I bought a n.a. soup from a guy that said it had a jdm ge in it. Died 6 months after I sold it. I always maintained it too. Never did take it apart though.
How reliable is purchasing a JDM engine?
- Thread starter jcarlson73
- Start date
Read the fine print. If you do it yourself its usually not covered. It has to be done by a certified mechanic.
seems like a lot of people are saying getting a used engine is a bad idea... but IMO it's not a bad option, especially if you can get one w/ super low miles....
I bought a jdm 7mgte from jazzproparts ($900 or so) when mine ate it's-self (think it suffered internal damage from overheating too much/too severely before I got it) anyhow, it came with some sort of warantee... engine ran good and strong for a long time (had pretty low miles too) it fried when I tuned it and ran it for a long time w/ a SAFC @ ~400bhp (safc is like playing with fire) when you go and modify the air flow signal you're skewing your timing maps as well... and if you happen to overboost, it's not hard to hurt your engine. I think the engine was still good (melted pistons aside) but I never got to re-build it, since that car was stolen.
of course when I got the engine, I tore it down and checked pretty much everything I could, replaced gaskets, seals, then torqued the head down PROPERLY so the HG wouldn't blow.
for the record my engine had about 20k miles when I got it. harness was chopped all to hell and it came w/ an auto trans.
I bought a jdm 7mgte from jazzproparts ($900 or so) when mine ate it's-self (think it suffered internal damage from overheating too much/too severely before I got it) anyhow, it came with some sort of warantee... engine ran good and strong for a long time (had pretty low miles too) it fried when I tuned it and ran it for a long time w/ a SAFC @ ~400bhp (safc is like playing with fire) when you go and modify the air flow signal you're skewing your timing maps as well... and if you happen to overboost, it's not hard to hurt your engine. I think the engine was still good (melted pistons aside) but I never got to re-build it, since that car was stolen.
of course when I got the engine, I tore it down and checked pretty much everything I could, replaced gaskets, seals, then torqued the head down PROPERLY so the HG wouldn't blow.
for the record my engine had about 20k miles when I got it. harness was chopped all to hell and it came w/ an auto trans.
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I hope you're not assuming that's what I did, because you'd be mistaken
mine came w/ paperwork stating mileage of the vehicle it was pulled from (wrecked a70) when I pulled it apart it was obvious it'd been sitting in a junk yard for a looong time. had an easy life though... hardly any carbon buildup
mine came w/ paperwork stating mileage of the vehicle it was pulled from (wrecked a70) when I pulled it apart it was obvious it'd been sitting in a junk yard for a looong time. had an easy life though... hardly any carbon buildup
Well, if it had paperwork.......then its legit ! should of said that in the first place!
Point is that they are not reliable. You still have to tear them open, check internals, refresh, and rebuild if needed.
Point is that they are not reliable. You still have to tear them open, check internals, refresh, and rebuild if needed.
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I have been researching a lot recently and the more I find the more it seems that the 7mgte is very unreliable, even if it is well maintained. If i could get a 2jz to smog, I may go down the engine swap road.
I bought one back in December, installed it early January and so far been vary happy with it. It did not come out of a Supra tho, most likely a Cressida, I had to use my old oil pan, oil pump, throttle body and intake manifold, but once everything was installed it ran like a new car. Save as mush of the old engine as possible (including the knock sensor), you can sell a lot of the parts on ebay and keep some of them for your self because this car has parts that are not available from Toyota anymore. I got my engine from http://www.jdmtigerjapanese.com Best of luck.
I bought one back in December, installed it early January and so far been vary happy with it. It did not come out of a Supra tho, most likely a Cressida, I had to use my old oil pan, oil pump, throttle body and intake manifold, but once everything was installed it ran like a new car. Save as mush of the old engine as possible (including the knock sensor), you can sell a lot of the parts on ebay and keep some of them for your self because this car has parts that are not available from Toyota anymore. I got my engine from http://www.jdmtigerjapanese.com Best of luck.
A good rebuild on a 7mgte or 7mge engine will run you about $3250, $1300 sounds like it's only a head job and not a vary good one at that, especially in Sacramento. I saved about $1500 going the JDM route, I admit it was some what of a gamble, but it work out for me.
PaulDoug;1931014 said:
You probably got lucky, I've never read anything good about Tiger Japanese, and the motor I received from them was total garbage.
I agree with hvyman, the OP should just rebuild.
At best 20 year old junk, at worst 20 year old broken junk that you need to pull and exchange at your own expense...
You can be sure they don't pay for fluids and labour under the warranty.
You can be sure they don't pay for fluids and labour under the warranty.
yeah, if you didn't you'd be asking for it to blow up in your face... and if not that, it'd probably chew it's insides up and deposit them in your oil filter (slightly after blowing various seals/gaskets)S.A. supra;1930892 said:
Any junkyard engine is unreliable, and even the "low mileage" JDM engines are still junkyard engines. By now too, they're 20+ year old junkyard engines. There's also going to be a reason why they're in a junkyard. Generally well maintained cars aren't exactly the mainstay of the junkyard.jcarlson73;1930923 said:
That said, you might get the engine from someone's beloved car which they had intended to keep forever, until it was suddenly rear-ended. It's just far moire likely that you'll get the engine from the car that someone just didn't want to bother with fixing anymore.