evilrho

Hi All. Long time reader, first time poster.

I've got an '89 pickup 4x4 with the V6 3vze engine and manual tranny. It's got over 280k miles on the chassis, but the previous owner (a Toyota mechanic) replaced the shortblock about 60k miles ago. I've owned it for about 4 years and it's never let me down.... until now.

I replaced the timing belt and radiator a couple months ago and it ran great. The night before a trip over the Sierras to Reno (towing a tent trailer the whole way), however, I heard a faint knocking sound in the engine. By the time we got back the knocking had become disturbingly loud. Using a stethoscope I determined the sound was coming from the bottom end of the engine. (Odd, since the shortblock is relatively new - maybe it was disturbed by the installing the timing belt - I don't know.)

Anyway, a lot of folks on this forum indicated that the main bearings could be serviced by simply (it's not that simple) removing the oil pan. This seemed reasonable. I had done rear main seals this way on an old Wagoneer years ago.

Well after spending hours getting the pan off and removing all the main bearing carrier bolts I'm stuck. It seems that on this engine (maybe not all 3vze engines are the same in this regard) there is a lip on the rear seal cover which prevents the bearing cradle from being removed. See pic below.

So the question is (finally), am I right in my assessment that the only way to complete this job is to remove the tranny and flywheel?

I guess assuming that is the case, the more difficult question is, is this worth it, and how much trouble would it be to install a newer generation reman. v6? I mean, there's a reasonable chance I could do all this work only to have the rear seal start to leak, or another bearing fail, etc.

Anyway, thanks for reading my long-winded post, and thanks for any help you all can provide.