Wasn't expecting this until Friday but showed up today... glad I was around and the forklift started...
You never know what will show up with an ebay purchased engine, but I feel pretty good about this one at first sight... around 110k came out of a 2003 4runner Georgia car, the vin checked out, truck was sold at a salvage auction recently with right front impact damage... the seller did call and get my vin# and a picture showing the miles on my truck because it comes with a 6mo 6000mile warranty... It showed up right at noon and I had a few things going on, but I got to spend a couple hours with it...
WHAT I look for... of course I'm always pleased the more stuff the yard leaves on... they left the wiring harness but they cut it at the firewall.. they cut the coolant hoses, left all the coil packs...(some yards do, some dont) they kept the exhaust manifolds but all studs are intact and in the head... (usually a few back out of the head when removing the manifolds) they left the factory gaskets... they left the throttle body again some yards don't...
Only way these engines will bolt upto my motor stands.... with the bolts I have, is to remove the flywheel/flexplate again they left it some yards don't...
If.... I'm happy with what showed up.... The first thing I look at with my powerful mag light... is I look into the exhaust ports... the color, the carbon build-up, the valve stems, do all the ports LOOK the same?
so far so good... pull the flex plate This is a real good, often overlooked gauge of the engine... is it clean? = no rear seal leaks... little to no wear= low mile engine that started quickly... it's also some indication of the shape the starter is in... it's rare that a yard will take the time to pull the starter on these engines but I believe LKQ does... this did have the larger 2kw starter and it looks good...
Next I pulled all the wire harness off up to the starter... seems some of the Toyotas have 2 pc harnesses where the starter harness is separate from the main harness... this 03 4runner was not that way...
pulled the cut coolant hoses off.. was glad to see the lack of any corrosion... next pulled the intake manifold / throttle body... again I have to look at the intake ports and the valve stems... pretty clean ports... here it is hard for them all to look the same, but you can look at the carbon pattern, I did see something I have never seen before... carbon build up on one spot, on just about every valve to the inside of the valve stem on the backside of the valve downstream of the intake... like the valve stem blocks the flow and creates an "eddie" where deposits can form... kinda strange because I always understood that valves rotated to a small degree... anyway... nothing real alarming... pulled the starter and the rest of the wire harness with it...
Next: and this is the make or break part... pulled the oil pan (you have to use the LC pan on whatever 4.7 engine you use) no surprises here... I can tell you a couple things... when I flipped the engine over it was still full of pink toyota coolant made a huge mess but I was glad to see it...and they did not use synthetic oils... had that semi burnt orange look inside ... but no weird buildups or parts and pieces inside that shouldn't be... I can look and still see the cross hatch hone on the cylinder walls...the underside of the pistons are all the same color, no signs of heat at any of the wrist pins on around any of the journals (rod or main)... I also look at the ring land port holes for signs of excessive bypass gases... ( a sign of worn rings)... that is as far as i got in 2 hours... tomorrow if I have time... I'll clean and install the LC oil pan & pickup, and I'll do the timing belt and water pump service... maybe install the LC harness and intake... I have a set of injectors from the 80k donor engine I put in my wife's LX which have to be better than the 305k that I'm sure the LC injectors had...
got a chance to look at the front shocks I took off the LC yesterday... pretty sure they were the original shocks to the truck from 1998..
You never know what will show up with an ebay purchased engine, but I feel pretty good about this one at first sight... around 110k came out of a 2003 4runner Georgia car, the vin checked out, truck was sold at a salvage auction recently with right front impact damage... the seller did call and get my vin# and a picture showing the miles on my truck because it comes with a 6mo 6000mile warranty... It showed up right at noon and I had a few things going on, but I got to spend a couple hours with it...
WHAT I look for... of course I'm always pleased the more stuff the yard leaves on... they left the wiring harness but they cut it at the firewall.. they cut the coolant hoses, left all the coil packs...(some yards do, some dont) they kept the exhaust manifolds but all studs are intact and in the head... (usually a few back out of the head when removing the manifolds) they left the factory gaskets... they left the throttle body again some yards don't...
Only way these engines will bolt upto my motor stands.... with the bolts I have, is to remove the flywheel/flexplate again they left it some yards don't...
If.... I'm happy with what showed up.... The first thing I look at with my powerful mag light... is I look into the exhaust ports... the color, the carbon build-up, the valve stems, do all the ports LOOK the same?
so far so good... pull the flex plate This is a real good, often overlooked gauge of the engine... is it clean? = no rear seal leaks... little to no wear= low mile engine that started quickly... it's also some indication of the shape the starter is in... it's rare that a yard will take the time to pull the starter on these engines but I believe LKQ does... this did have the larger 2kw starter and it looks good...
Next I pulled all the wire harness off up to the starter... seems some of the Toyotas have 2 pc harnesses where the starter harness is separate from the main harness... this 03 4runner was not that way...
pulled the cut coolant hoses off.. was glad to see the lack of any corrosion... next pulled the intake manifold / throttle body... again I have to look at the intake ports and the valve stems... pretty clean ports... here it is hard for them all to look the same, but you can look at the carbon pattern, I did see something I have never seen before... carbon build up on one spot, on just about every valve to the inside of the valve stem on the backside of the valve downstream of the intake... like the valve stem blocks the flow and creates an "eddie" where deposits can form... kinda strange because I always understood that valves rotated to a small degree... anyway... nothing real alarming... pulled the starter and the rest of the wire harness with it...
Next: and this is the make or break part... pulled the oil pan (you have to use the LC pan on whatever 4.7 engine you use) no surprises here... I can tell you a couple things... when I flipped the engine over it was still full of pink toyota coolant made a huge mess but I was glad to see it...and they did not use synthetic oils... had that semi burnt orange look inside ... but no weird buildups or parts and pieces inside that shouldn't be... I can look and still see the cross hatch hone on the cylinder walls...the underside of the pistons are all the same color, no signs of heat at any of the wrist pins on around any of the journals (rod or main)... I also look at the ring land port holes for signs of excessive bypass gases... ( a sign of worn rings)... that is as far as i got in 2 hours... tomorrow if I have time... I'll clean and install the LC oil pan & pickup, and I'll do the timing belt and water pump service... maybe install the LC harness and intake... I have a set of injectors from the 80k donor engine I put in my wife's LX which have to be better than the 305k that I'm sure the LC injectors had...
got a chance to look at the front shocks I took off the LC yesterday... pretty sure they were the original shocks to the truck from 1998..
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