whh333 Posted February 9, 2004 Share Posted February 9, 2004 I have decided to change out my 1993 SC300 engine with a lower mileage stock replacement after discovering head gasket or head problems with my engine (please see "Coolant Bubbling (boiling?) Through Reservoir, Need help figuring out why."). As far as the new engine, it is reported to be a 75,000 mile USA version with no problems. I plan to replace water pump, timing belt, check valve clearance, and replace plugs before installation. I will replace transmission mounts, probably motor mounts, all hoses, and any other rubber pieces I can find. I do not know if there are quality parts aftermarket for this or if I need to stick with Lexus parts. Any other ideas on how to tackle this would ba appreciated. My goal is low maintenance stock stuff, but I would not mind a custom look under the hood if I can get high quality stainless braided hoses. Thanks for any help. Bill Harrison Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jzz30 Posted February 9, 2004 Share Posted February 9, 2004 so your heads cracked huh? well if your looking for some good hoses OEM lexus hoses are best if your looking for more of a custom look then try samco they are high quality and strong and thy look kewl but they are ultra expensive did i mention they look cool? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TWINTURBO619 Posted February 9, 2004 Share Posted February 9, 2004 I have decided to change out my 1993 SC300 engine with a lower mileage stock replacement after discovering head gasket or head problems with my engine (please see "Coolant Bubbling (boiling?) Through Reservoir, Need help figuring out why."). As far as the new engine, it is reported to be a 75,000 mile USA version with no problems. I plan to replace water pump, timing belt, check valve clearance, and replace plugs before installation. I will replace transmission mounts, probably motor mounts, all hoses, and any other rubber pieces I can find. I do not know if there are quality parts aftermarket for this or if I need to stick with Lexus parts. Any other ideas on how to tackle this would ba appreciated. My goal is low maintenance stock stuff, but I would not mind a custom look under the hood if I can get high quality stainless braided hoses. Thanks for any help. Bill Harrison are you ripping out the whole engine or are you replacing the short block? just curious. i would go with the original lexus hoses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whh333 Posted February 9, 2004 Author Share Posted February 9, 2004 jzz30--I do not know if the head is cracked, but I have my suspicions. Hopefully, pulling the exhaust manifolds will reveal something. twinturbo619--The whole engine assembly will be changed out. Sounds like Lexus hoses. Bill Harrison Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JPI Posted February 9, 2004 Share Posted February 9, 2004 Why don't you pull the head off and see what's under there? Replacing the headgasket is a lot cheaper than a new long block. You don't just replace an engine because the headgasket is blown. JPI Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackSC4 Posted February 9, 2004 Share Posted February 9, 2004 if you do decide to drop a new engine in your car, i would go with JDM or something straight from japan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whh333 Posted February 24, 2004 Author Share Posted February 24, 2004 Well, yours truly is back to Square 1. My dream engine arrived and it looked great! Before I did a compression and cooling system leakdown test on it, I removed the drain plug to get out any old oil, and water came out of the pan. Leakdown was OK, Compression was bad on one cylinder, and Cam lobes were corroded, and rust residue was all through the engine and in the pan. The seller agreed to take the engine back, after telling me that I was just not familiar enough with engines to know that these were not serious problems. Twelve hours work and $200 in shipping down the drain. The reason I bought this engine was that the history was supposed to be known and an expert had checked it out. It probably was a great engine before he cleaned it, got water in it, and let it sit in his shop for a year. Will consider head gasket replacement. I am concerned about the Japanese engine sources because they do not know anything other than average miles on a Japanese engine. Have others had good luck or bad luck with these sources? One of them is engines-r-us, but there are a lot of others. Thanks. Bill Harrison Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mariaz Posted May 11, 2004 Share Posted May 11, 2004 Well, yours truly is back to Square 1. My dream engine arrived and it looked great! Before I did a compression and cooling system leakdown test on it, I removed the drain plug to get out any old oil, and water came out of the pan. Leakdown was OK, Compression was bad on one cylinder, and Cam lobes were corroded, and rust residue was all through the engine and in the pan. The seller agreed to take the engine back, after telling me that I was just not familiar enough with engines to know that these were not serious problems. Twelve hours work and $200 in shipping down the drain. The reason I bought this engine was that the history was supposed to be known and an expert had checked it out. It probably was a great engine before he cleaned it, got water in it, and let it sit in his shop for a year.Will consider head gasket replacement. I am concerned about the Japanese engine sources because they do not