Engine rebuilder?

Anonymous? Who do we know in Denver that has an 02 Corolla? I wonder who? Anyway, I'd drive through some trailer parks and find one that has an engine hanging from a tree. There's your guy.

A complete engine rebuild, properly done, is like a new engine. A dealer would provide Toyota's 12 month service parts warranty on the parts that were replaced, and a 30 day warranty on labor. A quality engine rebuild, whether done by a dealer or a competent shop, will probably cost at least $2,000, probably closer to $2,500.

Installing a rebuilt engine will probably cost about the same amount although the warranty on the engine might be a little better. The advantage of installing a rebuilt engine is that it takes a lot less skill to swap engines than it does to rebuild one.

The owners at my local garage stopped installing "remanufactured" engines becasue the quality was so bad. The remanufacturer always stood behind their products and would replace a poor quality rebuild, but they wouldn't comsenstate him for his time to do the second replacement. I haven't seen him actually rebuild an engine in years. He claims there isn't any profit in doing a rebuild, especially becasue he has to turn away oil changes, tune-ups, and brake jobs everyday becasue he doesn't have the room or mechanics to do them all.

Ed

That's the catch in installing "guaranteed" rebuilt engines - who pays for the labor? In many, if not most cases, it is the car owner.

From a shop production point of view, engine rebuilds take a lot of time, and honest shops are reluctant to charge for the amount of time it would take for a quality rebuild so they just pass on the work.

I looked into it and a company out of town wanted $1900 plus $400 for round trip freight. Then local labor pulling and putting it back, of course.

Actually, my mechanic took another look. He suspected an oil leak in the back of the engine before, but being it wasn't leaking on the driveway, we figured it wasn't that. But there was a plate around the back of the engine, and he looked again and said it looked like it was leaking pretty good, but still no oil in the driveway. But he went in there and found a compartment that had some kind of timing chain sensor? He said the "O" ring to the cover there was leaking. For $100 with labor, he fixed it, then changed the oil, which was due, and we're gonna wait and see now. Theory is that it may have just have been leaking while driving.

But he said he pulled one of the plugs and it was nice and clean, so he feels this was it.

There were some local rebuild shops but most of them didn't have feedback where I could tell anything online. One did, but it was not so good, and indicated unpleasant drama. Some people accused the manager of pocketing money, not doing the work right, and the owner never seeing it, and something about the manager being a convicted felon.

Have you checked the auto salvage yards? Here are some engines in the

1200 dollar range, looks like most of them have over 100K mile on them. I'd think you ought to be able to find one for 600 to 750 dollars. What is a 2002 corolla worth?

If you mechanic thought that a sensor at the back of the engine was a timing chain sensor, find a new mechanic because the timing chain is at the front of the engine.

Does the timing chain even have a sensor? And, if so, what does it do? I know a lot of engines have a crank position sensor, but I never heard of one for the timing chain.

Jeff

I'm probably misquoting him. Maybe a sensor near the timing chain?

Still the wrong part of the engine.

On Saturday, April 2, 2011 11:05:07 AM UTC-6, Ray O wrote:

That's about the deal. It's a lot of work to change an engine out. And if the rebuilt engine goes kaput, the installer will usually have to eat the extra labor to yank and reinstall. I can see how it could make them very nervous. I installed a rebuilt engine in my old 68 Ford truck in about 2002 or so. I forgot the year.. Even with an old truck like that, and the simplicity of the old six banger engines, it took me a good while to change them out. I was taking my time, and I think it took about eight days to completely do the job start to finish. My engine turned out to be fine, but if it hadn't , the extra labor I probably would have had to eat. :( In my case, I also repainted the engine well, inner fenders, firewall, etc.. So that added a little time. Plus painting the engine itself.. And as far as engines go, that truck was probably about as easy as you can get, being there is so much room under the hood. I'd dread changing the engine on one of these tight fitting new fangled cars.. And the skills required to properly rebuild a modern engine are generally greater than rebuilding a 60's era six banger. It's a definite crap shoot to the installer, and I can see how many would avoid the job if they had plenty of other work to do. Also, the skill of the installer is almost as important to the success of the engine change as the re-builder themselves. In fact, many of the engine re-builders got so tired of hacks ruining their rebuilt engines due to ineptitude they started requiring the installers to be certified mechanics if they want to take advantage of a warranty. The engine I bought had that clause in the paperwork even back then. Of course, I'm not a certified mechanic, but I decided to do it anyway as I had lots of mechanics to seek advise from during the job, and I didn't have the money to pay someone else to do it. I had no problems, and the engine is still running fine to this day. Probably because I took my time, "eight days worth" and made sure I did everything right. BTW, back then, I paid $770+tax for that rebuilt long block. It was a pretty good deal. I also installed a new clutch, pressure plate, bearing, etc, so that bumped the price up. Also new fuel pump, water pump, and maybe other parts I've forgot about. Probably about $1500 in parts by the time I was done. But that's an easy to rebuild old Ford engine.. You ain't gonna be seeing a Toyota engine rebuilt that cheap. Nope.. Ain't gonna happen. :(

A lot of engine have a cam position sensor, so maybe that is what they mean when they say timing change sensor.

Ed

I hope you are misquoting your mechanic and that you, and not your mechanic don't know where the "front" of an engine is.

There are 3 sensors in the general vicinity of the timing chain, and none would leak oil. The camshaft and crankshaft position sensors are under the valve cover and oil pan respectively, and are not visible without removing the cover or pan. The third sensor is a coolant temperature sensor, and as the name implies, it senses coolant temperature so if it leaked, it would leak coolant. There is an oil pressure switch (sometimes called a sender) near the timing chain, and people who are not knowledgeable about basic electricity might call it a sensor.

Good point - the timing chain does not have a sensor.

It is a sensor: It senses when the oil pressure is below a set point.

Jeff

Toyota calls the part "oil pressure switch" because it is a mechanical device that opens and closes a circuit. If oil pressure is high enough, it pushes a diaphragm, which opens a circuit and keeps the oil light from illuminating. If oil pressure is too low, the diaphragm relaxes, closes the circuit, and illuminates the light. The similarity between an oil pressure switch and door jamb switch is that oil pushes the switch in one case, and the door pushes the switch in the other.

Toyota's nomenclature uses the term "switch" for something that simply opens and closes a circuit, and "sensor" for something that sends a variable signal or voltage.

Examples of open-closed circuit switches in a Toyota are the oil pressure switch, door jamb switch, trunk light switch, low brake fluid level switch, parking brake warning light switch, etc.

Examples of sensors that give variable frequency or voltage are hall-effect sensors like crankshaft, camshaft, and ABS speed sensors; O2 sensors, coolant temperature sensors, transmission output shaft speed sensors, EGR valve position sensors, etc.