Michoking87

I’m plan on swapping my motor this week end. Now I know it a little late notice, but what gaskets/ plot part would I need to accomplish the task at hand

LeX2K

One heck of a loaded question depends on the condition of your donor engine. I've done straight swaps no gaskets replaced outside of exhaust and I've gone through the replacement engine replacing all the usual leak prone gaskets due to age.

Michoking87

The donor engine look to be in great condition with 132000 miles. My original engine threw the timing chain at 257000 miles and everything I found on forum and interwebs say that it should be replaced about every 150000. Also I got the car about 2?years ago and the previous owner had a new transmission installed about 5 years prior so I got it with about 5000 miles on it and finding out about this model Lexus and the issues it has with the Aa80e transmission I assumed the car was having issues with the solenoids but never thought it could of been the timing chain.

LeX2K

What happens exactly, timing chain stretches and wears out the timing chain guides?

Michoking87

yes and being an interference motor when it throws a chain because it is a chain not a belt you end up with a catastrophic failure

LeX2K

In that case you should replace all the timing chain components. 4 chains, 4 tensioners, 4 chain guides (?) that will be $800+ right?

Michoking87

bent valves and locked up motor
so just going to disconnect all electric components from my engine and do the swap then put my cars original components on the replacement motor. And probably open up the messed up engine and see if it’s worth fixing

Marc780

By the time the car makes it to around 200,000 miles chances are the engine is going to need major repairs anyway. Changing the timing chain before it fails is a smart thing to do, but it may not make sense economically. I wouldn't try to patch a high mileage engine, and just changing the timing gear is just that, a patch. If the engine needed new timing gear set I'd be sorely tempted to have them do a valve job too, since timing-gear removal is a major part of doing a valve job, anyway.

Michoking87

yes exactly so the donor engine is going to be operated up and timing chain given a quick run through and possibly a new oil pump. and then put in. I do plan on opening the original motor to
assess the extent of the damages to see if it’s worth fixing. If it doesn’t seem like a lot then I plan on overhauling it completely with added HKS pack. But that’s for a later date

Marc780

So, OP Michoking, how did your engine swap go? Got any images to show us?

Michoking87

so we had some unexpected situations pop up (family related). Also a friend who has passed the funeral is tomorrow but I have to get it done this weekend due to hoa smh but everything did get disconnected. And I’m going to pull the transmission at the same time because I can’t get to bolts on the bell house. I figured it would just be easier that way. Any thoughts??

Marc780

I wish I had any thoughts, I've never done even an oil change on my LS -

Michoking87

the plans were to get paint correction and I bought another set of 5 Lexus rims to have painted the same color as the car but as I pulled in to my neighborhood after being at the beach all weekend which is 3.5 hrs away what I assumed was the transmission going out on me put my plans way on the back burner. After a great deal of family issues I decided to try to figure it out what I gathered from you guys here on the forum I went with timing chain failure. But yesterday this is what I found




I don’t mind showing the cars current state just let me know if you want to see it plus I got so many questions about this catastrophe I really need some feed back because the transmission shop that put the brand new transmission in refuses to answer them

Marc780

Oh my! I'm really sorry this happened to you. Auto shops are the worst kind of crap shoot, odds of picking a good one with no information are not great - especially one that requires several people that know what they are doing in house, like transmissions...
You probably know you might have to take them to small claims court to make things right, but the worst part, you'll have to leave the car with them AGAIN while they try and fix all this, if they even can - not a good situation, sorry this happened!

Striker223

Idiots didn't locktite the flex plate bolts or forgot to tighten one. Even though it usually doesn't call for it I always red locktite flex bolts for this exact reason, it's not hard to remove them later if needed as well and they will never walk off.....

Or this is peak fail and they literally just left a bolt somewhere