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

called B & R auto wrecking http://www.autowrecking.com/parts/s...ber=&hollander_number=&submit_form=&store_id=

lowest miles they had was 139,000 for $1200, said 3 month part warranty, already compression tested. warranty is on long block and heads he said, so i assume he means no warranty on "dressing" - he definitely said no warranty on fuel injectors, no warranty against oil leaks. comes w/timing belt, fuel injectors, but no water pump. said they'd stand behind a part that failed, meaning if we had a problem within 3 months, they'd replace the part that failed - so i asked, if a cylinder head was faulty, would they swap it? he said in that case, would probably just replace whole thing, but pending what's broken they'd replace the part, but would not cover additional labor costs associated w/replacing the part. i wanted to ask a billion more questions, but the guy had lines on hold and had to go. i'm sure part of that was he's used to talking to dudes who do this all the time and don't have a bunch of dumb questions like mine. guys? help! is this any good? what else should i ask if i'm brave enough to harass this guy more?

 

called another one that's supposed to call me back, its' called A & G auto recycling http://www.toyotarecycling.com/home

saw they had some of our engines on carparts.com.

talked to husband, he supports exploring the used thing if that's what i want to do for now. so at least that worry is gone!

 

question, when a car is wrecked as severely as this:http://www.ebay.com/itm/Toyota-5VZ-...Parts_Accessories&hash=item19f7782a21&vxp=mtr
isn't it possible things got bumped, even just a fraction of a millimeter, in the engine? but is that irrelevant because of compression testing?

 

just found warranty details and what's included on that used motor on their website -

 

everybody disappeared! what, do you guys actually have your own lives to attend to?!??! how dare you!

 

looked on Milliron Knuckleduster, they don't have our engine. Thanks for the tip though!

 

Online wrecking yards are luck of the draw, almost none of them have the actual part in their yard but have access to a wrecking database for parts. When I was chasing mine it became apparent that they were in the middleman position for a quick buck. The engine I ordered was "guaranteed" to be in no worse than b+ condition (apparently they rank them in the industry) with 76k miles. Sounded really good. When it showed up, it looked great, very clean, had aftermarket plug wires etc that looked like it was really taken care of.

But.

Written above each cylinder was the compression numbers, some in single digits. The tag was labeled as a "D-, rebuildable core". That didn't make me happy. When I called in they offered to exchange it without extra shipping, claimed it was a mistake and 'their guys' must have just pulled the wrong engine. And they promised I would be shipped the one I had ordered. When I asked them for details on that engine, long pause and "What you were promised". Obviously there were no specs as they were just going to punch an order in for the first available engine.

2nd came in looking like it was stored on the bottom of a lake and they shipped 1/2 the mud with it. Every seal was leaking, the testing numbers rubbed off, the tag was missing. Again not happy. Company wouldn't take it as a return until after I installed it to see if it would run. Bad CS to say the least. After a lot of cleanup and installed it did run, but was obviously not what I had ordered.

So, take what they say on the phone with a grain of salt unless you can actually go there and inspect it before they pull it.

Other than that, the warranties are long block and head only, no accessories. Most require that for the warranty to be used the engine has to have fresh seals, plugs, wires, and thermostat installed prior to use.

Short of a front end collission or a roll over, I wouldn't worry too much about engine damage from a wreck. The odds of their being in issue are very small. Drop the pan when you get it and see what resided within, make sure it spins freely. Swapping engines is a pain, but not nearly the pain involved in a full tear down and rebuild.

The toyota engines are surprisingly good. The one with the cracked head ran well enough I wouldn't have suspected an issue except for the lack of heat. Idled fine, pulled fine, and it had 260k on the odo.

 

Other than carparts.com, best places to research used engines?

 

Stange he would include the timing belt, but no water pump? The timing belt drives the water pump. I would ask more info before buying from that guy.

Automotix.com has some used engines as well. Shipping is included in the price on 99% of their major parts.



I have a thought for you. The shop is quoting close to $200 to clean your injectors. There is a company that I use on eBay that sells brand new, smoother pattern injectors for these engines for a lot less than this guy cleaning them. Just a thought. I have bought their injectors before and put them in customer vehicles and they work great. Had one Toyota truck owner say it never ran smoother than it did after I replaced them.

 

I know there are a few salvage yards that will offer a lifetime warranty on a used engine we have one locally that I use called Milliron recycling in Ohio for like an extra $200 they will give you an extra extended warranty on the engine itself only not labor this might also be a viable option for you.

 

How long do you plan on keeping this truck once it's running again?

 

she said they wanted to keep it forever

provide a link for that please, if it helps my 4 banger run smoother its worth $200

and are the injectors the same part for v6 and 4 cylinder? (im assuming yes)

 

The injectors are different between the I4 and the V6. They have different flow rates. The injectors I have bought were from Injectordyne on eBay, but it looks like they don't have any for either engine at the moment.

 

Thanks Bamatoy. That's definitely worth checking out, I'd love to see the link too!

