Well a couple of months ago I was looking for an v6 engine for my 95 4-Runner I looked at getting the engine rebuilted, maybe doing it myself, or getting one out of a wreck Toyota. I checked the prices and found that an high mileage engine started around $1500.00 and low mileage engine went as high as $3000.00. Well I was ready to bite the bullet. I looked for an engine, there were NONE to be had. I kept looking. I found a 91 rust bucket in Ohio. It did not run, had an electric problem. I bought it and had it shipped to my house. When it got there I spent a couple of days searching the electric problem. it was the coil. bought a used coil and drove it around for a couple days. The 4-Runner had 148,000 miles on it. The engine ran great and tramsmission was good. The tires were almost new. So I pulled the engine out the 95 (was ran low of oil) and then I pulled the engine and transmission out of the 91, and put the engine in the 95. We drove it around a couple days and checked it out. Everything worked.(95 had been sitting since 2004). We loaded the 4-Runner up with all our things, and took off to the south Texas border. We crossed the border at Brownville, Texas, we spent three days going through Mexico, into Guatemata, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, boat to Cartagena, Colombia, then to Bogota, Colombia.We was pressed on time. and I pushed the whole way. The 4-Runner ran great, is still running great. It used around one quart of oil on the trip. The roads are bad to fair, I cut a tire in Panama City on a street corner crub. The whole trip was from July 3rd to July 25th. 3 days in Panama shipping the 4-Runner. Now I am a Toyota fan!!!! It was a great trip. You'll come on down.

 

You drove a 4Runner with a 17-year-old engine to Colombia? More guts than I have...

 

You are really brave.Any pictures?

 

Especially Columbia, with a basically unproven engine? You got some cajones, amigo.

Hey, this is somewhat related to what you talked about in a very indirect way. I just saw a National Geographic show where a guy wanted to drive up a mountain in Southern Africa, and Nat geo came along. This mountain was between 7000-9000 feet, and he used a classic Land Rover Defender 4 door wagon for his vehicle. The road wasn't much tougher than light stock dirt trails, but the show host ran into problems. I caught the show halfway through but by the time I started watching, he already lost the rear half shaft. He continued in front drive but then he lost his hand brake. Soon, he felt a jolt, and he stopped the vehicle on the side in a ditch. he went out and checked and he saw he lost his drive shaft. The car was now a big paperweight. Lucky he had a SAT phone and he called for help. His rescue came in a 4 door Nissan 4WD pick up, who then towed him to the next way station. Mechanical help came the next morning driving a Suzuki pick up (apparently neither the Nissan or Suzuki had any trouble up the mountain). They couldn't repair the drive shaft on location but they were able to repair the half shaft, which allowed to host to get where he needed to go (with a little hike at the end).

What is disturbing is that the LR was so delicate. Breaking so many parts on what was for the most part, a pretty tame trip. Having seen that, looking at your situation, if given a choice between the two, I would still take you 95 4Runner with the junkyard engine and have every confidence of making up the mountain, every single time. I find it disturbing that LR charges so much for their vehicles and yet they would literally have on the edge of your seat just making the trip. Having said that, it's important to acknowledge that the BMW and then Ford ownerships have had some positive impact on LR quality, and this LR Defender might have been made during the early part of BMW's ownership. Big thing that BMW did was change the electronics from Lucas to Bosch, and that had a very big impact. But they still have some work to do, catching up to the relaibility of your '95 4Runner.