know anything other than average miles on a Japanese engine. Have others had good luck or bad luck with these sources? One of them is engines-r-us, but there are a lot of others. Thanks. Bill Harrison Hi, I was just wondering if you might have found out what the problem was with your car. I have a 1993 gs 300 and my husband drove the car (first mistake) he didn't notice that the temp went up really high after the check engine light came on and before he noticed it the car over heated and smoke along with steam came out. He kept adding water to the car and drove it home. He changed the termostat and now the temp is or seems good at times but the car has bubbles in the tank and the car keeps overheating. do you have any hints on this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TWINTURBO619 Posted May 12, 2004 Share Posted May 12, 2004 Well, yours truly is back to Square 1. My dream engine arrived and it looked great! Before I did a compression and cooling system leakdown test on it, I removed the drain plug to get out any old oil, and water came out of the pan. Leakdown was OK, Compression was bad on one cylinder, and Cam lobes were corroded, and rust residue was all through the engine and in the pan. The seller agreed to take the engine back, after telling me that I was just not familiar enough with engines to know that these were not serious problems. Twelve hours work and $200 in shipping down the drain. The reason I bought this engine was that the history was supposed to be known and an expert had checked it out. It probably was a great engine before he cleaned it, got water in it, and let it sit in his shop for a year.Will consider head gasket replacement. I am concerned about the Japanese engine sources because they do not know anything other than average miles on a Japanese engine. Have others had good luck or bad luck with these sources? One of them is engines-r-us, but there are a lot of others. Thanks. Bill Harrison Hi, I was just wondering if you might have found out what the problem was with your car. I have a 1993 gs 300 and my husband drove the car (first mistake) he didn't notice that the temp went up really high after the check engine light came on and before he noticed it the car over heated and smoke along with steam came out. He kept adding water to the car and drove it home. He changed the termostat and now the temp is or seems good at times but the car has bubbles in the tank and the car keeps overheating. do you have any hints on this i have the 93 gs3 and i had the same problem... my car temp had gone up and i added more water and coolant... replaced the thermostat and it was fine for a very good while. well after about a year or so, i got the same problem again. so i took it to a friend's shop and they told me it was the water pump. apparently this is what i picked up... after the car overheats, it blows out the water pump. the water pump doesn't give out at first, but the seals and plastic propellar begin to deterioate slowly which will start to release coolan in it's overflow pipe. they replaced it with a high performance pump where the propellar is now metal and it runs perfectly fine. when and if you decide to replace the pump, go ahead and replace the timing belt. the belt is probably around 20 bucks but well worth it because you're not paying for the labor. since they have to tear down the whole front end, the timing belt is exposed and you might as well change it out. i paid about 450 bucks which is very very cheap compared to the dealership. good luck with your car... take care of it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TWINTURBO619 Posted May 12, 2004 Share Posted May 12, 2004 I have decided to change out my 1993 SC300 engine with a lower mileage stock replacement after discovering head gasket or head problems with my engine (please see "Coolant Bubbling (boiling?) Through Reservoir, Need help figuring out why."). As far as the new engine, it is reported to be a 75,000 mile USA version with no problems. I plan to replace water pump, timing belt, check valve clearance, and replace plugs before installation. I will replace transmission mounts, probably motor mounts, all hoses, and any other rubber pieces I can find. I do not know if there are quality parts aftermarket for this or if I need to stick with Lexus parts. Any other ideas on how to tackle this would ba appreciated. My goal is low maintenance stock stuff, but I would not mind a custom look under the hood if I can get high quality stainless braided hoses. Thanks for any help. Bill Harrison hey what's up... sorry to hear about that engine block. instead of tearing down your old one and going through the hassle of wasting time, just buy the short block. it comes with everything and it's much cheaper to fix instead of having them replace the whole thing. call up a couple of jdm engine shops and ask them for a 93-97 2jz-ge engine block from a supra or lexus gs300. