I am looking to buy a GS and I have found one that interests me , but the car has had an engine swap and that makes me leary. I'm not well versed on the GS/Aristo swap, and I would hate to purchase a lemon. The chassis has over 200,000 miles on it, but the engine and transmission only has 70K. Is there anyway to verify this? The only verification process that I know of is Carfax; but Carfax won't pick up an engine swap. What recourse do I have to protect myself? What's stopping this seller from making up the mileage to make his car more desirable? I know you guys have experience with engine swapping. I'm hoping you can shed some light on this for me.

 

you could compression test it or have a mechanic check out the car front to back. Good insurance there.

 

What would the compression test tell me?

What I will probably end up doing before I make the purchase is taking it to Lexus and have them inspect it.

 

It would tell you the health of the engine. Taking it to Lexus would be a very good idea and good insurance against buying a problematic car.