but I’ve seen much worse. I live in a salt state so there are lots of places that do rust treatment and coating. Is there a downside to doing that? Will it make it any harder to work on/ upgrade the suspension?

 

No. Just use an oil-based coating. Nothing foamy or blown in. Some of the older undercoatings are super thick and can harbor moisture. But with the oil-based stuff like the Amsoil HD metal protector, there are no issues working on the suspension or anything else underneath. It dries to a very thin, dry but somewhat tacky finish.

 

If you can afford a lower mileage I would go for that. That mileage would scare me, unless it was a one owner.

I have and still use WoolWax. Doesn’t wash off easy and is well priced. All 3 of my cars have it and plenty of friends and family use it now as well.

 

So I think you can certainly get one with lower miles for $8000ish. By lower I mean between 275k range.. but you may have to search down south for that one.. Now they are'nt going to be pretty (although they arent going to be that bad looking either). I would spend the rest of the $2-4k to ensure the cars in good shape and fix the little annoyances that any car will have over the 250k mark.

EDIT - Ok maybe not $8k for the 2nd gen Tundra. I just got lucky I guess

 

I don't want to rain on your parade, but my 5.7 just threw a rod without warning at 205k miles. Based on what I've seen on this forum I think it was a fluke. Several forum members have had no trouble with this engine for more than 300k miles. I've seen more than a few with over 400k.

My post is a psa. Currently, a used 5.7 with 60k-145k miles will cost $6,500 - $6,900 before any delivery fee and other related installation costs.

 

8k would be great, ha, but that is pretty damn hard to find right now. Under 100k miles is easily more than $20k. I’m having my shop do a thorough pre sale check, including a compression test. I’m thinking if they say it checks out mechanically, I’ll try to snag it for like 7k and then I could afford to do a whole suspension rehaul, which I would have wanted to do anyways.

My other ride is a RWD Volvo with a b230f. Odometer says 375k, but it it was broken when I bought it for 500 bucks back in 2016. Still runs great. I might just try my luck again as long as it checks out with the shop.

I had no idea just the engine went for that much. I suppose if (when) the engine dies I could put in a 4.7. Those are about half as much and I was looking at those to begin with.

Thanks for the feedback. I’m dead set on a regular cab short bed, a very rare spec, so my options are pretty limited. Maybe I am crazy.

 

I just bought an ‘11 with 230k off of a good buddy. He had just sent an oil sample off to a lab for testing and everything (thankfully) came back in great shape. That might also be something for you to look into, if you can swing that.

 

I bought a 2007 with 213000 on it and never hesitated. I drove from Pa. to Co. to get a clean rust free truck and I couldn't be happier. Just budget some extra cash for routine maintenance and you should be good to go. I drove mine off the lot and back to Pa 1450 miles without a hiccup.

 

I don't know where you live, but with some traveling you could find a lot lower mileage truck for the same price. I was just looking and in Utah for under $10k you can get a truck with ~215k all day, some for cheaper and some with even less miles. I don't think you'll have any issues if everything turns out good and you get that truck, but I also don't think that price is anything special for that mileage.

 

Thanks everyone for the responses.

My mechanic gave a green light on the drivetrain, but unfortunately there were about $7 of other repairs I would need to do to get it to where I wanted it. Bad lift and blown suspension, bad cat and leaking exhaust, almost rusted out driveshaft and leaf springs,.. I could go on. He said he wouldn’t pay more than $5k for it, which is saying something for that engine because it was about the only thing the truck’s got going for it.

I could only get the seller down to 7 so I decided to pass and find a cleaner one.

I don’t know where you’re looking in Utah because the only 5.7 2nd gens I can find under 10k are wrecked. And any truck around here that’s 15 years old and hasn’t been rust treated will need some love.

This is a great idea, I’ve never heard of that. Thanks

I found a very clean 1 owner 180k out in Reno that is ~reasonably~ priced and I’m hoping to get it down a bit. I’ve been watching these trucks for a while now and they are just not selling like they used to.

 

Dont blow your wad on a cheap truck. It'll nickle and dime you. Better be lubed and gagged if you're an OEM smartass. Get something less than half your budget, that you dont need to worry about dings. Full size half tons can be pretty tight in cities. 2wd dont expect to hypermile. Killed by dbw.

 

https://cars.ksl.com/search/make/Toyota/model/Tundra/yearFrom/2007/priceTo/10000

 

Colorado truck prices are stupid, I've bought my last 3 cars out of state for much cheaper.

 

Huh. Thanks for this. Ksl is weird with filters, a lot of these didn’t show up for my filter of 5.7 v8. Some of these have the 4.7 or 4.6, but still a lot with significant body damage and high miles.

 

what

 

Also, I want a regular cab short bed, which they only made until 2013 and are super hard to find.

 

there was one of fb marketplace.