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mariaz Posted May 12, 2004 Share Posted May 12, 2004 Well, yours truly is back to Square 1. My dream engine arrived and it looked great! Before I did a compression and cooling system leakdown test on it, I removed the drain plug to get out any old oil, and water came out of the pan. Leakdown was OK, Compression was bad on one cylinder, and Cam lobes were corroded, and rust residue was all through the engine and in the pan. The seller agreed to take the engine back, after telling me that I was just not familiar enough with engines to know that these were not serious problems. Twelve hours work and $200 in shipping down the drain. The reason I bought this engine was that the history was supposed to be known and an expert had checked it out. It probably was a great engine before he cleaned it, got water in it, and let it sit in his shop for a year.Will consider head gasket replacement. I am concerned about the Japanese engine sources because they do not know anything other than average miles on a Japanese engine. Have others had good luck or bad luck with these sources? One of them is engines-r-us, but there are a lot of others. Thanks. Bill Harrison Hi, I was just wondering if you might have found out what the problem was with your car. I have a 1993 gs 300 and my husband drove the car (first mistake) he didn't notice that the temp went up really high after the check engine light came on and before he noticed it the car over heated and smoke along with steam came out. He kept adding water to the car and drove it home. He changed the termostat and now the temp is or seems good at times but the car has bubbles in the tank and the car keeps overheating. do you have any hints on this i have the 93 gs3 and i had the same problem... my car temp had gone up and i added more water and coolant... replaced the thermostat and it was fine for a very good while. well after about a year or so, i got the same problem again. so i took it to a friend's shop and they told me it was the water pump. apparently this is what i picked up... after the car overheats, it blows out the water pump. the water pump doesn't give out at first, but the seals and plastic propellar begin to deterioate slowly which will start to release coolan in it's overflow pipe. they replaced it with a high performance pump where the propellar is now metal and it runs perfectly fine. when and if you decide to replace the pump, go ahead and replace the timing belt. the belt is probably around 20 bucks but well worth it because you're not paying for the labor. since they have to tear down the whole front end, the timing belt is exposed and you might as well change it out. i paid about 450 bucks which is very very cheap compared to the dealership. good luck with your car... take care of it Hi, thank you for the post back on my problem. I am not sure about the history of this car, we purchased it last September and since then we had the timing belt replaced (not voluntary) and now this problem. When we first got the car the check engine light came on as well as another light that I think said track off. I drove the car for about a month or so and the light went off on it's own and it didn't turn back on at all. My husband took the car one Sunday and while he was driving it the check engine light came on but he didn't pay attention to it since this happened before to us. He didn't notice that the temperature went up so high and he noticed it when the steam started coming out of the hood. He kept adding water to the radiator and came home with the car. He replaced the thermostat and the next day I drove it to work, it didn't overheat the temperature showed all normal but when I lifted the hood I had bubbles in the tank. I didn't drive the car for the whole week and then again took it out last weekend and after about 30 minuets of driving the temperature went up high and the car started overheating. I am not sure what to do after this, since we have no idea what kind of problems, if any, did this car have before and now I am not sure if we should keep it or just do a fix and get rid of it. I love the car and have about 115K on it and my husband keeps telling me that once it overheated like it did that it's better to get rid of it. I am in a situation that he refuses to take it to a dealer since he doesn't trust them and I have no other choice but have him do a fix and get rid of it. I called him and told him what you indicated about the water pump and he didn't seem to think that would be the problem and he also said that the fan clutch isn't working properly. If you would like you can contact me on my email mzadravac@fei.org. I am from NJ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TWINTURBO619 Posted May 12, 2004 Share Posted May 12, 2004 Well, yours truly is back to Square 1. My dream engine arrived and it looked great! Before I did a compression and cooling system leakdown test on it, I removed the drain plug to get out any old oil, and water came out of the pan. Leakdown was OK, Compression was bad on one cylinder, and Cam lobes were corroded, and rust residue was all through the engine and in the pan. The seller agreed to take the engine back, after telling me that I was just not familiar enough with engines to know that these were not serious problems. Twelve hours work and $200 in shipping down the drain. The reason I bought this engine was that the history was supposed to be known and an expert had checked it out. It probably was a great engine before he cleaned it, got water in it, and let it sit in his shop for a year.Will consider head gasket replacement. I am concerned about the Japanese engine sources because they do not know anything other than average miles on a Japanese engine. Have others had good luck or bad luck with these sources? One of them is engines-r-us, but there are a lot of others. Thanks. Bill Harrison Hi, I was just wondering if you might have found out what the problem was with your car. I have a 1993 gs 300 and my husband drove the car (first mistake) he didn't notice that the temp went up really high after the check engine light came on and before he noticed