How Much Should A Rebuilt 3vz-fe Cost Me.

[3vz-fe]

ok first a little back ground, i am getting a 1993 ES 300 from my mother in law, and the car will need a engine.

The origianl engine has gone through 2 head gaskets, so i have 2 ways i can thinki can go

1. a junk yard motor

or

2. a rebuild motor

My question is how much should i be looking at for just the motor. also i am getting the car for free and i have done work on it for her like a new set of Eibachs and tokicos,and the over all shape is great. so i don't want to wast the car any help on price would be great.

Scott.

[ArmyofOne]

ok first a little back ground, i am getting a 1993 ES 300 from my mother in law, and the car will need a engine.

The origianl engine has gone through 2 head gaskets, so i have 2 ways i can thinki can go

1. a junk yard motor

or

2. a rebuild motor

My question is how much should i be looking at for just the motor. also i am getting the car for free and i have done work on it for her like a new set of Eibachs and tokicos,and the over all shape is great. so i don't want to wast the car any help on price would be great.

Scott.

dont rebuild you wont want to afford the parts.

pull the heads, replace with steel headgaskets, shave the head to spec (as it may have warped) and throw her backtogehter. total cost if done yourself, $200 MAX. Toysrme will tell you, he has done both gaskets on his car repeatedly and he can probably tell you word for word how to accomplish this.

[Toysrme]

Ya, the heads are probably warped - which keeps blowing the gaskets after awhile, or it has unresolved cooling issues - which keep overheating it, warping the heads, or stretching the block / head apart.

There is 0 supply of north american used engines. The 3vz-fe was only here for 92-93 in the ES / Camry. The few you'll find are general trash. Engine's that have completely been destroyed from lack of maintenece. The good news is there are a bunch of lower mileage engines being imported from Japan & Australia b/c they were used there from 92-97.5 & 92-96.

The only difference is the Japanese engine's don't have provisions for EGR, so NOX emessions will run high. No big deal... If you have emessions testing, simply swap your existing the North American rear exhaust manifold, EGR pipe, EGR cooler, and Upper Intake Air Chamber (With it's EGR valve & Vacuum modulator) onto the new engine.

You can find JDM engine's online at various JDM engine importers. They'res always a half dozen on ebay. BE SURE you hook it up quickly & do a compression test. Most engine's sold like that nly have like 14 day warrentee's.

Rebuilt engine's are extremely expencive. Actual new engine's from Toyota's parts division normally run over $2000. Generic rebuilt engine's run over $1500, and the simple fact is you can't find any because there is no demand for rebuild 3vz-fe's, and like we established first off - there is only a trickle of engine's to be rebuilt in the first place.

AFA the engine you've got. Take the heads off, have them milled flat for like $50-100. Check the block (It's iron, generally nothing happens to them, just clean them up good & give them a little lapping). Victor's Nitroseal's are the best gasket you can buy for them right now. Nobody has Multi-Layer Steel, or copper gaskets readily avalible for the engine.

You can get custom copper head gaskets cut out for $150-350. If you use copper gaskets, be sure they're coated, or you coat them with something so that the coolant passages seal well & tell your machinist you're going to be using copper gaskets. They'll put a different milling finish on them so they'll grab the copper gasket better.

It's a good time for maintenece. Change the timing belt, water pump, thermostat, radiator pressure cap & the fill pressure cap on the intake manifold along with the spakr plugs, distributor cap & rotor, drive belts & PCV valve.

Flush the coolant, check that the radiator isn't clogged - causing repeated problems. Flush the powersteering, change the differential fluid. Flush the engine crankcase (Oil supply) to clear debris, sludge & nasty *BLEEP* out of it & change the oil & filter.

Then drain the transmission fluid & drop the pan so you can see what condition the transmission is in. Then put that back together & flush the transmission fluid out.