SOLVED! Post 2853 Leaking Injectors, Dealer Techs Rock! Extended Cranking after Engine Swap 3.4L 5vz

Thanks Keakar, that makes sense! Now I wanna get a close look at a fuel line to see how the heck the thing works! Nice to understand the "why" behind it when things malfunction......especially when their malfunction costs a fortune!!

 

Tow truck is on the way to take her to EDITED - feels good to have finally made a decision. Now to keep myself distracted with other stuff til she's done........

Thanks again for all of your help navigating through this Taco World crew! You rock! Hopefully we'll be her again in ~2 weeks!

EDIT: I've deleted the name of the business that replaced our engine from this post, because problems developed with the truck after the work they performed, and those problems are still in the process of being diagnosed as of today 2/4/15. Until I have a full clear picture of what these issue are and what caused them, I do not want to recommend or speak poorly of their business. Thanks.

 

while you wait you can help them guys on TV find bigfoot, I hear they are getting close lol

 

Sweet, the bigfoot thing sounds like a great plan!

Anybody know how this might affect our auto insurance? Should we let State Farm know exactly what's going on, meaning, would it improve Taco's value (and what they'd give us if we had an accident) at all by telling them there's a new engine in her? Wonder if it'd raise the rates we pay though. Hmmm......anybody have any experience w/that?

Tow truck drive offered to let me go with then give me a ride home, so I got to see their shop and meet the guys. The place looked good, the guys seemed nice & professional, and tons of photos everywhere of their work on Toyota engines. Feeling good about our decision, hurray!

 

no the insurance company doesn't care about if it even has an engine in it or not, they just cover the liability damage you cause with the truck or any body repairs it might need in a wreck so they have no interest in the engine or anything you do to it.

even with a brand new crate engine delivered and installed by mr Toyota himself, it wont increase the insured or replacement value one penny

 

Not exactly true. If (God forbid), the truck gets stolen/totaled next month, the insurance company will make an offer based off of what they feel a 98 Tacoma with 195K miles is. However, if OP can show documented proof that they just paid $5K worth of retrofit/maintenance on the truck, the insurance company may adjust the offer to reflect the greater than average value of the truck. It wont be much, but it will be like $500-$1000 and it will take some effort on OP's part.

But there is no need to inform the insurance company at this point.

 

if you were talking about a paint job then yes, but the difference in mileage on an engine is next to nothing. in effect they would still view the truck as high mileage even thought the engine isn't.

at best, even with all receipts and documents it might give her $5 more in total value when its totaled but I doubt it. now as I mentioned if it were a fresh new paint job then she might see an increase in value of $500 +

they just don't consider the engine as having any value towards the vehicle so all they care about is the odometer reading no matter if it has a brand new engine or the original one.

 

Thanks for the input guys! I gotta admit Keakar, I like Moco's answer on this one better! Have either of you guys ever been in that situation, or known someone who has been? Wow, what a sucky situation that would be! Will cross all fingers and toes that we never ever have to find out how that would work! Obviously we'll keep meticulous records just in case.

But Moco, you're thinking don't tell insurance about it unless it happens (and give 'em a reason to possibly raise our rates)?

Thanks guys!

 

yes, I had a 98 chevy truck with 150,000 miles when totaled with a brand new crate engine with around 4,000 miles on it and a brand new custom $8,000 paint job that was about 10 months old.

state farm said engine value = $0, paint job value = $3,000 for the cost of an average paint job plus 50% reduction is what the insured value of that is (all that they compensate for) so I got $2,000 for the truck and $1,500 for the paint job value.

I was sick but I loved my truck RIP, so I didn't mind spending the money I did and I understood the trucks value was far less then I spent on it.

drunk driver with no insurance tee boned me at 8am in the morning and just sat there laughing about it, I bounced his head on the road a few times before the cops pulled me off him and when it went to court, all he got was a $150 fine or 10 days in jail for no insurance . he got time served for his 7th DUI while sitting in jail for a month before it went to court.

 

Congrats on making the decision OP. Look forward to hearing the good news and some road pics!

 

Thanks PeeRunner! Will definitely post autopsy results and photos ASAP! They thought they'd start autopsy tomorrow.....

