Actually, I should have clarified. The techs didn't say anything. My Dad's been going in every few days to check on it and he saw the motor out of the truck on a stand. When the tech walked away, he walked up the motor, flipped it upside down and wiggled all the bearings. The two middle ones were loose.

He would have had his truck back by now except that the new block had an oil freeze plug missing and blew oil all over the place when they installed it. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" /> Real confidence inspiring. Makes me wonder what else they missed when they built the motor. So last I heard, they were fixing that.

I'm not sure where Toyota builds the 2.7 engines. I've heard that they were going to open a 4 cylinder engine plant here in states, or maybe they were just going to expand it. They do sell this motor in other countries, or at least used too. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> I'm not sure why they discontinued it in Australia. So, they probably assemble them in more than one plant around the world.

What concerns me is that I've recieved multiple emails from Tacoma owners asking me if I knew anything about a loud ticking sound that seems to be common with the 2.7 liter, especially those made around 2001 and later. I fear that Toyota built a bad batch of motors. Either through poor assembly or poor parts.

These motors seem to generally last just as long as many 22Rs, and the design, with a chain/gear driven cam design is very cool. The fact that they can get as much power as the old 3.0 V-6 out of a 4 cylinder and get better gas mileage than many 22Rs makes this a very fine motor. But little quirks like this has me worried.

I fear that Toyota might be cutting corners in how it builds some of it's products, since it's moved some of it's design and production out of Japan and into places like China, Thailand and even here in the states.