The various 2.4L engines seem to be pretty stout.
The last Hardbody I had was bought from my former neighbor who'd gone into an independent living apartment at an assisted living facility. He'd been driving and blew the upper radiator hose nipple off, drove until he got to the mechanic he normally used. Apparently the truck was making quite the racket when he pulled in. They'd quoted him $3000 for a head, no guarantee it would work, or $5000 for an engine, with a guarantee, without digging in to the truck. He sold it to me and a friend helped me flat-tow it home, with the intent of installing my motor from my beat-up truck into it worst-case.
A compression test revealed decent enough, on the low-side of acceptable and relatively consistent across all four cylinders. Put it back together and it cranked and fired right off. Ended up replacing just about everything in the cooling system since I didn't kow why the radiator blew the nipple off, but still easier than swapping a motor.
When my dad is done with that truck we're going to probably get it back from him, use it to teach our daughter to drive stick.
The last Hardbody I had was bought from my former neighbor who'd gone into an independent living apartment at an assisted living facility. He'd been driving and blew the upper radiator hose nipple off, drove until he got to the mechanic he normally used. Apparently the truck was making quite the racket when he pulled in. They'd quoted him $3000 for a head, no guarantee it would work, or $5000 for an engine, with a guarantee, without digging in to the truck. He sold it to me and a friend helped me flat-tow it home, with the intent of installing my motor from my beat-up truck into it worst-case.
A compression test revealed decent enough, on the low-side of acceptable and relatively consistent across all four cylinders. Put it back together and it cranked and fired right off. Ended up replacing just about everything in the cooling system since I didn't kow why the radiator blew the nipple off, but still easier than swapping a motor.
When my dad is done with that truck we're going to probably get it back from him, use it to teach our daughter to drive stick.
