Lexus4You

I purchased a used 3vz-fe directly imported from japan for my 93 es300.... hence the company name japan direct.... about a year ago for $900, being promised that it had less than 100,000 miles on it..... installed the engine about a few months ago and just yesterday, finally got it started...

i read on the fourms here that you CANT put an engine from japan in a USA car... but I DID IT!!... now some of the problems i ran into are the intake.... the intake on the japan engine has an electric choke on it and no EGR anything.... i believe in foreign counties they dont require any polution control... i could be wrong.. but this engine has nooooo EGR or anything at all for this... the fuel rails are completely different and the EGR module is gone.. and there is no fuel heater on the side of the intake... or what ever its called..and some missing plugs...

when i start it up the engine runs fine and sounds better than the previous 220,000 mile engine which i replaced with this one... but the only problem is that i am not geting a reading on the temp gauge... and the hydraulic fan wont turn off.... so obviously some sensor problems... dont know where they are or where they arent... i know that some plugs are not plugged in ... but the reason for that is, i cant find anywhere to plug them in....

Any help would be GREAT!!!!....btw... does anyone know if they still require 93 model cars to pass emissions in NC??????

Choas

to CL first off and second have you tried the search tool to see some other guys here jdm swap threads? Third idk about nc but I know in upstate ny 96 and older do not have to pass emissions and we have ridiculous inspection laws.

powerwave

nc doesn't do emissions anymore. no worries.

92ES5sp

I believe the coolant temp sensor is on the right side of the engine, near the cruise control box. Its a green connector. Is there any check engine light? You should get a code 22 if the ECT sensor or wiring is faulty.

Lexucan

Not necessarily. My ECT sensor was faulty but there was no CEL coming on. I was told that it didn't trigger the CEL because although the sensor was giving bad voltage readings to the ECU, it was still functioning, so no CEL. That made it difficult to diagnose, but it was eventually discovered.

Lexus4You

i found the plug for the temp gague and it works... at first when i start the car... there are no lights on... then when it warms up, the oil light comes on then the engine light..... also i had to remove the passenger side axle for the engine swap... now i am trying to replace the seal and i cant get it out... please help.. i spent a few hours today trying to take it out with various tools..... no luck...

92ES5sp

Yea i know i only posted that because the OP said he had no temp guage.

Those seal pullers from Snap-On work pretty good; just dont gouge the tranny That would suck

Choas

Wait your oil light comes on? Doesn't that light up when the car thinks it has ZERO oil pressure?

llcoolpass

does this Japan version have more power? I was reading about the 3vz fe engine on wikipedia. It seems there is a second generation of this engine that is identical mechanically but had more torque and power == but it is not the 1mzfe aluminum v6 that happens to be very similar to the 3vz fe.

Tryk

I just installed a JDM 3vz into my ES300 about a month ago. I don't know why anyone would say that it would not work?? I did no reasearch I just ordered the engine and dug right in. From the top of my head...

-throttle bodies are different, so I swapped those.
-I swapped the ICV?? valve assembly with cold start injector and fuel rail connector, as the JDM engine does not have the cold start.
-oil pressure sensors were different - swapped those.
-JDM engine does not have an oil level sensor, you can just short out those wires to turn the oil level light off, or you could swap oil pans if you have a problem keeping an eye on your oil level.
-JDM engine did not have the alternator/AC belt guard. Not a big deal but I swapped the brackets/guard for fun.
-I installed a new waterpump(OEM toyota) and the main side engine mount bracket would not bolt back up correctly, had to grind a small amount of metal off the back of the bracket.
-No EGR, I used the JDM intake manifold/rear exhaust manifold. have put on almost 2000km's and no check engine lights.
-one of the coolant outlets to go to the heatercore has a couple vacuum port sensors of some sort on the US engine and not the JDM engine, so I swapped that over.

That is all I can think of for now. Not a hard swap by any means...

llcoolpass

but why are people using the JDM engine in the first place?

Slooooooow

iTrader: (1)

You mean, as opposed to picking up another USDM engine?

bwhsh8r

the jdm engines are much easier/cheeper to find than the usdm ones i believe, as the 3vz-fe is quite common there, as a swap motor etc... as they used it alot, but in the us market this engine was not used at all as much by toyota. i think it was only used in the es300 92-96, camry from same years, and some sort of pick up used it for a while too, i think it was the tacoma

where as jdm markets had many more cars based on this engine for many more years. wikipedia says this : Though harder to find in good used condition in North America (unless imported), the 3VZ-FE is a fairly common V6 in most parts of the world, after having a good lifespan in popular models. They are cheap, simple, have few problems, and have become a semi-popular subject for engine swaps.

Tryk

Ya in my case I bought a high milage ES with a engine that had been overheated bad with some major headgasket issues, so swapping in a low milage JDM engine was the best option price wise and to have the least downtime.

swifty562

swap my motor 4 months ago... only problem is sub o2 sensor =(...

does anyone know if 92 have a sub o2 sensor? if yes, then i guess it was cut off a while back when i replace my cat.