powerwave

well our es250 is on its second 2vz-fe as some of you may recall, after the original 2vz ate a rod bearing. well this one's definitely on the slow decline too.

no more 2vz for us. this is ridiculous, the 3s-fe's we've owned (3 of em) each made it to well over 250k miles no problems and here this one has more or less 150k on it, the other made it to 168k. so #$%@ the 2vz, we're taking pheonix's advice and looking into a 3vz swap when we've got the cash.

till then we can't really rely on our lex anymore and we're buying a cheap efficient car for him to rack the miles up on while he's back in school. (he officially is out of the mechanic trade ) the es250 will be strictly a project car come may.

sooooo how are the 3vz's treating everyone? i see lots of 2g's with very high miles, which is a good sign

Choas

^Awesome mine has over 206k on it original motor and tranny. I agree the es250 motor isn't as reliable as the es300 motors. Still I motor if you want but you still are better off with a swap.

BadViper22

My 3vz has overheated once, and I thought it was gonna be dead after that, but it's still kickin! You will be so much happier once you drop a JDM 3vz in there.
Unfortunately, my tranny passed away last week, so the Lex is sitting in Aamco waiting for a rebuild. I still have a bunch of respect for you not just ditching the ES, I'm sure it will be a great project car.

powerwave

hey badviper we've still got a spare a540e trans...

BadViper22

Wish i would've know that a week ago. Lol, if this next one breaks again (which according to Aamco, will never happen), I'll gladly take that off your hands.

powerwave

d'oh! i can't for the life of me find anyone in need of an a540e around here. good luck with your rebuild- how much they get ya for on that one?

BadViper22

Somewhere in the hood of $1,400-$1,600+. Its a whopping price just for a transmission, but thats where living at home comes in handy(The padre is paying for it since it really is his car, sorta). I recommend you put it up on eBay, theres always people looking for a decently priced one. Don't forget the classifieds.

PS, what exactly is wrong with your 2vz? pinging, knocking, misfiring?

powerwave

yiiiiikes. we'll hang onto the trans for now i think. milk that living at home thing for all it's worth, paying your own way with 2 people in school and one of them in the hospital all the time is hell!

it sounds like the 2vz is eating another bearing, same as the first one did. it's got a bottom end knock developing when the engine is loaded. not at idle, like the original did, but it's not normal. it's not bad yet, we're just planning for the future. it's pretty sickening to have done all that and the engine is acting up.

of course, if we can't get to it till we're both out of school and employed maybe we'll make the beast electric

Lexus4You

my 3vz-fe lasted 206,000 miles and over heated one day and warped the rear head... figured why fix a 200,000 mile engine when i could get an almost new one for almost the same price... just put in a jdm one not too long ago... its much better than the USDM motor.... no egr crap to slow down the engine... i think it runs a lot better without the egr

92ES5sp

110K on my 3vz and no problems as of yet. Its been a very good engine. The only things ive had to fix are the valve cover gaskets and the valves needed to shimmed up a little. On top of the t-belt, w/p, and normal oil and cooling sys maintenance. I dont know if its possible with your situation but a E153 5 speed swap would be sweet too.

Pheonix

provided you don't waste the head gasket they're good. they have the best stock bottom end of anything.

it'll be fun to see a gen2 camry with a 3vz-fe swapped in. i've always wanted to see someone tackle it

powerwave

well it's gonna be a while before we can take the 250 out of action- we're going to do a frybrid conversion on an old diesel before embarking on the whole 3vz swap thing. but you'll see it when we get there.

powerwave

wow- nevermind, that was a lot quicker than expected. so basically, the es250 is getting parked very soon.

since it's so much sooner than we thought, we may suck it up and rebuild the bottom end of the 2vz as much as the damn thing irritates us. depends what the block looks like.