All my name is Chio and I've joined bc I blew my motor yesterday and could use all the help I could get (not tech saavy). Any suggestions on finding a cheap used 05 scion tc engine?

I'm in the south tx area...

 

Pleasure hearing from you Chi013. Make sure to add some pictures of your car to the Gallery and checkout our current photos while you're at it

 

Are you doing to the swap, or are you having a shop do it? If you are having a shop do it, they can find you the motor no problem. They have all the contacts and the in's and out's of the auctions and stuff, otherwise, just start at all the salvage yards and auctions and go from there yourself. Don't be surprised if you have to drive a bit though. I'm sure H town and DFW have plenty of motors, but I know they are probably quite far from where you are being in South Texas.

 

Thanks Jon, I'll be sure to post pics and dig through this site some more as soon as I've the chance to. I'm surprised at how quick people on this site have responded and am grateful for any advice!

Criminaltc, I'm afraid I lack all the skills and tools to do the swap myself although I would be delighted to learn when I can afford to have this car grounded for a while - which I can't right now

The guy who's set (as of now) to fix up my TC said he found a motor at 40K miles for $900 but
A. I can't be sure those are really the miles on the motor and guys here tend to take advantage of females when in the market. I guess stereotypes are there for a reason bc this has happened to some girlfriends with their cars and to me when looking for a moto mechanic (the 'legit' services are monopolized in my area and even through them a 'friend' attempted to screw me...so here I am trying to get as much info as possible) and
B. I'm sure there's a finder's fee included there and $s tight so I'm calling around looking for more deals. I asked if it comes with a warranty and he told me it has a 1 yr warranty but would get voided if the engine overheats.
I'm not sure what he means by that...just bad maintenance or is there special care that a used engine needs when it's installed in another vehicle?

I asked for the VIN# and a copy of the warranty he'd provide so I can read the fine print but I've yet to receive that info.

So now I'm most concerned with how I can make sure the engine I find isn't going to bring me more problems...
Does anyone here know how to check true mileage on an engine?
Or what signs/defects to look out for when purchasing one?
I don't care if I have to buy a tool or something to confirm an answer to these questions since I'd rather be sure of what I'm getting than get stuck with a more expensive regret.

Again, any input helps. Sorry if this post is but I'm just trying to cover everything as I'm sure you all know replacing an engine is no cheap easy task.

 

Alright. Well if you feel like you might get taken advantage of, do you have a boyfriend, or an ex boyfriend, or a brother, or a dad that can kind of "intimidate" in a sense if you know what I mean, so that way no one is being dishonest? If not, you aren't too bad off still. It's pretty straight forward and prices range so much. You can report back here and let us know what they are telling you, and I'll personally let you know how shady or not shady it is.

So if money is tight, I might hold off if I were you. I mean, do you have decent credit? Stick that $3,000+ into a down payment or something on a new car that runs. Otherwise, yeah, you gotta get that money together to get this done. It's not going to be cheap like we were saying.

Getting a VIN is cool I guess, not totatlly necessary. There isn't much you will find out about car that would impact what you are doing with it. As far as checking true mileage on the motor, the only way is for you to see the odomoter on the car as the motor is being pulled. Otherwise, if the motor came from a salvage yard and was toe tagged with a mileage, then that is the true mileage, they don't fudge those numbers. But if you haven't seen a tag from the salvage yard or auction and this is just what the guy is telling you, then yeah, he could be lying. As far as looking for signs or defects, there isn't much. Everything that would be an issue is tightly sealed inside and you won't be able to see it. And if there is an issue, you have a warranty like you said which is cool. And if something is going to happen, it's going to happen well within that first year, so you should be good. About the overheating, he's right. The reason it would overheat is due to your cooling system failing, which is not his problem or his fault. So if you just make sure that your water temperature needle stays in the middle, then you are fine. He will have to fill it up with some coolant anyways, so you'll have fresh coolant. If your car wasn't overheating before, then you're waterpump should be good as well. Just watch that needle. But yes he is right. And like you said, there isn't a tool to buy or anything. You can have him do a compression test on it once it's wired in and mounted, I'm sure he'd be happy to do that. If he tells you anymore stuff let us know and we'll let you know how legit it is, but thus far, he seems alright, plus $900 is crazy cheap for a motor.

 

$900 is a pretty good price. I'm not sure how much you're looking to spend on your block, but I'd look into a reman. When I was going to replace my Mazda's engine, that's the route I was going to go. You get everything that comes with a brand new engine, but without the super expensive price tag. (My Mazda one was going to be ~2500.)

Also, I'm not sure what they changed in 2007, but can those engines be put into a 05 or 06? My friends family owns a Toyota dealership and he said they see 05s and 06s in a LOT for engine swaps/rebuilds, but that whatever problem they have seems to have been fixed for 07.

I would look into it to see if they can actually be put in, but if it were me, I'd try to put in a remanned '07 engine. Or do what crim said and get a different car altogether.

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There weren't any "issues" with the 05-06, they just have slight differences to the 07-10. Nothing that can be detected by the naked eye. They all work the same, bolt the same, and can be treated like any other motor. She just has to make sure that if she gets a 07-10 that she gets the ECU.