FileFR, as long as it keeps going. We'd drive it forever if we could. Really though, we've discussed potential future tranny prob's, which would definitely suck, but still, we figure ~3000 worst case, so we'd still come out cheaper than buying a newer version of this. Assuming other stuff doesn't come up. What the heck else is there that costs a lot besides engine and tranny though? Our roads aren't salted, so body is in great shape, except for when my husband side swiped a small tree, and tons of tiny scratches from tree/bush branches.

The second junkyard called back, they don't have our motor but asked me to email photos of Taco, so they could consider buying her. Haven't heard back on that, but am curious what he'd give for her, piston hole and all.....doubt it'd be enough to convince me to let go.

Been looking at used Tacos online, found one in Kingston, NY for $14K w/43,000 miles. It's suspicious because it's a 2002 - so somebody only drove a Taco an average of 3,000 miles per years? Weird. Called the dealer, they said sure, you can buy it and make arrangements to have it shipped. Guessing that would drive the price up a lot. And what happens if it arrives and you don't like it? Too bad. Hmmm, probably not a great plan. Anybody live in Kingston, NY and want to drive it out here? I'll give you a '98 Taco w/a hole in a piston!

Just saw your post Bamatoy, ah well, that was a good idea about the injectors. Thanks for checking on it. Gonna check out that used engine site you gave me now!

 

Indy, what I'm hearing from you is it's better to go in person and see what you're getting, and otherwise the risks go up. I looked at the link Bamatoy just provided, and it looks like a good option - 113,000 miles for ~$1600 - but not sure if I'm willing to do the back and forth shipping/exchange thing described by Indy. Sounds stressful. Right now I'm googling wrecking yards in my area (Portland), to see if any nearby (that we could actually go to) have something.

Getting discouraged though, leaning back to the easy, but expensive route - $4500 guy, as yet another day of research ends without finding a better option. Are you guys thinking that's a bad option because other expensive stuff is likely to break on a truck this old & with this many miles and we'll wish we'd either done a cheaper engine or replaced her altogether? Seriously, what else is really expensive to fix that would be likely to break in the next 10 years, other than tranny?

 

Bamatoy, would you buy this engine, if for some reason you weren't able to get the reman'd motor you recommended all along? Do you know if it comes w/all the stuff we'd need, like timing belt, water pump, etc? Wonder if they'd cover costs to ship it back if it turned into a situation like Indy described. I saw there's a 1 yr warranty w/it, that seems good. Would love to save all that cash by going this route instead, and I bet husband & neighbor could handle the swap. Even if we paid someone to do it, we'd still save a bundle, like many of you have pointed out. Hmmm. What do you guys think? Would you buy this motor?

Wait, what about all the points people made about seeing in person, selecting from a wrecked car, etc.......do you just not worry about that cuz it's got a warranty, so you assume if it still runs well at the end of 1 year, you're likely good to go?

 

Thought I'd lighten the bummer mood of this engine nightmare w/some photos. Taco getting filled w/river rock ~1 month ago for a drainage project, and Taco taking us through some extremely remote portions of Hell's Canyon in eastern Oregon in July. Saw 3 bighorn sheep and countless deer on that looooooooooooooooooooooooooong windy dirt road, and ran over a rattlesnake. The little store in the teeny town there has a rattlesnake feed every summer, cuz there's so many of them. Because of this, we didn't make it very far on that hike - too paranoid! It's funny, when this problem started, I was heading to that same landscape supply in the river rock photo, about to get another load of gravel. You think she knew that and was like, I'm TIRED, stop!!!!!!

 

This one was over in eastern Oregon, in the middle of NOWHERE. What seemed like a million miles of dirt roads to get to this really cool area called the Honeycombs. We almost didn't do that drive, cuz we'd heard if it rained, those roads would become impassable slop. And as you can see, the sky didn't look too promising. And if you got stuck out there, forget about cell reception or tow trucks. Good luck, basically. But we went for it, cuz we trusted Taco. And we made it!

 

Those pics of a wrecked car don't bother me at all. Thats how I buy mine. I put them back together. My last 5 toyota trucks were wrecks and I was not able to hear any of them run before I purchased.

There is the chance things can get "bumped". Most cases the engines are protected by the frame, so lots of force needs to be applied to get to the engine.

This one here, my present project, the engine & transmission was pushed over so far, the front drive shaft, ujoint wore a hole in the transmission pan. The person who wrecked it must have tried to drive out of the ditch or whatever and put it FWD. I was pretty sure I was putting a transmission in it. After I pulled the pan, I found out there was no contact to the internal componants of the transmission. Switched pans and it shifts fine.

Basicly, what I'm saying, is the 3.4 motor is so reliable, that I have no fear buying one that is used.

My present daily driver is a second gen tundra, which was my spare vehicle. My primary vehicle was a 1998 3.4 4 x 4 ex-cab. The frame rotted out from under the truck and the body was not worth trying to get the frame replace. I told the wife I have to take it off the road and look for something else. She wanted me to try to find a 2nd gen Tacoma project to replace the 1998. I told her I wanted another 1st gen tacoma. I looked for a full year before I found this current truck.