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Weighing options - To rebuild or swap.

The van was dropped off to the shop I have been going through for my Mitsubishi Outlander repairs.

I asked about getting a quote and 2 weeks later, I get one. $5600. Including parts.

When I looked at some of the prices, they were just outrageous. Now, I like the shop and mechanics there. I like the work they have done, but I was really looking at the prices of many of the parts, which made up about half of the total quote.

I then was thinking of swapping in a low mileage JDM motor. But the motor had to have official paperwork, either saying it had low miles or that it had been tested...  anyways, nobody that had one could offer this certificate or paperwork, which to me is a must.

Even talking with people on forums were just saying swap it and what not.


While I do want to tinker with this van, one of the biggest and main factor is, I want to make it reliable.

I dont have a time or space to work on this motor alone. This is not a typical pop the hood motor, it is under the driver and passenger seats.

So I dont want to replace the head gasket and later and something else go out and have to do it again.

This motor on the van has 248,000 miles on it. It needs to be refreshed (I have never owned a vehicle with that many miles).

So with that said, I decided to put some money into it and have the whole block redone. This motor is bullet proof, so refreshing it will keep it that way. Plus, anyone an keep track of the maint done, but things still wear out.

 I decided to get my own parts, and that cut costs significantly. It also gave me more room to address more parts. This would be new brake rotors and pads, new radiator and hoses, just to name a couple.

While it easily became expensive, it also gave me piece of mind that I am basically going to have a new motor.

Let's get on with the build!

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