My 22re was dying after about 200k. I had replaced the head with a brand new one and
then I warped it, blew the head gasket and had the new head plained down.
The plained head was too thin and the timing chain was slapping all around, and
on the first Siesta Trip this was very apparent. Also at the 3000 RPM
mark the whole engine would vibrate, the rear main seal was also leaking and
I was putting in about 1qt of oil a week Requirements:
My options were a rebuilt engine or an engine swap, I had neither the time
energy tools or expertise to do a swap. So it was a rebuilt 22r for me.
I could have had the engine I had in there rebuilt, but that would have
required a new head and it wouldn't be cost effective or time efficient.
So it was time to find a rebuilt block, quickly, down time was very important
for me-the 'Runner is my daily driver and during the swap I had to drive my
mother's Taurus, believe me it's worse than it sounds.
I called around my local auto parts suppliers and Kragen had the cheapest blocks and
they had one in LA that could be here in a few days. I was apprehensive about
getting an engine from Kragen, knowing the quality of their products. They actually
deal with two rebuilders Recon and some other company and the guy who sold me the
block said to go with Recon because "We've had too many problems with the other one."
Isn't it ironic, don't ya think....
Installation: 
I had had a very bad experience with major engine work gone bad...I don't wanna talk about it. So this time around
I took my freaking time. I wrote down what I took off in what order with short descriptions for future reference. I
took photos of the maze of vaccum lines and other parts (still come in handy!) and I put all the bolts/nuts/washers
for an accesory into a zip-lock bag and duct taped it to the part so I wouldn lose them...just remembering last time,
I don't wanna talk about it.
There are two basic ways to harvest an engine, pull the block or pull the block and tranny as one. I opted for just
the block. I had to rent a engine hoist and run it back in my mom's car...she didn't like that too much, the rental
cost wasn't much but it was adding up pretty quick. While I was in there I also replaced the clutch, piliot
and throw-out bearings and the motor and tranny mounts, these combined added another $500 to the project...ouch.
Overall Impression:
After working on the pile for what seamed like months I finally got the timing right and got it running
however, something wasn't right. I was running really crappy and I soon found the number 1 cylinder wasn't firing.
I though it was the injector and I poured in some cleaner, didn't work. Replaced the injector, didn't work
then I realized I didn't have the correct wires hooked up, that did the trick.
But after fixing my mistake I was enraged and horrified to notice a horrible grinding noise comming from the
front of the block. I had had enough so I eventually broke down and had it towed to a shop. They pulled
it out and got a new one in (real cheap too haha).Regrets/Problems? 
Before Recon would reimburse me they had to inspect the
block so I was on edge would they blame it all on me or what? Well they tore it apart and the timing
chain wasn't installed correctly which caused it to rubb on the block, causing the death noise.
However my cost to have the "new-new" engine put in was near $1,000 and "Recon will only reinburse for up to
$600 in labor." So you guessed it, I had to puke up antoher $400 for a problem that wasn't caused by a mistake
that I made, yep pretty shitty if you ask me.Conclusions:
No, don't do it. Look into other options, I would either ship a block from
Japan or get one from a junk yard and have it rebuilt either by myself (probably not I'm
lazy) or have a shop I trust do it.
Update:
It's been 10k and one year so my warranty has run out. I also took the oprotunity to put in a
DOA preformance cam and so I got to look at how the engine has been working. Everything looks
great, except half of one of my timing chain guides has broken off, already. It's pretty common
and most people put in a metal backed timing chain guides, I now have the excuse to get more DOA
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