135,000 miles needing a new engine Advice

Have him toss in the stainless steel headers for free and make a deal.

 

A generic engine swap quote, regardless of model or engine size, is usually around 1,000 in NYS. For a 4cyl taco quotes seem to be just around 850-1200. Its less than 10 hours labor, (a skilled mechanic or a team can get it done in 8 or less), so it ends up being dependant on the labor rate per hour, which around here is 85-110

 

true, but its also pretty easy to overtorque bolts on the headers, throttle body, pulleys, etc which will lead to premature failure down the road. You can have some redneck slap it in and hand tighten everything for 500 bucks and hope he wasnt hammered on mic ultra the whole time, or you can pay a reputable shop a fair price and have a warranty on the work with a much better chance it was done methodically, correctly, and bolts/clamps were installed to spec. Just my two cents having had a engine replaced twice different vehicles.

 

Haha, yup, that’s with a clutch to or so. so it would be less if an auto, but a snapped exhaust head stud or two can change things

 

This truck has headers and those nuts and bolts are a huge hassle to get to and remove, especially the drivers side in particular.
Hopefully they dont break the studs off in the heads just to get the motor out and headers off.

If you buy this motor make sure ALL the exhaust studs are accounted for that hold the headers on.

 

even if the engine you buy has snapped studs, you can bore them out and grab new ones for less than ten bucks for the pack of studs. Still, its a hassle you can avoid by patiently shopping for the right block.

 

Random question . Did you run synthetic initially with your new short block ? Or did you use a conventional oil for the break in period ?

Some people say conventional 1st then synthetic

 

This was found in one of my cylinders. Not sure what it is but nice to know what ended my 3.4

 

I had to take the motor out of my 96 4X4 twice in 6 months due to bad timing... one to replace a rear core plug, the second to replace the exhaust crossover. In between I had to replace the brake vacuum booster... the amount of room with the vacuum booster off is pretty good. 3 minutes and 6 bolts for all of that room. It is coming off everytime from now on. It just might give enough room with headers...

 

I second this route!