How to tell if original engine is in car? Options

[sircalebwhite]

Little story here... I bought my 6GC in July 2014 for $800 from a guy who really didn't know much about the car. ODO read 139k on the day i got it. Right now as she sits through this winter she has 148k but after digging through toyotas website I came across some old service records from the owner before previous. The last recorded service done was in 2011 with the ODO reading 201k.... I don't know if that owner swapped the engine out for a lower mile engine or if they swapped clusters to screw the previous owner over. Is there any way to compare numbers from the engine to the vin or something to see if its the original engine? Not really mad about the situation but i would feel comfortable knowing if my baby really has higher miles or not. She runs like she has lower miles! But idk.

[Jmk91]

Miles mean nothing its all about how well it has been taken care of. I've seen many 150k mile cars with blown engines and I've also seen tons of 250k+ mile cars run like new. Anyways your best bet is to do a CARFAX. It reports new owners and the mileage on the car during transferring title. It also checks for mileage descriptiancy ( hope I spelled that correctly) carfax isn't much I think 7.99 last time I used it. Best and easiest way is Carfax.

[VavAlephVav]

on the back side (lower area against the firewall) of the engine block there is a little metal tag riveted to the block that has the VIN number on it. If you can find that see if the VIN on there matches yours.


This post has been edited by VavAlephVav: Feb 23, 2015 - 3:07 PM

[whiteboy747]

I'm having a similar problem, I bought a 1994 celica at200 before winter and have discovered that the engine might not be a 7afe.

[rave2n]

My GT, I thought came with a 5sfe, was a 3sfe. Sold is as a 5sfe, ended up having to give some dough back.

Check the block code, only way.

[malpaso]

This is simple. If your car papers has no engine serial number mentioned (not code like 7afe but unique serial number of engine) you have no chance to find out. If someone swapped the same engine there is no way to find out. You can only find some clues if you are lucky (for example facelifted 7afe engine in prefacelifted model) but if you don't... It doesn't mean anything. Change mileage on the speedo is super easy on 6gen. You even no need to change anything. Anyway. Without seeing the car no one can say anything and even with the car in hands it's still about opinion: Is wear of steering wheel and gear knob or seats more like 100k? 200k? 300k? Very hard to say for 100%. So... I would focus on current condition of the car. If leak down test is fine, engine is well treated. If car is not full of the rust, car was parked in garage... Etc.

This post has been edited by malpaso: Mar 19, 2015 - 2:34 AM