Exchanged a large check for my 4runner on Saturday. 5 minutes out of the mechanic's driveway It mysteriously stalled. Shortly after that it started bucking a bit. Pushing in the clutch made it go away ...seemed to be some sort of problem with the clutch or flywheel or ??? as the engine ran smoothly and powerfully.

Straight back to the mechanic. He apologized profusely on the phone but wasn't home when I dropped it back off. He said he would have some answers for me Tuesday.

Called today and (apparently) it spun a bearing in its brand new short block!!! (that's what happened to my old engine after years of PO neglect) You can't even begin to imagine how I'm feeling right now. He insists they did everything by the book, used all OEM parts, new oil pump, retorqued everything in the short block, etc.

I've got the Engine supplier and Mechanic working on it. he need to drop the oil pan and see what's going on. The short block is warrantied, but now I need to get my mechanic to honor his work as well, I certanily can't afford to pay for ANOTHER engine install. It could get ugly and lawyerish before it's over.

Meanwhile, I'm out several thousand dollars and STILL don't have a running truck. I should have just kept my rusty, but running FJ62.

AAUUUGGHHHH!!!

 

jeez, are you sure this is a 22R-E? i've never heard of bad luck of that magnitude. if you were over here, i'd offer to put that thing back together for you.

 

I got out of Rovers and back into Toyotas specifically for the reliability. I've owned a few Toyota trucks and I've never had this kind of bad luck.

 

#2 & 3 main bearings are lunched. Now I need to get on the phone with the shortblock supplier and see if they'll own up. My mechanic reitereated that THEY should be paying the labor for the reinstall.

I tried to forget about it all for a few days over the holidays, now it's back to reality. Of course when I called the engine supplier on Friday I was told the guy I need to speak to won't be back until Tuesday.

So . . . can anyone give any advice on getting this all taken care of? I'm hoping the engine company will do the right thing, but want to prepare for the worst. I want them to send me a new shortblock AND pay the labor to have it installed. If they refuse, what are my options? They are in California, I am in Vermont btw.

I'm hopeful the new engine won't be an issue, as it is warrantied. If there is a sticking point, it will be with covering the labor. I simply don't have the money to do this (again, period.

Also, I'm thinking since my engine is coming out AGAIN should I go ahead and put in the CenterforceII Clutch this time?(it came to late before) I'm not having any luck selling it, so I figure I'll pull the OEM one out and try to sell that and pop in this stronger CF one, correct?

Thoughts?

—truckless—moneyless—dave

 

All I can say is that I feel your pain. Mine went down on xmas eve. It really sucks not having your vehicle over the holidays (or any time for that matter). Good luck with everything!

 

I'm not real sure who you should talk to, but you can start by calling the Better Business Bureau in the states involved. Here in California there's a law, something about product liability or something like that, where the manufactuer has to pay install labor on defective warranted parts.

 

Alright, so the engine company will either refund my money (I need to pay to
ship back their bad engine). Or I can ship back my bad engine and they will
send me another (again, I pay freight.)

They refuse to pay any labor charge because they have no idea if the engine
was installed wrong, or what. I pushed him a bit on that but he didn't
budge. Honestly, I can see his point.

The mechanic insists there was nothing wrong with the install, and no way he
could have broken and internal part on a short block. Brand new OEM oil
pump, everything clean and primed and blah, blah, blah. This is an ASE
certified Tech, with "probably 100" 22r rebuilds (according to him) to his name and a very highly regarded tech in the area. Even my buddy who is a Toyota Dealership tech said he's a great mechanic. He pointed out that he wished they'd rebuilt it there, then they could and would stand by it. (not that this was mentioned by them BEFORE!) I said... "I figured getting a short block was better" to which he agreed. So another choice I made which, turned out wrong, though mostly through hindsight.

The engine company insists there short block was fine. They are happy to
refund my money or ship me a new block, but by the time all my shipping
costs are paid, I'll be lucky to get "back" a couple hundred bucks. I want
to dispute the CC charge for the short block, but since they have said they
will refund or replace, I don't think I have much of a case.

I talked directly with the mechanic earlier, the owner of the shop was out
and I'm going to see what he can do for me, push him to do something.

A last ditch, worst case fallback at this point is to see if my Toyota Tech
buddy Chris can help me pull the old block and put in the new one in his
home shop. Or see if he'll rebuild it with/for me cheaply using this block
(which only needs bearings and a crank kit) and see fi the the engine
company will refund my money if I send AND let me keep this block if I send
them my old block (prepaid shipping, sitting on a pallet already).

It gets my truck OUT of the current mechanic and into hands I can trust.

Advice?!!??

 

Ya know, in the same way that the short block company won't pay labor because they can't guarantee that it was installed correctly, neither should you because you can't guarantee that either. I make mistakes every now and again, I would LOVE to be able to tell the customer that there was no way to avoid it and charge them, but I can't, he needs to warrantee his work, I would bring him to court if he won't, that is a lot of money. His problem, not yours IMO. You brought it to him, he said this amount of money and time will do it, it didn't, again, his problem. Tell the block company what is happening and see if they can inspect and test the block to see if it was not in perfect working order, if they say it was, then it must be something he did incorrectly and he should have to pay for it, he put the faulty parts in or he put parts in incorrectly, either way, why should you pay?

 

shipped to and from were?

any way you can just yank it and put in the back of a truck and show up saying hear, weres a new one?

with gas prices you can have quite the road trip for the $400 or so to ship round trip for both...

 

They are in Cali, I'm in Vermont.

I have a prepaid shipping slip to send back my original block (core) that hasn't been sent yet. Plan right now is to pull the bad block and send it back using that shipment slip.

Then use the refund to try and get a good used engine into the truck. Still going back and forth with my mechanic, but basically he's not liable for parts that I brought to him, period. Legally that's about where it stand.

The engine builder is KarKing.com in California. They are little help other then offering a refund or new block, but I have to pay all the shipping. I dont trust a new block from them given how this one turned out so I'll take back my money and stay local with everything else.

I'm hoping to get my mechanic to give me a really good deal on one of his used engines plus reduced labor and get her back on the road.

 

The latest....

So my mechanic gave me some numbers on rebuilding a block and putting it in, turned out to be a good $1300 or so depending.

Now he's working up numbers on dropping in one of his used engines, after transffering over all my new (and already paid for) parts. And putting that in. It would come out quite a bit cheaper by his estimation but we're not moving ahead with anything until we get firm numbers.

I'll be getting back the $800 on the crappy KarKing short block which will help cover the new expenses. I'll be shipping back the KarKing block using the prepaid shipping on my original block (core) as well as trying to negotiate my core charge back as well.

So, some light at the end of the tunnel. Still spending money, but it's progress and Pat (the other mechanic) told me their cheapest engine was 7 or 8 hundred so we've started down the road of the shop owner cutting me some deals. I'll be negotiating more as well, hopefully.... like reduced labor costs. Everything is going to come from/through the local place and we've been very clear that ANYTHING that happens hence is on their shoulders.

I'm pretty much over the idea of selling it, but there's always the chance I'll still probably test the market on eBay with it and see if I can get a fantastic price, but if not, I'll keep it and use it and treat it lovingly for a few decades.

I miss my truck.