Keakar, wow, what a heart breaking story! Holy cow, that is just beyond terrible! So sorry man. Such crap that the schmuck who did that wasn't brought to appropriate justice! Glad his head "accidentally" bounced a few times.......

Saw a thread on Taco World about a lady engine shopping due to spun rod bearing. Said they'd just bought their Taco for $8000 ONE MONTH BEFORE. Wow, that would really suck too! Your story tops even that though, Keakar. Hearing these stories puts my pity party into perspective!!

Gotta figure out how to make dancing Taco my signature!

 

Have them snap a pic of the #3 combustion chamber(bad cylinder) on the head once they are pulled off,,for curiosity's sake. If those have already been pulled and sent away,,no biggie.

It's either gonna look smooth and clean,,or beat with a gremlin hammer. Either way, it's a piece of the puzzle, and you learn a bit from it.

 

Good idea Mod, thank you! We talked in general about photos, but I like this specific request - just emailed them about it. This was my second email today to those guys - hopefully they haven't already labeled me as a stalker!! : )

Told them how I mentioned to "my forum guys" that I planned to make the piston into a rearview mirror decoration, then was advised not to unless I'm up for a new windshield too. They definitely got a kick out of that!

 

well it gets better because I bought a brand new 2014 Silverado and its a vibrating lemon (1 out of 5 of all the 2014 and 2015 GMC and chevy trucks are lemons) that GM cant fix and wont take back because they don't stand behind what they sell so now im on the hook to the tune of $30,000+ dollars so im in a lawsuit to force them to take it back. (good thing I bought the cheapest base work truck version or it would have been $50k)

the rainbow in this nightmare is it forced me to do what I should have done in the first place and I found a nice first gen taco so I have something to use and now I have a "good" truck to drive.

check out my video showing the problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppSl0D3AQm8&list=UUshVd9sb0v7viHk4h7MZKjg

 

I worked as an insurance adjuster for 2 years right out of college and saw it plenty. Also, during that time my mom's 1999 Dodge Intrepid was totalled, a few months after she spent $3500 to do a ton of maintenance on. The initial total loss settlement was right around $3500. Afrer talking to her company and submitting maintenance records, they adjusted the settlement to close to $4000.

So yeah Jen, there is no reason to let the insurance company know about you getting an engine rebuild - it wont effect your rate one way or another. However, it does effect the value of the truck in a positive way. If you were in an accident or something relatively soon after the rebuild, you could very likely use proof of the work done to adjust your settlement.

 

Sounds good, Moco - we'll definitely keep all receipts! Sorry that happened to your mom, that sounds awful!

I just created a user ID on Toyota.com - you enter your VIN #, and it pulls up all service records from dealers, and allows you to "add" your own records too. Gonna take advantage of that and get all records in there, plus use it to be better about keeping track of routine maintenance done at home - we want to be sure we do everything we can to allow us the best chance of warranty being honored if we run into hiccups w/new engine.

Keakar, wow. That really sucks dude! I hope that winds up working out in your favor. When you spend that much money on a truck, it should be completely perfect in every way, and diamonds should shoot out of the tail pipe in my opinion!!

 

Thanks Jen,

Thankfully she was and is OK. It was a relatively minor accident but the low value of the car totalled it. And this was in 2008.

I also have an account at Toyota owner but it doesnt display my truck's history at dealership's (Im not the first owner and have never taken it to a dealer). But it does allow me to log all the maintenance I do myself.

 

I know this is a bit of a thread jack here, but I would like to see some documentation proving that 1 of every 5 are lemons. I'm sorry, but I find that a bit hard to believe, even with the issues GM is having with their recalls and such. Technically you would have to have 3 repair attempts in a vibration before it could even be considered a lemon in the first place.

 

Thread jack away BamaToy! So grateful to you and all the other guys for all your help - Taco World buddies made a truly awful experience a whole lot less awful for us! : )

 

That sucks... plain and simple.

I'm as American as any career military type and I know damn well the USA is the best country in terms of security, medicine, etc..., but we cant design an American vehicle as well as the European and Asian vehicles.

Good luck Keakar with whatever outcome you get from your GMC problem.