acaines

I'm going to be putting a new engine in my Lexus, the guys from my vocational skills school broke the oil pressure sending unit off inside the block. There isn't an auto shop who will fix it for less than 500 so my dad and I are going to just buy a whole new engine for her next month. I'm a 17 yr old girl and obviously don't quite know what I'm doing, it's a learning experiment I guess. But I really love this car and I don;t want to mess anything up.

So is the '92 Camry engine compatible with the es300? Their the same 3000 series right?
Also, what else will I need (other than engine oil) along with the new engine?
I'm planning on putting some aftermarket performance parts on as well, k&n air filter, headers, what else is good performance-wise?
And is there maybe a better motor out there I could put in it that would work with the transmission? If not its cool, I'll just put the same engine in but a refurbished one. Is there anything I should look out for when getting a rebuilt engine? And I found one for $900, does that sound reasonable?
I'm sorry for so many questions, but I hope I can get them all answered on here.

vintagelex

Is the $900 engine rebuilt, or just a used one? How many miles? If it's just a used engine just pulled from a car then that seems expensive, because you can expect to have to do timing belt and all related stuff, plus all oil seals and maybe a tune up before you put in in your car, so thats another several hundred bucks right there.

As to what engine would fit, it's a Toyota 3VZ-FE so from the 92-93 Lexus ES or from the 92-93 V6 Camry. And yeah you'll need more than just oil, you'll at least also need coolant and power steering fluid (but these cars don't use regular PS fluid, it's ATF I think)

Good luck

LeX2K

1992-1993 Camry 3VZ-FE engine/harness/ECU is the same. However, the final drive ratio is different versus the ES300. The ES has a lower geared differential, so if you put in a Camry engine, swap the transmission from your car onto the new engine instead of buying a complete drivetrain.

Don't bother with an aftermarket intake it will do absolutely nothing except make you poorer. Getting a custom y-pipe will yield good results for the money, the stock setup is restrictive and honestly a poor design. Take a look here to see a custom y-pipe that works.

On the replacement engine, look out for blown head gaskets. These engines are notorious for it, you can see signs of it by looking for green or red crusty build up where the heads meet the block, as well as washed out/discoloured spark plugs.