Buying a imported Japanese engine 5VZ-FE

Hi Taco lovers

Recently i adquired a 2002 tacoma supercharged 4x4 5 speed extra cab, when i bought it i could hear this kind of dieselish noise just like a diesel engine, no smoke coming out good power, etc. Thought it was a valve clearance but didnt, changed oil, filters, sparks, etc.
So on a trip to the beach coming on the highway i could hear the taping diesel noise much louder, temperature was good oil too. I stopped check everything engine not running hot or lacking of oil, decided to give it a few more miles but as soon as i took my foot of the gas the engine would stall & die and my oil lamp would turn on. stopped right there dragged the truck to my house next day tried to turn on and just by cranking it sounds horrible, I must of busted a rod or something connected to the crankshaft.

Anyway decided not to rebuild my engine that somehow had a lack of lubrication therefore wearing down the metals.

Im buying a 5VZ-FE imported from japan (www.jdmwestside.com) store says they have less then 60,000 miles on them. Anyone has some experience buying engines like this? Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

As long as you don't live in a strict emissions state/county...those JDM engines don't come with all the US smog equipment and such so they're difficult to make pass emissions standards. Not impossible but you'd have to source the emissions stuff that might be missing or pull it off your old motor.

 

My uncle has one in his 99 4wd. It’s a strong engine, no complaints from him.

 

I have used JDM for a handfull of projects... I did a write up in install a JDM engine in a double cab a while back.

You are more than likely going to have to swap oil pans and pickup tubes... clean yours out completly and while the pan is off the "new" motor you can tell what shape she is in just by looking, it should be pretty clean, no sludge or crap in the pan.

I see yours is a 4X4... I can give you one piece of advice... to get the torque convertor bolts off your original motor/trans is a real s.o.a.b. There is a little indentation in the oil pan that you can just slip a long extension with a u-jointed socket on, and this is with the motor lifted off the mounts... they dont line up anywhere else except there.

 

Keep in mind 60k miles or less may be untrue. Contrary to popular beliefs there is no mandated replacement interval on engines, yes more maintenance is mandated and the engine must be healthy to pass, but I've seen plenty of 300k+ trucks over there on the auction sites, and I'm sure they haven't all had 5+ engine replacements. Any healthy engine is a good used engine though. Do a compression check on whatever you buy. You'll swap everything accessory wise from your motor over to the new one.

 

CA mostly but some states/counties follow CA emissions laws.

 

you are going to swap most of the stuff from your original to the "new" one anyway so it shouldnt be an issue. The 3.4's that I have swapped over have all needed oil pans/pickups , upper and lower intakes swapped over. The serpentine belts on the "new" motor were 6 rib if I remember so I put my old pulleys on the new motor so that all replacement belts were USA "normal".

 

We did that sort of deal on a Subaru Outback. It ran strong for years. Japan does not want old cars on the road so after they hit 60k miles they tax the s out of them. It is then a better deal for them to part out and ship to us.

 

It’s a gamble if you buy a JDM motor, you have NO idea how many miles will be on the motor.
You will have zero history.Jdm says These motors have 60,000 miles is BS, maybe there are some, but there’s zero proof, it could have 400,000 just as easily.
My motor ran fine till 480,000 miles until I had a head gasket leak. The v6 motors will run along
time for sure if taken care of. The odds that ALL the JDM motors are less than 60,000 miles is
NOT true, it’s a sale line and people want to believe it. As the other member said the auction block shows plenty of Tacoma with over 300k being sold in Japan. I can guarantee these same trucks motors will be sold to US customers saying they have less
than 60,000 miles. If someone bought my motor at 400,000 miles it would have checked out perfectly and if I was a JDM company They could says it has less than 60,000 miles and the buyer would know nothing else.
I’m not sure why people don’t just buy a U.SA. motor that is in the truck, where you can verify the miles,
possibly to hear the motor running and do a carfax on the vin and compression check.
Maybe because you can get JDM a motor cheap because you can’t get any detailed info on the engine you are buying.
If you need a cheap motor I guess it’s a great option.

I thought about a JDM motor when I was on the fence about needing a new motor.

But I decided against it because of too many unknowns.

Replacing an engine is ALOT of work, So why take a chance of putting in an unknown engine.

If your replacing a motor and planning on keeping the truck a long time you will want to
do the items below because it’s soo easy to do when the engine is out of the truck.
These are the things I did below.

