Hello everyone. I’ve been a lurker here for a long time since I bought our first Lexus for my wife in 2009. Currently we have our 2008 IS250 that we bought in 2011 with 28k miles. It has been a great car the whole time with only regular maintenance. Around the first of the month, we took a 1700 mile round trip to Vegas to visit family. While there, the car died randomly while arriving at the hotel. I figured it was the battery or the alternator. I hired a mobile mechanic who diagnosed it as the alternator so that part was changed along with the belt. Everything seemed fine and we made it back home no problem. I even averaged like 30+ mpg on the road. Last Thursday a week ago, my wife calls me saying the car is making a weird noise so I go meet up with her and drove the car back home a few miles. It was making a tapping noise that would come and go. This week I had the car towed to the dealership for diagnosis. They’ve had it for a few days and just today called to let me know that the engine lost all of the coolant and at some point overheated, damaging the engine. They still don’t know what caused it to lose the coolant but that it needs a replacement engine to the tune of $6200 for a used engine with under 100,000 miles. The car currently has 116k miles on it. So that’s where I need advice. I don’t know how comfortable I feel spending that much money on a used engine. We did order a new Tesla that is supposed to be ready sometime between mid August and mid September. We planned on keeping the IS for many more years and maybe giving it to one of the kids in a few years. Sorry for the super long thread and thank you for your time.

 

IMHO: Lost coolant has multiple symptoms:

1) White exhaust smoke (cracked block/blown head gasket/cracked head) - all bad
2) No white smoke but loss of coolant - likely the water pump which is notorious for failing on the IS engine - look for traces of seepage
3) No obvious symptoms because it was a slow leak - likely a tiny crack/leak in the radiator and there is no noticeable seepage from the water pump

I'd try to really determine what happened because if it was option 3 your replacement engine is on borrowed time.

Good luck but sorry you had the bad experience.

 

Instead of shovelling over a mountain of cash for a used engine, I'd source the engine myself. Including the liftgate service, my Japanese-market 3GR-FSE shipped from Orlando to Conifer, CO for a total purchase price of under $1400. If I wasn't the wrench spinning type, I'd be looking for a shop to do the work, but then you'll be approaching that $6k price again, since no mechanic is going to want to blindly hop into a swap on an unknown platform, and I bet there are more people in your county than can recite all of Schrodinger's equation than there are people who have engine swapped a 2IS.

Nevermind that the swap is relatively straightforward and anyone claiming the moniker "mechanic" should be able to pull it off in an afternoon with a lift and hand tools...

 

Thanks for the responses.
Ultra, is the JDM engine a direct replacement or is there modifications needed for our US cars. I found some JDM engines on eBay that look good. Where did you buy yours?

 

Ebay'd mine from MyJDMorlando, who included the liftgate arrangements as part of shipping. Watch for "free shipping" if you don't have a business with a loading dock to use, you'll end up having to contact the carrier and pay them separately for them to liftgate it to your house. If you're shipping it to a mechanic's shop, the free shipping auctions are ideal.

The hard parts are plug-and-play, but the electronics differ slightly, so when you get a JDM engine, swap your US wire harness over to it, and the little heater hoses right here. The US version has heaters in it to pre-heat the coolant, while JDM does not.



The bottom aluminum intake (SCV plate) also needs to be swapped between US and JDM because the JDM has only the motor, and lacks the position sensor the US version has.



That's what comes immediately to mind.

My personal input is to get a 3GR and make the car better, but that's me.

 

Thank you for the info. It gives me a lot to think about.