Tips On Choosing Half-cut Engine

Last year my dad's car was happen to be one of the flood victim on Kuantan, the car was stuck in the middle of the flood and helpless when water entered inside the block causing the block to crack and unrepairable since the engine block was made of aluminium not steel. The only way to make the run back is to replace with new engine. Here I'm sharing my experience when buying the new engine from half-cut store. We have seen plenty of half cut engine when we're going to half-cut store, here I'm would like to give few tips that you may use when choosing the best engine. First thing to know to find the engine is to know what is your car engine model, better replace it with the same capacity from the previous engine, and if your engine is imported, make sure it has customs letter and AP letter to prevent more trouble & documentation at Road Transportation Department(Jabatan Pengangkutan Jalan) JPJ

So engine that we looking for my dad's car is Toyota 2AZ-FE,

Things to inspect when testing the half-cut,

 Open radiator cap and make sure coolant inside still green, don't close yet, let it open and ensure water in the spare tank is sufficient.

Radiator cap

Spare water tank

Open oil cap and see the condition inside the engine whether is rusted or yellowish, if rusted means the engine never been start for along time, if yellowish the engine is good, but if there is burn effect, means the engine already kaput.

Oil cap

Pull out deep stick and wipe it, deep it again to see oil mark, if there means the engine never been start for along time or engine oil never change for long time, when checking at the deep stick, make sure the oil color is black not grey, because grey color means the engine been enter by water due to head gasket problem, so don't buy it!

Deep stick

Oil trace on deep stick

Another rare thing to do is compression test, this test you need to ask your mechanic to do it, they knew better about this. 

If turbo engine, take a look around the turbo, especially exhaust part if there is leak, if so, don't buy it! 

2AZ-FE turbo kit

2AZ-FE with turbo

Usually half-cut come with half exhaust, just try to check inside the exhaust just use your finger if there is oil trace or not, if so, means that it valve seal already leak. 

Observe around cover head, if it wet wet with oil, don't buy it!

Cover head

When you really satisfied with all above criteria, then you may ask the shop to start the engine, listen to the autochoke whether it's running or not, rpm getting higher when autochoke engage

I'm telling not to close the radiator cap because when the engine started, more secret about the engine you can know. See water in the radiator it is jumping out? if so, don't buy it. It is because the engine is suffering. observe the water, it is decreasing? at the exhaust, there must be little white or black smoke, but that is normal due to incomplete burning, the engine still cold, there must be little splash of flow of water from the exhaust, this means the engine in tip top condition!

The most important thing when considering half-cut is let the engine running until the fan automatically turn, but just don't turn on the air-cond. For manual transmission half-cut, after five minute, hit the clutch, if the rpm drop, don't buy it, means the main bearing already kaput.

Until this stage, you must buy the engine or you will be screw by the shopper, hahaha..
Don't forget to check each controller, air-cond, fog light, high beam, low beam, signal light, meter and gauge. Make sure you'll get complete with rear brake, absorber, fuel tank and floor mat if you are buying complete half-cut, for my dad's case, we just buy only the the engine.

There's few tips from me, which I get it from our mechanic. Hope this may help you to make the best decision. Happy shopping!