1) replace clutch, throw out bearing, resurface flywheel.
2) replace valve cover gaskets
3) replace rear main seal, front main seal,
4) replace timing belt and bearings and water pump stuff.
5) replace plugs and spark wires
6) replace the oil pan gasket

If it’s a JDM motor all the above plus

A1) replace (swap oil pan)
A2) replace (swap pickup tube)
A3) replace (swap belt pulleys) JDM pulleys are different size
A4) JDM motors don’t have oil coolers (swap)
A5 water pump will be different then
A6) motors will need emissions addressed for your state.

So my choice was I found a truck that was rolled with the engine in the truck with 100,000 miles.
Engine was running and did a carfax so I knew exactly what I was buying.
It was more expensive but I knew exactly what I was buying and was not taking a chance
on a motor that says it has 60,000 when it could just as easily have 300,000.

Even if a JDM motor has a guarantee it’s too much work to replace it again if there was an issue with another unknow motor.
These motors are 20 some years old, the chances of TRUCK loads of JDM motors
that have ALL been driven LESS than 250 miles a month are pretty small if you ask me.
60,000/20 years=3000/12=250 miles a month /4= 60 miles a week

There are lots of great successes with the JDM motors and some failures too.
Probably a lot more success but that’s because these motors run forever not because there are JDM motors with QUOTED “60,000” miles.
My 2 cents

 

All 50 U.S. States have federally mandated emissions equipment standard beginning in 1968. The EPA was founded two years later in 1970 as a result of the pollution issue in the country during the time.

Say what you want about SMOG and emissions testing, but it keeps out country from looking like Beijing where you can't even see the sun because of all the pollution.

 

I'm in the process of completing a JDM motor swap. Pretty straight forward for the most part. You'll need to change stuff around but nothing too complicated. I've had to do more than others because of the condition of the truck I'm putting the motor in. If your truck is in good shape and still has usable parts it should be a fairly easy swap. Best I can tell is the swap can be easier for some depending on what the motor came out of. Pulleys can be different, exhaust manifolds may be different, motor mounts, throttle body, etc. There are some good write ups on here that can help you out along the way. Mine had a little bit of sludge build up but aside from that it was a very clean looking engine. If I needed to do it all over I think I'd get another JDM motor. Getting a low mileage one from a yard would be easier but there's nothing wrong with one of these either. Just my two cents.

 

Im just gonna build mine from the ground up. That way I save a shitload and can do upgrades CA won’t notice, port heads & match gaskets, upgrade to ti valves, new cams, and cryo and powdercoat the shit out of it all for the price of a rebuild. JDM=trouble because if you can do that swap you can fix your current engine better than new. Easy doughnuts.

 

Get a junkyard cat and knock the precious out of it, weld in straight tube and run a urd sim. No one will know and you can blame a bad cat, lol. This is for OR of coarse but talk about waking a yota mummy from the dead! These trucks hate cats trust me, and the cult of long travel guys would agree if they’ve converted. Its hard to go back to stock w/cat for street, even n/a, lots of power.

 

Thats really fucking gay

 

All states have emissions, some states test, others don’t.
Federal DOT laws.

 

Incorrect. My 5-Lug was sold in Sparks, Nevada is equipped with the 48 State Emissions system. It has an EGR.

 

Ca will know when they do your tailpipe check. There are sneaky ways around this but you need to find out what is tested to figure out how to “cheat” it.
Like the fuel tank cap test and charcoal canister check.
Used to be you could block off the lines using ball bearings, now they do an active test which shows if the system operates or not. No operation no pass. CA does state NO modifications are allowed unless they come with a exemption number. Milking heads, larger pistons, even air filters are illegal in CA with out the approval stamp.

One reason I left.

 

There used to be a Federal system (48 state) and a CA system. Not sure exactly when all cars started running 50 state. My ranger was 48 and it was a 95.
My 15 Taco is CA emissions built and sold in Texas....

 

The engine label on the hood will tell you what system is in it..... if you still have those.

 

Trust me, I know the Ca smog guys are sneaky but I’m just as sneaky too, and I know smog techs that tell me any secrets that I don’t know about. That being said I’d like to leave Ca just because of the tree huggers that believe the car fanatics make such a huge dent on “global warming”. It’s not fair that 10k can get ya a 1000liter streetbike and do speeds in excess of 200mph but we cannot really mod anything. If I have to have an eo number for an air filter then I definitely went to the wrong smog spot. I’m so driven by anger for the laws that I’ll spend hours to remove mods b4 smog and turn it back after I pass, but I digress it’s bad now that I’m getting alot older now.