Hello, my car was recently diagnosed with a blown head gasket and slightly warped head. The shop that did the diagnosis said the car is a loss because the price for the job is at least $4000. I called around for better quotes and the other shops either turned me down because the engine has too many miles (179k) or didn’t get back to me at all. I was wondering if it would be a better idea to get a brand new engine and put it in instead or is the car a total loss? I have a 2006 6mt so I was also wondering if it was a good idea to get a new engine, can I use an engine from automatic is250 and will it bolt up the same? I appreciate and advice and feedback I can get. Thank you.

 

If it were our car, I'd just go with a newer year JDM imported 4GR--or one better, a 3GR--and swap all the hard parts, using our harnesses and top plastic intake. I haven't put my finger quite on it yet, but JDM engines are just slightly different enough to drive you crazy--no cold start injector, different charcoal canister vac solenoid wiring, all sorts of tiny dumb stuff that seems somehow related--but if you use their hard parts and sensors with your wiring, your car won't know the difference.

 

Funny you posted this as i just took ownership of my sisters 2007 IS250 with 177k miles and it has the same issue. I could do the gasket job myself but after adding all the parts that need and should be replaced and machine shop labor I'm at the cost of a lower mileage newer engine.

 

I say get JDM engines because they tend to be off-lease, low-mileage engines that were maintained by a single dealership, meaning the engine's in about as good of shape as any used engine could be. Note that if you get one without the cold-start injector and want to retain it, you'll probably need to swap your high pressure fuel pump over to the RHS valve cover, as well as your old intake with the injector bung. I feel like that's a bit obvious, but just tryna be helpful.

 

Thanks, i was a mechanic many moons ago and that's excactly what we would do when installing JDM engines. We would use the manifold and harness and basically just run the bare jdm long block to make sure we has no CELs. Then again this was on hondas so I don't think it would be any different.

 

Lexus tech here and just finally got the time with the new baby to swap up to the 3.5l and glad I didn't just to a complete long block rebuild on the original and spent the money for the long block rebuild on the big brother.

Upgrade upgrade upgrade is my vote as well. All in all around 1700 bucks in parts and total time to pull the old 2.5 and rebuild and install the much better bigger brother was 13 hours. Glad I took my Sunday to do so. At the dealership either rebuild and long block rebuild I get to do takes me 10 hours.

 

Did you step it up to the 3.5L bottom end under the 6-injector topend?

If so, I may have just recently made an erroneous, very large, purchase...

 

That's what long block is. I bought the 3.5l and the majority of the parts like the oil pump timing cover and ac compressor scattered around this guy's garage who couldn't figure out what was causing his oil consumption on craigslist for $100. Clear as day to me what was causing it but he just had his shop put in a new engine. Well rebuilt but new to him. I had the machine shop port and clean the heads and block out and not needing sleeves in the walls upgraded the piston size to accommodate for the wear. I believe it went up 0.25" but I'll have to check my order invoice. I hate sleeves so would rather but the pistons then insert a sleeve.

 

Well dangit. I blame Jeff Lange for casting that shadow of doubt on the idea in my head.

Oh well. Guess I'll be finding out what p&p heads do on all three displacements, then.

Pipe dream's still to swap some Camry heads onto a 2GR-FSE bottom end and hang a Wuhan windmill from each to try and make the car able to spit at my buddy's '15 F80 M3 6MT.

 

Better check on that. 0.25" (6.35mm *Nope*) is well beyond the service limit.

^^ I see the gears turning. lol... the question is, why not. If a certain sensors can be ignored from a tune standpoint, I bet this could be done.

 

sorry it had a mistyping. Not 0.25 obviously but .025. Sorry. Standard diameter:

94.000 to 94.012 mm (3.7008 to 3.7013 in.)

Maximum diameter:

94.200 mm (3.7087 in.)

 

I mean...a quarter inch overbore is pretty redonkulous.

I'm skeptical that the liners are that thick, but I haven't found out, so I don't know.

 

Thank you for calling that out. I had a type with the new phone I'm trying to get used to. That is ridiculously bad 0.25 but in reality my overbore was done to .025. Sorry about that all

 

Thanks you for catching my horrible typo. Just switched to android and the whole keyboard layout trying to get used to and the way the numbers are but my overbore was done to .025. My apologies. I started laughing because how insane 0.25 would be if someone set out to try it. But seriously thank you for double checking that because being a lexus tech I hate giving out incorrect info especially that bad. A quarter inch lol omg 😱. My sincerest apologies and sincerest thanks for catching my typo

 

The most common wall thickness for sleeves are .093- and .125-inch thick. that is what i was taught.