I have a Toyota Z-ace. the engine has serious ring wear and it is spewing smoke.
Mechanics are quoting me the price of the van to fix the problem. ie 40 000 nt or thereabouts.
I have tried to explain to them that a second hand engine will be cheaper than all the work. they say that it is illegal to put another motor in your car.
Is this for real??? :loco: I cannot believe that you can’t change engines. Anyone have experience of this? I’vedone it in the past in the western world, it is a rigmarole, getting clearances etc. but it can be done and it is a hell of a lot cheaper than replacing rings, valve seals etc.
You can legally swap an engine of the exact same brand, capacity and series as the original. It is a pain in the ass, but there are agents and middlemen who do all the form filling and standing in line for you. Your current mechanic has a vested interest in rebuilding the engine for you rather than swapping it for a newer one. Find another one.
A Zace longblock you should be able to pick up for 10k or so at the breakers and it should be 5k to 7k in labor to swap it. Add another grand or so for the paperwork if you use a middleman.
They could do the same, however, as redwagon implied you are doing this legally and will thus have the new engine registration number on your car registration.
Note: Not all mechanics here know/are willing to do this. Check around until you find one that can.
Oh yeah, and if you want a laugh ask your mechanic to show you the cleanroom where he was planning to rebuild your engine to the highest professional standards.
Can not be done here in I lan county. Every mechanic gave me the same story. Afetrr a dozen I gave up. You cannot change engines was the song they all sang. I ended up selling the van as scrap for 10000 nt. It was going to cost me 40000 to get the rings done and then of course the valve seals and then the drive bearing would go next and…as it happened the clutch died on the way to the maccie who bought it off me…
I remember in an older post about a mech. that does these engine swaps. Phone # - 02-2664-7829
“You can legally swap an engine of the exact same brand, capacity and series as the original.”
If this vehicle were in the US, the average Joe would probably upgrade the engine to a 22R as it has the same block (I think) and was the last incarnation of the inline 4 cylinder engines. In the US, you would go and get a complete engine from he ‘Pick n Pull’ for less than 10, 000 NT and drop it in on a weekend replacing things along the way like the clutch assembly, water pump, ect . . .
Just to be sure. It must be the SAME engine model and configuration? Really?
[quote=“Ryan”]
Just to be sure. It must be the SAME engine model and configuration? Really?[/quote]Yup. No deviation from OE spec is allowed. The only way you can change the engine number on the rego is where the new engine is of the exact same series as the orignal. Even then it’s a royal PITA.
Some imported cars do not have the engine number on the rego, just the VIN. That is why a US built Civic is worth more than one assembled by Sanyang. You can drop another engine in there as long as it’s the same capacity, so it’s common to see these with twin-cam vtecs installed.
