Is it worth repairing my dad's 2001?

So a few days ago my dad's 01 Tundra, stopped working. I was driving to work and in my route there's a small hill, so I was heading up the hill I was going about 20mph when I lost power. I made it up the hill but on the straight road the truck simply started shaking luckily i made it to work. After work I turned on the truck and it spewd white smoke out of the exhaust and the loss of power continued. Haven't had a chance to take it to get checked out but what you guys think might be causing this? And would it be worth fixing?

 

What's the overall condition of the truck? How many miles? Has there been any major issues before this? Might be worth fixing depending on what the problem is..............

 

Oh......Welcome from Colorado! 1st gen owners will have some input.................

 

X2

Welcome from NY.

 

Hiya and welcome from SoCalif!!!

 

I'm thinking if a cracked head..........find a decent used engine and swap that baby in???

 

Well the truck itself is in really good condition. Before he passed he took really good care of it so far not many issues have popped up other than the battery, and alternator. The truck has about 300k miles.

 

An engine swap just might be a good idea....if the current engine has a cracked head or worse... Sorry about your dad. Sucks. We will help you here as much as we can. Do you or friends happen to know a local mechanic that come and take a look at your truck??

 

Welcome from Ohio!

 

Yeah thanks I'll see what when my buddies mechanic can take a look, and see what is wrong with it. I'll keep you guys posted

 

Went to the Grand Canyon in a 97 suburban and was going 10-15 in a 70mph. Ended up being Bad ground to fuel pump

 

Welcome from Northeast Connecticut. I would recommend you do a engine swap also

 

Welcome to the party!!

Good luck on your fix.

 

Might as well find out what the issue is before making a decision about how to proceed. Without seeing it, I’m thinking it could be anything from a bad coil pack and normal exhaust water vapour to a blown head gasket or cracked head, or even water in the fuel tank.

How is the coolant level, both in the overflow bottle and in the rad? Has it dropped at all?

 

Depending on the current condition of the truck, Pickup a parts tuck from copart and have at it .
Keep us posted and sorry for your loss.

 

At bare minimum, find out what's actually wrong with it. It might be less severe than you think. If you need a truck, I'd fix it.

 

Welcome aboard!

White smoke is usually indicative of a blown head gasket. Coolant is being burned.
Blue smoke is indicative of burning oil.
Black smoke is indicative of raw fuel.

 

I just dropped a used engine into my 04 Tundra 4.7L or at least my mechanic did . He did a really fantastic job . I am original owner last December of 2017 the timing belt broke and I had to replace the engine . I tried fixing most myself in the fall to see if I could change belt and water pump . My mechanic said it was a better idea to find a used engine from another Tundra/Sequoia 4.7L engine that had been totaled from behind . Took us a while we found one with 70,000 miles my original had 192,000 on it . I decided to do the swap I like this generation truck has been extremely reliable . Got it back this week it runs like a new truck !!! I am really thrilled to have it back and it’s paid for took me a year to save for repairs and the engine but looking forward to many more miles of fun . My advice if the rest of the truck is in good shape worth fixing up engine just keep on the oil changes and belt replacements regular maintenance allows these trucks to run a long time .
Enjoy
Larry

 

Larry, welcome aboard. Just curious, was that 192k the original belt?

 

No this was on its second belt had an appointment to have mechanic change it the next week but it broke unfortunately before I got to him .

 

Did toyota replace the first belt or a local shop?

 

I had a great local shop do it lasted from 85,000 till the 191,000 my fault should change about every 60 to 65,000 miles to be sure it doesn’t break . It’s an interference engine so it’s probably the most critical thing to have changed on the truck because it will do damage to pistons and cylinders . My recommendation to anyone buying a used one is to have timing belt and water pump changed unless someone provides proof of replacing them recently and under a 60,000 mile range .

 

Wow thats unlucky. I didnt replace mine until 160k on my 1st gen. And it "looked good" when i replaced it. Ive read stories on here i think of a few people in the 200 to 400k range on the original belt. I think you got unlucky. Im not saying that people shouldnt worry about replacing it on time, just that i havent heard of alot of them failing. Its somewhat expensive for the average person to have done, and im sure the average person doesnt understand the actual risk. This would lead me to believe there are alot of them driving around today that are way past due.

Either way, glad you are back on the road with a low mileage engine!

 

On my 06 I replaced the timing belt every 90,000 miles. I believe that Toyota recommends at 100,000. Ended up selling the truck at 420,000 with no issues. It cost around $1,100.00 to have it and the water pump changed at the time. It beats rebuilding or replacing an engine.

 

Depends on how much you love the tundra. Personally, if would fix it.