When is the right time for a rebuild? Options

[d3ath2009]

My car now has 208,000 miles on it and has yet to be rebuilt. What benefits does a rebuild offer and when should you really do one?

[cax_11]

My car now has 208,000 miles on it and has yet to be rebuilt. What benefits does a rebuild offer and when should you really do one?

Its time for a rebuild whenever the motor begins loosing compression and burning oil. When the motor looses compression your loosing power, and when its burning oil you'll see blue smoke coming out the exhaust wether on idle or hard acceleration, during this period you'll have to top up your oil between oil changes to keep it fill between the safe marks. The mileage its gonna be at when it begins this varies, because it is affected by how well the owner treated the engine, in terms of oil changes, lots of hard driving etc

This post has been edited by cax_11: Mar 17, 2011 - 1:36 PM

[Smaay]

^^^ Good answer. yep if you still have good compression and not burning oil, leave it alone. if you do want to rebuild then look at my thread for rebuilding the 7A-FE. it will give you an idea whats involved

[d3ath2009]

well i havent done a compression test on it, and as far as i know it isnt burning oil. however it does use oil. Its always had the oil changed every ~3000 miles but i do tend to drive it a little on the hard side. I'm thinking a rebuild in the next couple of years wouldnt hurt just to clean it out and back to pristine cond

[blu94gt]

I wouldn't bother with a rebuild unless you're having a specific issue (knock, burning oil, loss of compression/power) or if it flat out dies or locks up. Sounds like a waste of time and money for a car that's running fine; it's not cheap to rebuild the motor.

The only time I'd recommend a rebuild if you're not having issues with the motor is if you want to build the motor for power; IE changing to forged internals, stroking the motor, boring out, etc.

[k-weaver]

I wouldn't bother with a rebuild unless you're having a specific issue (knock, burning oil, loss of compression/power) or if it flat out dies or locks up. Sounds like a waste of time and money for a car that's running fine; it's not cheap to rebuild the motor.

The only time I'd recommend a rebuild if you're not having issues with the motor is if you want to build the motor for power; IE changing to forged internals, stroking the motor, boring out, etc.

X2 on this

If anything put money towards preventative maintenance so you don't have to rebuild.