I was hoping to get 400k out of my 3rz but unfortunately, I was never able to get it properly tuned after adding a supercharger which resulted in burned exhaust valves in cylinders 1 and 3. Since I already had 300K on the engine, I decided to pull the engine and go about sourcing a replacement.
None of the well known Toyota shops would be able to have an engine ready in time and I always wanted to build an engine so I decided to bite the bullet and assemble one myself starting with a new OEM short block. As my cylinder head was also cracked, I went with a new OEM casting but noted there was a lot of casting flash in the intake and a pronounced 'ridge' in the exhaust bowl which I removed (see pointer).
I went with LCE stage 1 cams and their stainless valvetrain kit and had it assembled by a local cylinder head shop and installed it with ARP studs. I also updated my ecu to a Haltech Elite 1500 and added a snow performance methanol injection kit for insurance. It runs much better now.
The most time consuming part was making sure I had the right part numbers for the parts which I wanted to replace. That and wanting to paint the valve cover and other miscellaneous parts to keep oxidation at bay.
The FSM does a pretty good job of explaining how everything goes together but in no way is as good as having someone who has done it before to answer specific question. I figure if anyone else decides to tackle a 3rz engine install (or removal), they could read this post and post a reply or PM. Also, same goes if anyone needs to borrow an oil pressure gauge for their engine break-in or the tool to properly torque the harmonic balancer bolt.
None of the well known Toyota shops would be able to have an engine ready in time and I always wanted to build an engine so I decided to bite the bullet and assemble one myself starting with a new OEM short block. As my cylinder head was also cracked, I went with a new OEM casting but noted there was a lot of casting flash in the intake and a pronounced 'ridge' in the exhaust bowl which I removed (see pointer).
I went with LCE stage 1 cams and their stainless valvetrain kit and had it assembled by a local cylinder head shop and installed it with ARP studs. I also updated my ecu to a Haltech Elite 1500 and added a snow performance methanol injection kit for insurance. It runs much better now.
The most time consuming part was making sure I had the right part numbers for the parts which I wanted to replace. That and wanting to paint the valve cover and other miscellaneous parts to keep oxidation at bay.
The FSM does a pretty good job of explaining how everything goes together but in no way is as good as having someone who has done it before to answer specific question. I figure if anyone else decides to tackle a 3rz engine install (or removal), they could read this post and post a reply or PM. Also, same goes if anyone needs to borrow an oil pressure gauge for their engine break-in or the tool to properly torque the harmonic balancer bolt.