Engine swap

So my son helped me change the engine oil in my 2014 5.7 but he drained the transmission fluid‍♂️. I measured the fluid he took out and put that much new fluid back in the tranny and thought I had a crisis averted. As I was bleeding out the x-mission running it through the gears it started acting up and made a slight knock and died in me. Then my son came running out and said he ended up draining the engine oil after the tranny mistake but never refilled the engine. So I filled the engine oil and she started up fine and sounded fine so I thought we had averted another crisis.
Well, I made it about 20 miles on the freeway then when I punched it to get past a slow guy in the fast lane, and it sputtered and started knocking pretty bad. By the time I got to the soonest exit it was a severe knock and I knew it was done.
The shop around the corner suggested a $10k engine swap.
So, what's your suggestions? The knock sounds mostly upper. Would you pull heads and have them machined with new guides and valves? Or is it worth looking into a full on engine swap?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

I would see the cost break down on how they came up with $10k, that's probably a brand new crate engine swapped in, and you could probably get a junkyard engine and have a shop do it for half that. Without more details and diagnosis it's hard to say what the issue is, if it's already having that much issue I wouldn't swap parts since there's probably more damage than that first obvious thing (for instance I wouldn't trust just swapping heads, even if that fixes the noise you're hearing), so my recommendation is find a junkyard engine and get that swapped in.

 

Thanks for the reply! Any recommendations on where to shop for a junckyard motor?

 

Well, literal junkyards nearby also eBay and other websites. Right off the bat it looks like you can get an engine for $4k shipped to your door on eBay. Then say $3k maybe for installation and you're sitting at $7k total. Or have a father son bonding experience since he fucked up the engine and buy a hoist from harbor freight and install it yourself

Quite a few options and paths you can go down, but none of them will be particularly cheap or easy sadly.

 

Yeah, the shop called and said the cheapest motor they could find was actually $12K!! I literally said, "oh hell no, I'll be there with a trailer by tomorrow."
The father son bonding option isn't looking all that bad actually... I've done some pretty in-depth mechanic work in my day and am sure we could handle it, just finding the time is the hardest part.
Is there a particular manual or tutorial you would recommend? I'm also tempted to start pulling heads and maybe send them to the machine shop to be rebuilt. The knock sounded higher ended to me... don't know, I've got a lot of decisions to make here soon!

 

I don't have any manuals for the tundra so can't say. I guess there's no harm in pulling the heads and see what's up, not like you're going to hurt it anymore than it is! Good chance it's a "simple" fix and after that it'll run another 200k, and that'd by far be the cheapest (and probably quickest) solution.

 

I good used engine can be bought for $4-$5k ish. Sometimes can find them down in the $3k range. In general were are you located? I would find one within an hour or two drive and go get it. Then you can pay a shop another $2k-$3k in labor or do the swap yourself. I personally wouldnt want to mess with trying to rebuild yours. Especially if its higher mileage already and you can replace it will a better low mileage pullout.

 

Thank You! I'm Located in Northern Utah. I'll just sit down and start calling auto wreckers... Do you have any suggestions on tutorials or good manuals to guide a motor swap? Time is my biggest issue but its something I don't think I'd be scared to attempt.