Hi, I have a 2001 Celica GTS and I had recently removed the driver side front plastic fender well to have it replaced and before I could get it replaced I was driving home and it started to rain really bad and I completely forgot I had removed the fender well and before I got home the cold air intake sucked in ALOT of water. When it happened there was a really loud bang that sounded like a sledge hammer hitting the motor and then the car just started running really sluggish so I cut it off and had it towed home. I thought that I had maybe thrown a rod or something so I took the spark plugs out and had a friend keep turning the car over while I looked down into the engine with a flashlight and I noticed all 3 pistons are still turning over except for the 1 on the far passenger side, its locked up. So my question is with the engine already having 130K on it do you think it would be a better idea to have a shop tear it down and diagnose the problem or to just buy a replacement motor? I just dont want to pay a shop to tear it down just to find out its gonna cost just as much or more to fix as it would be to just buy a replacement motor that only has around 40K miles and have it put in. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thankyou

 

You are better off with a replacement engine. I have had 2 friends who had sucked up water in their engines had susatained internal damage. Both guys ended up installing a used engine. Their mechanics tore their engines down and stated it was cheaper to use a used engine.

 

Concur

 

Thankyou, thats what I was kind of expecting was gonna have to be done. Does anyone know of a good place to buy a replacement engine for it? I found a JDM motor on eBay, says its from Japan for $2250 with 20K-40K and a 3 year unlimited mile warrenty but thats about all I could find.

 

Suggest you review posts at the Toyotanation website and ask you question there.

What model engine?

JDM engines can be fine but sometimes being their build for Japan may have different emissions and fuel setups requiring a swap of parts.