Rebuilt or used replacement engine?

So my recently purchased 2003 Tacoma (2weeks ago) spun a bearing and sent metal throughout the engine. Pretty bummed. Wife yelling at me, the whole turd sandwich basically. My mechanic says time for a new motor. Been looking online for a replacement engine. One mechanic stating just buy a rebuilt. Another stating better to by a used(untouched) motor and hope I pick a good one. Both sides make a good argument, which is why im here. Not sure what to do. Just wanted a reliable truck to drive my gear back and forth to the station, instead I got this mess. Any help would be great. Thanks in advance

 

Find a good salvage motor with lower miles, it will last longer then a rebuilt one.

 

I have found a couple used engines online. One locally. Owning stating 135-150,000 miles on it. Going to look at the motor this Sunday. What should I be looking for? Would this motor still be better than a rebuilt? Don't wanna get screwed again with another bad engine.

 

went through the same except metal flying all over. I ended up buying a used 70k JDM motor. there isn't much to look at except the outside of the motor. what you can do is ask if they've done a compression test on it and if so do they have the numbers. with used motor there is no telling what the motor been through. used motor will have oem parts where as some if not most rebuilt are built with cheap parts gaskets for example. if you end up getting rebuilt or used call and talk to them first.

 

Since your already most likely cut off for years !!

Ask the wife what you should do then all the blame can be put on her.

Since the dreaded Mechanic word is being used it is going to be expensive in any case.

If going with a rebuilt engine even if the engine has a great warranty your still paying labor to remove and replace.

Used engines myself only if I can hear and see them run even better if I can drive the vehicle

That is the problem with a used Engine you have no clue two weeks before the vehicle ended in the yard the engine was patched back together by the Quicky mart engine division

300,000 mile engine swapped into a vehicle with 125,000 on the odometer .

Things to think about

 

I did a full rebuild and honestly would just purchase an aftermarket/rebuilt motor with a warranty. I had another vehicle, but i'm probably 2500 to 3000 into this rebuild (oil pump broke on first startup and had to pull it completely apart again). I could have bought a crate motor and installed it for less (1 weekend). Again, I wanted to rebuild as i've never done it on a Tacoma, but I would not do it again unless I make my Taco a trail only rig.

 

Rebuilt motor will cost me 1325. Includes new water and oil pumps, pistons/rings, all bearings new etc. He is calling it a remanufactured engine. Install will be 900. Comes with a 1 yr warranty. Im starting to lean towards this option, only because at least the rebuilt has a warranty. Anybody have a rebuilt motor? how is it performing? Any issues I should expect versus an OEM motor? Thanks again for all the help.

 

I was going to go with a rebuilt but it would of cost me any where between 2.5-3k with oem gaskets. I got the used jdm for 1129 otd. rebuilt are good if they use oem gasket especially the head gasket (mls- multi layer steel). also you can find ones with a longer warranty.

 

I rebuilt mine 3.4 in my 4runner for less that $1000. That was 4 years and 62000 ago and I used oem parts and did all the work my self.

 

Go with a rebuilt motor , with a rebuilt motor you can build it to make more hp . With a custom built motor you can make it a stroker motor with a forged stroker crank then add stronger forged H beam rods . You can also get an aftermarket cylinder heads (s) With port work and make hp there

 

Some rebuilt engines are as good as or better then new factory engines. I've rebuilt a few. I took my parts to a machine shop where they built racing engines and worked on exotic stuff. I don't trust rebuilt engines from parts stores, they toss all the parts in a pile and get them mixed up. The factory makes an effort to make sure all the parts match, pistons match to with a gram or so. The assembly line rebuilders mix all the parts up and have minimum wage employees put the stuff together. A good machine shop statically and dynamically balances the engine to 0.1 gram, better than a factory engine. I've had excellent results with 3 engines rebuilt that way. It's been awhile so I don't know current costs but in Seattle there was a 3 times price difference between the most expensive and least expensive shops. The least expensive shop did the best work.

I believe this is the shop I used: Johnnie's Machine address:2121 Westlake Avenue,Seattle,Washington

Good luck.