I have a mate who has a mechanical workshop and a few months ago he bought a 2010 Camry for $500. It had a blown motor and when I said to him that was strange for a Toyota he told me the story. A woman bought the car new and had it serviced at the usual 1000ks. She then drove it for 65.000ks without ever checking anything or getting it serviced. When the motor locked up she went to Toyota claiming that as she had bought it with a 5 year engine warranty and wanted it replaced. Toyota asked to look at the service book to ensure that it had been serviced at the correct intervals. Needless to say they rejected the claim and the woman vowed to never buy another Toyota product
I just stumbled across this thread while doing some google research tonight on this particular engine.
I happen to have the G4GC in an I30 I purchased completely sight unseen as "not running" yesterday, I bought it thinking if nothing else its a set of spare body panels for my other I30 (with the 1.5L turbo diesel) and for $550 delivered I wasn't complaining.
After installing the battery from my HQ tonner, it was quick to show a complete lack of compression, across all 4 cylinders, and when it did attempt to fire occasionally the exhaust gasses are coming from the radiator cap at a rapid pace. the rest of the car though is immaculate, way too good to part out. the engine itself looks to have been very well kept, not even a weep of oil from anywhere and absolutely no sludge under the rocker cover at 270000km I didn't get a chance to speak to the previous driver as the guy selling it just flips junk cars, I suspect its been replaced.
Anyway, this week I may pull the head to inspect and see if getting the head machined and a gasket set will be worth it, I haven't pulled one of these down before but appears a lot less complex than than a lot of the newer stuff I have seen. Since the block is cast iron I'm hoping there isn't a lot of warpage there and a skim of the head should at least have it running. The wreckers locally quoted $1850 for a second hand engine (not happening for that price) , absolute worst case ill head to pickles auctions and pick up a crashed one at least you know it was running when it got hit.
Sounds cheap enough ,I would have thought selling the catalytic converter and the rest for scrap steel the car would be $400 to $600.
$1850 for a second hand engine sounds a bit much ,for that price you may as well buy a new motor.The self serve wreckers are cheaper at about $400. for a complete motor.
Until you remove the head you won't know how bad the bore is if it's overheated and blown the gasket but at 270,000 the motor could be fairly worn.
