[te51levin]

mr2tim: I'm sure you're a really nice guy, and I don't want to beat you up, but some of the things you post are just plain bullcrap. I won't call you a liar, because a liar knows that what he is saying isn't true, and you may not know. That alone wouldn't bother me so much, but other people believe whatever they read, and they start repeating it as if it was actually true, and then we have a nation of people repeating a bunch of stuff that is just fundamentally incorrect...

Originally Posted by mr2tim

As you may or not know Japan has been flooding this country with their used engines heavily for the last 10-15 years.

It's been happening for much longer than that. People were wetting themselves with excitement over "bargain" Japanese engines in the mid-80s, if not earlier.

Originally Posted by mr2tim

The Jap government REQUIRES that any engine over say 40k be recycled and from what I hear Jap authorities will not allow the owner to re-license his car till that old engine is replaced.

This is 100% FALSE. It is, as it always has been, total hogwash, another classic muffler shop rumor that once had some small ring of fact to it, but which has been misunderstood, misinterpreted, rearranged to suit the agenda of the speaker, and yet gets repeated as if was unshakable fact. Reminds me of any number of religious texts, come to think of it, in the way people will cling tenaciously to anything they hear and repeat it as steadfastly as if they could actually stand behind it.

Originally Posted by mr2tim

So the Japs dump these engines on the USA market big time, since most Jap engines are NOT required to have EPA garbage, emissions lines, EGR's, Catalytic converts etc etc these engines have increased horsepower as a result.

This is also almost entirely FALSE. There may be less emissions equipment on a Japanese engine. However - and this is ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL - most of that equipment, such as EGR etc, does not cost you any power. Equivalent Japanese engines often have higher horsepower ratings than US engines, but that is due primarily to the different ratings system used (JIS vs. SAE net). Any engine in the world will produce larger numbers when tested under JIS methods than it would if tested with SAE net methods. This does not mean the engine makes more power.

Originally Posted by mr2tim

When you are contempleting your replacement engine be sure to include these "J-spec's" in your engine source/search. In most cases these engines will have less mileage than most engines found in Amerika's junkyards.

This is partially true, but keep in mind that many (most?) Japanese engines are also notoriously unmaintained. The idea of picking up a fresh, "low mileage" Japanese engine is fun, but not realistic. We are looking at engines that have not been run in at least 15 years, and possibly 20 years or more. If you find a Japanese import engine, it would be prudent to treat it with the utmost suspicion. It may be only slightly better (and may well be worse) than a used engine from a US-market car.

Originally Posted by mr2tim

Look into Wikipedia for the "4a-" series engines and read up before hearing all this "unsubstantiated" info you will no doubt hear over the Internet.

Speaking of which...

Originally Posted by mr2tim

You will find that alot of early engines have low HP ratings which may have been what happened to your car if the engine was replaced.

...I don't understand this. What are you saying? AW11s got the very earliest, very weakest 4AGEs ever made. I don't see how we could go downhill from here unless we start pulling spark plug wires off our engines, shoving pine cones into the airflow meter, etc.

Originally Posted by mr2tim

Tread carefully my friend, a informed buyer is less likely to be scammed.

Ironic? Yes indeed, but this much at least I can agree with.

Sean: Please be careful what you believe. Many people will freely and enthusiastically hand you "information." Most of them are just repeating what they hear. Much of what they say is often rumor, or half-truth, or worse. It may cost you a lot of time and money, or worse, to blindly follow bad advice.

Originally Posted by 1stgen

Just to clarify...this is not a law...they do not require you do replace anything it is just mechanics charge an arm and a leg over there...This is a myth..

Thank you, thank you, thank you! 1stgen has his facts straight. There is no law stating that the Japanese have to scrap their cars if they are properly maintained. However, in a nutshell, their vehicle inspection process is fairly rigorous and expensive. Repairs and maintenance are also expensive in Japan. Thus it gets relatively costly to maintain an aging car, and many Japanese drivers choose to buy new cars rather than maintain their old ones. That's why we used to have a barrage of "low mileage" Japanese engines coming in, but that's also why you can't assume that those engines are well maintained. Judging by the horrible condition of some Japanese import engines, many Japanese drivers don't even bother changing the oil - because they know they are going to junk their car out in three or four years anyway.

Originally Posted by traintech86

i am just trying to score a reliable engine for my 2 as i will have to drive it across country in 16 months and the site recomended had one on it, the yard said core. this is refering to the heads and all or just the block with pistons?

If the yard is offering you a core, they are basically offering you an engine that is ready to be rebuilt. It's not a reliable runner. It may be no better than scrap metal.

Originally Posted by seanfromnh

I dont even need a complete motor... pretty much just a block and pistons... my motor still runs but its got two dead cylinders... It overheated at one point and cooked the cylinder of the #1 piston...

OK, so two cylinders are dead - what do you mean by "dead"? No compression, no fire? There is little chance that you destroyed anything in the bottom end of the engine via overheating.

Have you actually torn the engine down yet to determine what exactly the failure is? If not, do so. You'll have to do it anyway, and it makes no sense to try to guess at the problem, or to formulate a plan to repair a problem that may not actually exist.

I'd bet a six pack that you have a blown head gasket due to running low on coolant and/or not having it properly bled. If you have time, repair it. You will need a head gasket set (USE OEM TOYOTA PARTS, not Fel-Pro or AutoZone or Pep Boys or Advance). You might also consider a new set of head bolts (again, USE OEM TOYOTA PARTS) and you will definitely want a new thermostat (again, USE OEM TOYOTA PARTS).

You may have noticed that I am strongly urging you to USE OEM TOYOTA PARTS. There is a reason for that. Toyota builds parts that are good enough to last for fifteen or twenty years in any environment in the world! I do make my living selling Toyota parts to the MR2 community. However, that does not change the fact that they are the best parts, especially where mission critical items like head gaskets and head bolts and thermostats are concerned.

For buyers who buy on price alone, there is always a cheaper part that Toyota is not willing to put their name on. Anything I that I can sell you can also be made a little worse and sold more cheaply by someone else. That is the difference between price (what you pay) and value (what you get).