RAV4 donor had a D in the 5th position of the VIN (rather than an E) but everything went smooth. Both vehicles were automatic, RAV4 was AWD. I left the tC's transmission in the car for the swap, and did the swap up through the engine compartment rather than beneath. Despite having 175k, the RAV4 engine is in much better shape than the tC, probably because RAV4 drivers tend to be a bit more 'responsible'. I was able to run the RAV4 engine and compression test it in the junkyard prior to agreeing to purchase. Denver junkyard charged $500 total for the engine, which included removing it from the RAV4 (in one hour!) and loading it on a pallet in my pickup.

Reason for swap: the tC was running great with good compression but clacking at around 1800 rpm, and the pan had pieces of metal that looked like rod bearing. Pushing down on pistons 1 and 4 when slightly past TDC indicated some slop in the rod bearings. I suspect previous owner ran it out of oil.

This was my first engine swap. Is the engine with the bad rod bearings of any sale value, or should I just pull the key parts and scrap it?



'05 RAV4 donor 175k JTEHD VIN

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