DJWolf

Hey guys. To keep a long story short, I bought a GS460 with a cylinder 6 misfire which was noted in the contract. I figured it was a coil pack issue and thought nothing of it. I drive it home, by the next day white smoke.... noticed the water pump had a leak... and the rest was downhill from there. Definitely warped head leaking exhaust fumes into the cooling system.

I love the car, it is beautiful inside and out, but it was improperly maintained and I’m stuck with it now. I’m looking at motors in the $800-1000 range. What would a standard motor swap run me? I have done several motor swaps within the DSM community, but this V8 is huge and seems like quite the undertaking. Any good shop recommendations in the So-Cal area?

TL;DR

Engine is toast. I need a estimated cost for swapping out the motor and a preferred shop that would do the work properly. Thanks.

silverlake

Well the good news is your handy and the swap shouldn’t be so bad with the same engine also what’s good is I’ve heard typically there bullet proof so miles don’t mean much if it was maintained I guess the only bad news is the money for the engine

mspearl95

What do you think happened to the engine? Ran it out of water?

DJWolf

If the motor swap isn’t too painstaking, I’d be willing to do it. From what I’ve seen though, it looks as if the motor comes out from under the car? Hopefully I am wrong. The cost of the engine is a bit rough, but not outside the realm of affordable.

yes, the car definitely ran out of water. The biggest telltale signs are the plumes of white smoke out of the exhaust, and the smell of burnt fuel in the coolant reservoir.

i have heard the engines are quite bullet proof, which was a huge selling point for me. Sadly it seems as if the water pump failed some time ago, and was never properly rectified . The water pump is in such an easy place to maintain it, quite frustrating.

if you have any pointers, keep them coming please. I really appreciate it!

ibidu1

iTrader: (1)

wow funny to see how cheap these engines are selling for, I honestly didnt believe you and looked for myself. Sure enough engines mainly from LS460 are fetching $800-$2000

But first before anything I would make sure to see if the engine is really crapped out. Do a compression test, this will help verify/narrow your 6th cylinder misfire. If theres no compression or very little, on one side of the head. Why not just remove that side of the head, take it to a machine shop and see what went wrong with it, or with a straight edge you should be able to see if its badly warped. Worst case ebay has a bunch of used cylinder heads for sale, buy an oem head gasket ($61) and slap it on.

I dont think the an engine swap will be too difficult, but pretty sure its time consuming. If you did it yourself, 1-3 days of hard work! But a shop atleast will charge $1000.00 add $1100.00 for the engine, $450 for supplies (water pump/belts/fluids/sparkplugs) Your looking close to $2,800.00

DJWolf

I was totally surprised by the cost of the engine as well. I considered that my motivator. Mostly to keep me from totally freaking out . My only issue with removing the head is the painstaking process of disassembling the cam gears/timing chain and having to properly position it to avoid losing timing. I will definitely perform a compression test to see if there is any compression left.

By the looks and smell of things, i am thinking the compression test will give me poor results. If the warpage is severe, I would still have to pull the block to get that side of it milled. I know a new engine isn't always the way to go, but in this case, it may be easier. I watched the TSB on replacing the valve seals, and that seemed absolutely painstaking. Maybe I am approaching this wrong. Have you had any luck in pulling the head and replacing the gasket?

Thanks for the responses by the way, I appreciate any and all feedback. I really want to get it running as it has just been sitting in the driveway.

TSB Video

mspearl95

Good lord that’s a complex fix! I think I would definitely just go the new engine route. Are the GS and LS engines interchangeable? Are the differences in HP just electronic?

ibidu1

iTrader: (1)

No I never replaced a head gasket on a lexus. Does seem overwhelming with 4 cam gears to keep lined up. But its double, if you screw up oh well drop the engine and replace it.

If you replaced the head yourself it may cost you $300-500 bucks vs $3000 for the engine swap.

DJWolf

mspearl95: I was dumbfounded by the steps just to retain TDC. With DSM's, I am a bit lucky. With the head in the TDC potsition, there are dowel pins in each of the cam gear to assist in lining up the marks properly. With the GS460, no such dowel pins exist, so it literally comes down to a marker, accuracy, and holding the chain up so that the bottom of it doesn't drop off of the crank, thus completely losing TDC. The process is insane, and that was just for valves, valve stems, and caps!

ibidu1: I actually like the idea of tearing into it to see whats going on with hopes of a possible fix. I'd have to say, some headbolts, headgasket, waterpump, and a mill on the cylinder head seems much more appealing than a complete swap. If it is damaged beyond repair, or a just plain pain in the *** to do, I can proceed to the next step of replacing the motor.

You are all awesome, and I dig the community here. I will record the steps taken towards a proper repair and post them for others. You know, just in case someone may ever run into this problem, though I would never wish this level of headache on anybody. Damn waterpump!!

I'll post some pics of the work I've done on my 90 Eclipse one of these days.

Thanks all! you'll be seeing me around

Gotcha350

The question I haven't seen anyone ask is what is the current mileage on the damaged engine? Personally, the life of these engines are shortened significantly when they overheat to the point of head gasket failure. If it was me I would replace it and then tear down the damaged one to see what the total damage is. Coolant in the oil is a big no for me...bad on the bearings and if you dont know how long it's been like that you could repair the top end and additional problems down the road.

DJWolf

That is one of my main concerns. I will have to verify if there is any water or coolant in the oil. I have to fully agree with you on that. I really do not know how long it was allowed to run this way before finally blowing the gasket. Block damage could be severe. After inspecting, testing for compression, etc. I may just have to pull the engine. If that is the case.

Do the engines pull from the top in these cars. I've seen an engine swap on the LS460 and they had pulled it from under the car. That is something I won't be able to do :P. All responses welcome! Thanks for the input so far, everyone!

ibidu1

iTrader: (1)

Most likely the easiest way is to undo all the wire harness plugs, unbolt both sides of the down pipes on the bottom couplers, drain the oil and coolant, remove the front bumper,radiator and condensor from the vehicle, undo steering shaft, undo the tops of the front shocks, remove brake lines from calipers, loosen tranmission mount, from there once you removed everything put a jack stands but do not put them on the suspension cradle. Put a jack under the suspension cradle/crossmember to where your almost lifting it, and carefully/slowly unbolt the cradle from the car. Gently drop the jack level an inch and inspect if anything is binding or if any plugs are still connected, keep doing this until you have completely separated the cradle/engine/transmission/suspension as whole.

At this point you might have to raise the car higher on its jack stands to give you enough space to fully drag that whole cradle assembly out from under the car. Once you have removed that whole assembly, go ahead and tear apart the accessories,exhaust manifolds and remove the transmission and swap the engine. Then just reverse what you did.

Also any bolts you remove, its best you loosly thread them in its original place so you dont loose them. Its very easy to misplace a special bolt that will prolong your swap, and cost you money

ibidu1

iTrader: (1)

Ok I found 2 videos that may help you out. These dealer techs didnt remove the front bumper, and they didnt remove the strut top bolts but they removed it from the bottom strut bolt, and they pop off the top a arm ball joint from the hub spindle.


This is an IS, but they share the same design/parts as our cars

snakeo2

Is it that simple to drop an LS460 engine into a GS40? I've always read that there were some differences between the two power plants (LS460 has two air intake vents, GS only has one) and something else that I cant recall at the moment.

mspearl95

I was wondering this as well. According to the sticky about LS/GS differences, they have different compression ratios.