About reman'd engine process? (fuel, mileage, buy, engines)

[GNCamry99]

Thanks for replies to my postings.

I was curious if anyone has had any experience with a reman'd engine process.

I bought a Toyota Reman engine, but I am not sure the received engine of same spec of my OEM engine.

I find same engine has variation across different year. Reman Engine does not have an OEM VIN #, but it has REMAN's serial number.

I called them and asked where was this engine source from and OEM VIN # for records.

They are not forth coming to disclose this info.

Is there any oversight body for REMAN's business?

My mechanic returned my OEM engine as core to them.

Will they do any assessment of condition/spec for CORE upon receiving?

What are the kind of records, they maintain of COREs?

Thanks for sharing.

[TrapperL]

Is there any oversight body for REMAN's business?

Not really any binding oversight. There are trade associations like the AERA that is supposed to provide the buyer with the assurance that the engine is rebuilt professionally but no set specifications that I'm aware.

Will they do any assessment of condition/spec for CORE upon receiving?

Unless the engine is being rebuilt to your specs, the engine will be torn apart. The pistons will be evaluated separate from the block as will other reusable parts. The cams may be reground or trashed. Small parts like followers lifter, bearings etc, will be all new. As far as tracking the individual engine, I'm not aware of anybody that does it like that. They do track the engine but not from who they got it. Once the block has been bored/honed, it will be assigned a rebuilders ID and that's where the life of the new rebuilt engine starts.

Not all rebuilders do a great job. If the rebuild was of major concern, you should have had your engine rebuilt at a local machine shop. These small shops that do rebuilds locally will usually do a great job. They are more particular about what they turn out as they are small and their reputation locally is everything. You could have speced everything back to standard, for an example, and then you would have had a near factory fresh engine. You could have speced a particular bore to enhance the power a little although fuel mileage has a tendency to suffer. You could have also bought a factory short block, not a rebuild, and just put your head(s) and intake on it and had a near factory fresh engine. There are options outside of a rebuilt. My personal, I've had numerous rebuilds but at my specifications. I've also bought the factory fresh new short blocks and long blocks and had great success with them. I doubt I trust any rebuilder to just buy one over the phone and trade mine in on it. I would not expect as long life of an engine as I had.

[M3 Mitch]

One of the big questions is how much side gap the ring grooves have on the pistons. Every OEM has a new spec, a service spec, and a "reject" spec. I think most commercial rebuilders will re-use a piston so long as the side gap is not up to the "reject" spec. If you have the rebuild done at a local machine shop, you can ask them to be more strict - of course you pay more for a set of new pistons, but you get a more nearly new engine. Likewise for example VW SOHC engines that don't have cam bearings. How close to "worn out" spec are you willing to go here? Or do you want bearings put into the head to restore things to near-new clearance?

Toyota engines, most of them, are so long-lived that if I were not going with a local shop for whatever reason or wanted the car back on the road pronto, I would go with a compression-tested used engine. There are a couple of yards around here that cater to used engine swappers, they do a compression check before pulling the engine from the wreck, put a tag on it, keep them in a shed or warehouse rather than outside. Of course a used engine or transmission or whatever is to some extent a crap shoot, but I think in this case the odds are good.