Official jdm 3rz swap

Hey y’all if you remember my post earlier on these few weeks my head gasket blew on my 2.7l 3rz Inline 4. The rebuilt motor was not done right and clearly costed me. Although I was handed down this taco from my dad who had a untrustworthy guy rebuild it but oh well. Here we are!!

The cost of a rebuild when I was quoted was around 2800, just the head gasket job was gonna be 2300 so both were not the way for me. I don’t have any real good knowledge of jdm but I was willing to make the chance and get one. The jdm 3rz costed me 1700 plus maybe a few hundred for gaskets and etc.

there are a couple things that need to be swapped from original to jdm

• Oil pan (4x4)
• Timing cover for oil reading
• Intake and exhaust
• All pulleys, accessories

Other things I forgot to add, but oh well. When going to check out this motor I was nervous for sure cause they don’t do a compression test on it one shop did for me but their 3rz was in a outside yard in Japan and was salted to shit. This motor the one I purchased I looked in and out and around. Inside was very clean looked down spark plug holes pistons looked pretty darn good. It did have a ton of oil residue on it from most likely leaking from pan or timing cover but also these jdm motors are stacked on top of each other when shipped to the USA so another motor could of leaked on it, but I was replacing many things so I could care less Because I’m gonna reseal all of it.

this swap took me around 10 days mainly cause they weren’t full days on it, plus days for looking for the motor and getting parts. I did use their throttle body don’t know if it’s gonna be a issue so far not. I am only 10 miles in prob driven it around my neighborhood and down a few blocks. It idles well has good power. As far as I know right now I’ve got a good purchase going on. Here a few pictures of the swap

Old motor out
Assembling parts to jdm motor
Jdm motor in and everything together
Putting on oil pan

I’m making this thread to inform others because like me I couldn’t find any info on jdm swaps all I heard was their bad or good. I do not know the mileage on this motor but from looking inside and everything I would assume maybe 65-70k maybe. Let me know if you have questions

 

motor looks good! where did you order? think'n bout buy 'n one for a spare. got ~190k on mine and motor is tight... but eventually parts will be harder to get. yeah, keep us updated, glad you got roll'n again!

 

You can look up jdm shops around you their a plenty around me but I am in so cal. The only problem is I don’t know if all jdm sellers are trust worthy and not just trying to sell sell sell. I don’t really trust any of their opinion but my own. My jdm was fairly clean to clean for me to believe but it was lol

 

Nice

 

Awesome, good to hear you getting your back truck on the road.

I will argue the information part though lol you were given tons of info in your last thread

 

Well information as in swapping the jdm over or the head gasket I reached out to many members through pm to see their opinion on their jdm swaps and issues

 

Only got one issue which is seems to be burning oil on the outside near exhaust gonna clean the motor down and see maybe it’s just residue burning off

 

They are several of these motors listed on ebay.Im looking for a motor also,just haven't took a chance on one of the JMD motors for that price.

 

I wouldn’t buy from eBay I would go in person to a jdm place and look then

 

For anyone curious as me I found where this motor came out of is a third gen Toyota hiace van 4x4 produce from 1989-2004 with the 3rz 2.7l. I believe the one I have is most likely in the early 2000s because it has the cam position sensor on the head which I don’t use cause I’m on a distributer.

 

For anyone curious I have hit 10k! Miles on the jdm motor. Only noticing some valve noise didn’t check clearances, but I will soon plus it’s not quite which is good.

 

True dat. It’s really the only way to go once it’s time for head work.

 

13k miles now and I’m glad I checked the valves wish I did sooner lol. Exhaust side is pretty tight on clearance but intake side was all in specs. Checked compression just in case for the hell of it all in the 180s. Overall Its been good just got back from pismo beach 500 mile trip. Gonna fix the clearance on the exhaust side and should be good

 

Thanks for the updates.
Like Appalachia Man said, I'm thinking about buying 1 now for a spare down the road.
Mines still going strong at 258k, but nothing last forever, and parts will get harder to find as time goes by.
Keep us posted with your results.
Thanks.

 

Little baby send in the dunes

 

Nice job man but just wondering why didn’t you do a 3.4 swap

 

Because it’s a lot to swap that

 

have to change motor mounts and a bunch of other shit once u cross that path. Not worth it, spend the extra g's on a turbski and let it whirl

 

That JDM motor looks clean, I've always had luck sourcing a used JDM motor with low miles. I usually do a compression test and pop up the valve cover, it will tell you a lot about how it was taken care off. I've had less luck with junkyard motors, pop up the valve covers and find sludge, no go.