Fire Damage from an Accident? Ideas?

[Smitherz]

I obtained an engine from a really shady character who lied many times and gauranteed the engine to be in working condition. Well upon taking it apart and investigating this is definitely not the case. And of course the seller doesn't answer my calls. I got it cheap so I'll deal with it. I am assembling things as of now, since I have replaced the valve seals, timing belt, crank seals etc. Here is what concearns me. Dissasembly photo:



The water pump was froze up as well. Anyone have any idea what happened here? I am assuming that maybe the car was in an accident and things heated up to the point of meltdown. The condition of the car this came from is a mystery to me.

I don't see how a frozen water pump would heat the distributors up. Maybe the engine got so hot from an accident/fire radiation that the plastic connected to the cams melted? The only other plastic deformation I can find is slight warping in the front plastic timing belt covers as well as the plastic that covers the starter cable connections on top of the engine. I don't see any signs of carbon from direct flames and the cam covers and spark plug covers look very straight.


I figure the seals and distributor plastics are the weakest plastics and they melted from a nearby source of extreme heat. Or maybe the engine just overheated from a siezed water pump? Any ideas? :boggled:

I better get specific compression readings from all cylinders just to make sure. :feedback:

 

[Smitherz]

Here is a picture of the car the seller swears the engine came from. There is a little damage to the front passenger side...

 

[skid]

can you check the engine number with lexus and get the vin number confitmed against the licence plate?

We can do this in the UK. If you have a difference then take it up with the seller if possible.

Judging by the melted plastic it's reached a considerable temperature.

M

 

[Smitherz]

Maybe I should have done that before I bought the engine. :speechless: They seller just fed me a bunch of lies to get my money. Checking the plates would be a waste of my time and cost me a couple bucks for the plate check. The seller is really not going to help me out at all. He was super nice at the beginning and then when I sent him some money he really turned on me and I really had to call him at least 60 times (no exaggeration) to get everything he promised me. I'm just going to follow through on this engine since I got it so cheap and sending it back for a refund is completely out of the question due to shipping costs. The deal was just too good to be true.

This is what you get when you deal with shady parts dismantlers! Never, EVER give them any money for something that you haven't inspected. This guy was too nice and promised me he would send me anything I needed, said the engine was runnning when they took the car apart because of body damage. YEAH RIGHT! Ok I need to calm down now :tapedshut:

 

[cribbj]

We have a special area of the board where you can vent about vendor experiences, shady deals, and poor service: http://lextreme.com//forums/forumdisplay.php?f=78

Others can benefit from your experience.

 

[skid]

Lindsay Racing have a similar area.

It's called the Fecal Roster ;o)

 

[rms]

Seen something similar, 1UZ ran out of water, customer kept driving, engine siezed, plastic covers/dist caps were melted over the engine,valve seat inserts dropped out of heads !

 

[Smitherz]

I was afraid someone would say that =\ I hope that the engine just heated up and stopped running and melted down without burning out the internals too bad. I'm replacing all the rubber andplastic parts there are while stopping short at taking the heads off.

Thanks for the feedback Erol I appreciate it.

 

[gloverman]

I have seen this may times on other engines when they suffer from extreme overheating. I would definately remove the heads and check them for warpage. I suspect you will have a blown headgasket when you fire it up. Far easier to do it now. Cheers

 

[Smitherz]

Yeah you're right. It's time to take a small step backwards and replace the head gaskets. No big deal and I would rather have the peace of mind. Even if the head gaskets didn't fail I'm sure they were weakened by the excessive heat.