it the car over heated and smoke along with steam came out. He kept adding water to the car and drove it home. He changed the termostat and now the temp is or seems good at times but the car has bubbles in the tank and the car keeps overheating. do you have any hints on this i have the 93 gs3 and i had the same problem... my car temp had gone up and i added more water and coolant... replaced the thermostat and it was fine for a very good while. well after about a year or so, i got the same problem again. so i took it to a friend's shop and they told me it was the water pump. apparently this is what i picked up... after the car overheats, it blows out the water pump. the water pump doesn't give out at first, but the seals and plastic propellar begin to deterioate slowly which will start to release coolan in it's overflow pipe. they replaced it with a high performance pump where the propellar is now metal and it runs perfectly fine. when and if you decide to replace the pump, go ahead and replace the timing belt. the belt is probably around 20 bucks but well worth it because you're not paying for the labor. since they have to tear down the whole front end, the timing belt is exposed and you might as well change it out. i paid about 450 bucks which is very very cheap compared to the dealership. good luck with your car... take care of it Hi, thank you for the post back on my problem. I am not sure about the history of this car, we purchased it last September and since then we had the timing belt replaced (not voluntary) and now this problem. When we first got the car the check engine light came on as well as another light that I think said track off. I drove the car for about a month or so and the light went off on it's own and it didn't turn back on at all. My husband took the car one Sunday and while he was driving it the check engine light came on but he didn't pay attention to it since this happened before to us. He didn't notice that the temperature went up so high and he noticed it when the steam started coming out of the hood. He kept adding water to the radiator and came home with the car. He replaced the thermostat and the next day I drove it to work, it didn't overheat the temperature showed all normal but when I lifted the hood I had bubbles in the tank. I didn't drive the car for the whole week and then again took it out last weekend and after about 30 minuets of driving the temperature went up high and the car started overheating. I am not sure what to do after this, since we have no idea what kind of problems, if any, did this car have before and now I am not sure if we should keep it or just do a fix and get rid of it. I love the car and have about 115K on it and my husband keeps telling me that once it overheated like it did that it's better to get rid of it. I am in a situation that he refuses to take it to a dealer since he doesn't trust them and I have no other choice but have him do a fix and get rid of it. I called him and told him what you indicated about the water pump and he didn't seem to think that would be the problem and he also said that the fan clutch isn't working properly. If you would like you can contact me on my email mzadravac@fei.org. I am from NJ. hey how are you doing? well obviously not good because of the car. well lets see... what are symptoms of your car at the moment. i'm randomly throwing out symptons and answers: 1. when you park your car, do you see coolant on the floor? if yes, then check to see if it's coming from the front end of the engine... around the fan aread... if it is, then it's your water pump. 2. remove your air ram scoop from the top of the radiator and look to see if you have fine cracks running along the plastic top of the radiator... this will cause leakage and for your reservoir tank to bubble. 3. when the car is cold, pop open the hood and remove the radiator cap. start the car while looking at the area where the radiator cap went. if you see coolan/water shoot out, then you have a compression problem which means you have a fine crack on your head gasket. 4. to check for blow head gasket... take out the dipstick and see if it looks like milk chocolate or something to that look. if you see a coffee brown looking color that means that the oil, coolant, and water mixed and inturn tells you that you have a blown head gasket. if this is the case, just purchase the short block and have it installed. this will be a lot cheaper than taking it to a shop and having them to tear down the whole top half of the engine to replace the headgasket... that and because you'll be getting a lower mileage engine... say like 50k and below. check all these to see what's going on with the car. 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Lex Luthor Posted May 12, 2004 Share Posted May 12, 2004 Bill Harrison call up a couple of jdm engine shops and ask them for a 93-97 2jz-ge engine block from a supra or lexus gs300. Careful, their '97 is very different... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TWINTURBO619 Posted May 12, 2004 Share Posted May 12, 2004 Bill Harrison call up a couple of jdm engine shops and ask them for a 93-97 2jz-ge engine block from a supra or lexus gs300. Careful, their '97 is very different... ah... true that... the vvti's kick in 97+ correct? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bean_8044 Posted May 13, 2004 Share Posted May 13, 2004 ok, we need to take it a bit easy on the quotes here.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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