I have a 95 camry that needs a used engine. I planning to put a used engine in it and give the car to my son. My problem is that - how do I know if the used engine is good or not ? What do I need check ? I can understand that there are no guarantees here.
Approximately 10/26/03 18:31, tom uttered for posterity:
You should be able to get a used engine with a minimal warranty. Is easiest if you live on the west coast, but the engine wholesalers that have engines from Japan will ship nationwide.
Other than that, the only way to know if a used engine is really good or not is to run it thru typical tests. If you are on minimal budget, you might try to find a recent wreck where the damage is not anywhere near the radiator or engine, the mileage is reasonably low, etc. These *may* cost more than the big used engine wholesalers down around Los Angeles.
A rebuilt 2 liter Camry engine appears to be about $2K with used down under a grand. If you have a local supplier you trust, they may be of help in knowing who some of the reliable used engine wholesalers are.
Japan Direct and Japan Unlimited used to be pretty good, *but* I haven't dealt with them personally. Watch out for the difference between used, refurbished, and rebuilt, and worse on the rebuilds what is actually replaced.
I have bought good Japanese engines, used, for $200-300 in the past. Supposedly imported from wrecked vehicles in Japan.
You have no way of knowing what you will get, other than to test as well as you can, take a risk.
First a question, the Camry engine should have been good for 250,000 to
300,000 miles... what happened?For the replacement, this is one of the easiest to find... 1992 to 1995 will work! They are cheap too... which is a good thing for such a decent car. Where do you live? That engine should be available within 100 miles for around $300.00 to $500.00 warrateed from a recycler. They may likely be able to install it for a couple hundred too... so if the motor is a toad, they will stand behind it and swap it for another at N/C.
Good luck!
Rob
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