Engine Replacement Cost - 08 Tundra 5.7L

imahnu

Unorthodox
Supporting Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2021
Messages
339
Location
Houston, TX
Hello All,

My good friend had his head gasket blow. His truck is at a shop now and he just got a quote to replace the engine. He was having cooling issues where his coolant would boil up and bubble out of his overflow for the last few weeks. He didn't realize this is what was happening and assumed he had a leak so he'd add in water to replace the leak until he could get it fixed.

Well now that is has blown and he has zero compression, the shop it is sitting at says they need to replace his engine, as well as the hoses for the radiator, the radiator itself (it blew a large crack in the top plastic section, similar to what our TJ's have). They also quoted him to replace the PCV hoses due to cracking, as well as his heater hoses due to the use of stop-leak. My friend swears that no stop leak as been added to the coolant in the time he's owned it which has been roughly 5 years. Completely speculative but he takes his truck to this shop for work and roughly a year ago they found a coolant leak. It could be that they added in the stop leak they're referring to.

The shop has the cost of the new engine at $12k.... for a 75k mile used engine....
They have roughly 8k for labor and replacing the PCV hoses, radiator and coolant hoses and the labor for the work. After taxes his total is roughly $21k.

Obviously this is ridiculously overpriced. I've seen engine swaps for tons less money let alone just replacing a factory engine with a used one. I get they have to replace hoses and a radiator but that still in no way warrants this price.

For reference you can easily find the same engine he has, used for anywhere from $4-6k.

What are y'all's thoughts on all this? Anyone have experience getting an engine replaced with a used one and what they paid for it?

He's gonna get quotes from other shops and figure out exactly why they're charging so much.

Thanks for your time!
 
  • Wow
Reactions: Apparition
In 2017 I had a local shop replace a 3.5 ecoboost engine in an F150 with a new one and it was about $8500 all in. Those prices seem outrageous.

Gotcha. I figured it'd be more in that range. I'm waiting for my friend to get a list from the shop that specifies the price for everything and what labor goes to what.
 
Did he get a quote a head gasket repair? How many miles on it?
I assume you mean to replace his current head gasket? The shop states that it's caused damage to his internals and they can't just fix the head gasket. His engine has roughly 150k miles on it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RMETeeJay
Two years ago, I sold a 07 Tundra 5.7 with 110K miles for $10K. It would be cheaper to get a different truck.

After talking to him a lot about it all, I think he's planning on buying a newer truck and will likely keep his Tundra and slowly fix it up over time. It'll just be an off-road truck for him.