What’s up everyone, first post here and unfortunately it’s a bad one.

I just recently picked up a 86 P/U from a guy who bought the vehicle up in Washington and brought it to SoCal.
Ever since I started the registration process it’s been a headache. I took it to AAA first to get everything done and referred me back to the DMV because I needed to get the VIN verified. Then, DMV sent me over to CHP to get it verified and I failed!

CHP officer told me it had failed because the engine doesn’t match up with the VIN and that the VIN was from a stolen vehicle. He told me the VIN wasn’t an issue because they can give me a blue tag.
NOW, the issue is that the engine was replaced and the CHP officer wants receipts of the engine and I don’t know where to start. I have tried contacting the seller but he doesn’t have any of the receipts so I’m at a dead end here.
Has anyone ever encountered an issue like this and has resolved it?What truly sucks is that all the fees are paid! So I’m already out $700 on fees from the stupid DMV!!
If anyone can help I’d extremely appreciate it. I’m getting a bit desperate here.
Thanks everyone!

 

I'm pretty sure the VIN was never put on these engines. There is supposedly serial number on the block somewhere but that won't match the VIN.
I think I'd try a different CHP office because that one is crazy to think that will match and wants records on a 40 year old truck you just bought from out of state

 

My vehicle had the DMV blue tags when I bought it. Toyota has a program for replacing both the metal tag under the windshield, along with the vin label on the door jam. Oddly, Toyota USA and the local DMV office were a complete pain in the ass, but the CHP were great. Go figure. But I did finally get both after a 1.5 years. A process the was supposed to take 3-4 months according to Toyota's TSB. My local DMV wouldn’t authorize a CHP verification because there wasn’t an outstanding issue, I had the blue tag. But Toyota wouldn’t release the new vin plates without a CHP verification. The only person who understood what I was hoping to accomplish was the CHP inspector, but he couldn’t do anything without The DMV approval. It made my head hurt.

I finally drove further to a different DMV office and got better people. Even then the DMV inspector was a drag at first. But once he came outside and saw the vehicle and grasped what I was doing he got helpful. You probably will have to do the same, travel to a different CHP station. I don’t know about your area, but here on the central coast the CHP officer that does inspections visits a few stations, so you might have to travel a bit to find a station with a different inspector.
When mine was inspected by both DMV and the CHP neither ever looked at the engine block. they did look at the emissions labels for some reason.

The vin isn’t on the engine block. I’m not aware of Toyota ever doing that. There may be a serial number cast into the block so Toyota could track manufacturing, but nothing that matches anything on a title or registration. When we did the headgasket/block campaign for the 1990-1995 3vze we replaced block assemblies by the dozens. All dealers did. And during the warranty claim submittal Toyota never asked for any serial numbers off the new block for that vin. So, if Toyota did have a block number/vin database they clearly weren't bothering to update it.

Once you get the inspection I can tell you what you can do to get replacement vin plate and dash tag from Toyota. The metal tag on the dash is very good to have, but would be difficult to install without removing windshield. But the door jam label is nice. looks like a modern one. When I told the CHP inspector what i was doing he got kinda excited. He was surprised I could get the windshield tag from Toyota. He did tell me that missing the one under the windshield was a red flag if i ever got pulled over. He mentioned it's one of the things he looks at as he's walking up to a vehicle, and if it's not there he become very suspicious.