Buying a 1996 Hilux

[Hairyone]

Gday,
My son is looking at buying a 1996 RN105R 22R Hilux from an old bloke up the road. Problem is , his drug fkd son has been driving it for a while and apparently blown a head gasket or head in it.
Body wise its fairly straight with a little (easily repaired) rust. The tray also has a bit of rust I can repair so that's no problem.
What Im worried about is , has the idiot been flogging the crap out of it and cooked the motor and what sort of other damage might he have done. eg. has it been sitting there for the last couple months with water in the cylinders?
We wont be able to drive it before we bought it so cant really check out diffs and gear box etc ........all makes it a bit risky. I normally wouldn't consider it but have a feeling we might get it REAL cheap.
What are your thoughts?
What would you call a reasonable offer, considering we might be up for a new motor and possible other bits?
I realise it is a gamble not being able to test drive it , but what would you consider a reasonable gamble....$1000????
Any ideas would be appreciated.

Cheers

[06xtracab]

It's gonna be 4 grand to fully rebuild the motor, so base your offer on what you would be happy to pay, less at least 4 G's.
If you cant test drive it, you have to assume its stuffed. Anyone else will, unless thay have a spare car sitting at home to swap all the bits with.

Couple on G/T at arount 6000 ATM, so you offer would probably be a grand, maybe 1500?

[Eraser]

Blown engine and rust. 500 max not a cent more.

[john253a]

Look at all other rwc things
Tyre, windscreen

The 22r is a good engine and very popular course in USA so there are a heap or parts avaible
A set of 4.88 can be had cheap for that car if you want the factory Toyota ones

Anything beyond that and you start blow the budget out and late model sr becomes cheaper

[Eraser]

Look at all other rwc things
Tyre, windscreen

The 22r is a good engine and very popular course in USA so there are a heap or parts avaible
A set of 4.88 can be had cheap for that car if you want the factory Toyota ones

Anything beyond that and you start blow the budget out and late model sr becomes cheaper

the petrol ones already have 4.88 gears, that's why I said 500. otherwise it wouldn't be worth touching.

[LocalFart]

Look at all other rwc things
Tyre, windscreen

The 22r is a good engine and very popular course in USA so there are a heap or parts avaible
A set of 4.88 can be had cheap for that car if you want the factory Toyota ones

Anything beyond that and you start blow the budget out and late model sr becomes cheaper

the petrol ones already have 4.88 gears, that's why I said 500. otherwise it wouldn't be worth touching.

Considering the price of a running 1996 hilux I would not even look at the cheap one. Specially if you know that it's been flogged. The prices and time involved with buying an un-working or 'fix-er-up-er' aren't worth it for a car that cheap.

[Hairyone]

Ive just found out that I can run it.....as long as I leave the radiator cap off, so Ill be able to find out a bit more about it.

So how much is one worth in working order do you reckon?

What's all this about 4.88? Good gearbox I assume?

Cheers

[LocalFart]

I would look around for a similar hilux to find a normal price for one and then take about $2-$3k off that price as the head work will cost you.. It's normally bout about $1000 (depending on the engine) to replace a head gasket from start to finish if you get it machined ect... and then all of the other things to take into consideration like time, possibly a new rad and a pressure test.

-reference - bought 2x cars with head issues in my time and wouldn't do it again unless it was heavily discounted.