We're back! My 123 and I that is...
 

About a year ago, my 81 300RD threw a timing chain and I threw in the towel and got a W210 gasser. The 123 Sat for about six months waiting for me to advertise it for sale or something. My 17 year old son decided we should sell the 2001 Prius and use it to fund the procurement of and installation of a replacement engine.

I'm sitting in it now waiting for emission testing. It's great to be back behind the wheel! I'd forgotten how special theses cars are.

The engine came from a 1981 300TD with about 130k miles, so it was all set for the SLS, which I didn't want to lose. $940, delivered. 4 of the glow plugs were shot, but other than that, no problems, yet.

Parts and labor ran about $3600. $2200 was labor. Luckily, I like the car a lot because that bit was tough to swallow.

Let's see it.

Best use of a Prius ever!

Ooofff! That's a hell of a bill to swap a 123 engine, yikes!

Did you provide the engine? Or was that part of the parts charge?

2200 in labor is sky high for a job that would take one guy under a day to do if he were halfway competent and in no rush. Did they run into complications of some kind?

That did strike me as bit out there. For a direct swap, I'd expect labor in the 6-8 hour range. These cars are good for DIY learning. It's where I really started in earnest.

Who'd you have do the swap? European Service? Motorwerks? Eurotech?

It does seem a bit pricey but not knowing what all they did it's hard to determine.

20 man hours labor does seem a bit long for the straight swap but throw in; oil change, valve adjustment, trans filter change, broken bolts, etc. and it's not unreasonable. Hard to swallow though.

I bought a 300d parts car that was a parker due to a frt end collision ,my hope was that when they wrecked the car that it was shut off immediatly due to the oil and tran lines were opened up,we later found the motor to be good and had very little blow by .The 84 300cd was the reciever and once work was done it was a nice feeling to see the car out from under its tarp as a parker and driving down the road again with a renewed life .I hope you take yours on a long madien voyage .

As I just replied to another thread, where the OP is weighing a motor replacement... around here the bare minimum you are likely to get away with for such a swap is 12 hours' labour (and that is for a re/re, not incuding pulling the new motor out of a parts car, for example). And some shops will refuse to do it with a customer-supplied used motor unless they've seen the motor run beforehand.

Plus, as noted above, that won't include items such as oil change, new coolant, new belts, etc.

If the shop isn't making anything on parts, at least in my neck of the woods, they will charge extra for labour. That is now a fact of life.

Where I live it is getting harder and harder to get jobs done on a per hour rate - they have learnt to do a per job rate which when you backwards calculate it it seems like they are lawyers not tradesmen!

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to clarify my earlier remarks, congressman :D.

That is very much the case here as well -- I just did the backwards math to relate it to hours.

Frankly it is becoming difficult to find 'ordinary' shops willing to do anything on these cars. Mostly one is stuck with the shops that are trying to position themselves as 'upscale' (that is, an somewhat economical alternative to the dealer for newer European marques once they go off warranty, but in Sillyville in terms of cost for a w123).

Also, even minor challenges during the install will quickly be added to the bill. When I had the motor replaced in my '83 SD the final bill was $1,600, which I argued down to about $200 less. The initial estimate had been $875.

And when I got the car back -- which they claimed to have road-tested -- the throttle linkage was so messed up the car wouldn't accelerate at all, it was so bad I thought the parking brake was sticking. It would barely get out of its own way. I had to regig the setup from memory in their parking lot in 0 deg C weather.

Motorwerks. They rebuilt the vacuum pump, replaced some cooling lines that are hard to do with the motor in the car, etc.

It`s all history now, and happy to hear you are back on the road. it was your son`s idea to sell the Prius and get the TD back on the road. This would have been a good learning experience for him to learn how to R&R an engine and other related parts. Also a good Dad Son bonding time. And give him a better appreciation of your car, and a feeling of accomplishment.


Charlie

2000 sounds about right for labor for an engine swap...around here its $105 an hour at the dealer, so 18-19 hours turns into 2000 real fast.

With only 130k that engine has a LOT of life left, the car should be good to go now for a long while!

I'm cheap & would do it myself. DIY also causes problems as there is only so much time in a day. A friend of mine has the opposite approach. He won't repair anything - ever. I have a lot of projects in line. He gets rid of things when broken and spends time on the golf course. I hate golf but bike ride and sail. All choices are a trade off.

Since the check is written and the car drives, enjoy and don't look back.

We get a lot of this kind of bonding keeping our 4 1960s Lambretta motorscooters running. He helped me rebuild his motor a few months ago. It is great bonding, for sure. There is only so much time one can spend on old wonderful vehicles. :)