Just had a rod bust its way out 3.4L

Yeah but how common is that really? Never heard of a 3.4 doing that either. Unless a head gasket randomly failed which these were not known for unlike the 3.0 they replaced.

 

I've seen a number of hydrolocks and bent rods from leaking injector o-rings over the years. Let a leaking injector o-ring fill a cylinder with gas on a compression stroke and BAM. Goodbye engine.

 

Strangely, it is STILL full of oil. There wasn't a whole lot of oil lost during the failure. I've been working on getting a spot cleared out in the garage so we can start disassembling. We're going to wash the truck tomorrow then push it into the garage to get a closer look.

 

I suppose hydrolock is the best idea I've seen so far. Before we had the cats installed there were 2 cel codes, 1 for the lack of cats, and another for a misfire on cylinder 1. The shop that did the cat work checked it out and said they thought it was running great and not misfiring. My plan was to run it, then swap coil packs if the misfire code returned. Now I wonder if there is was a gasket leak that could have caused the misfire. The leak could have worsened and dumped coolant into the cylinder.

Hmmm.

 

Well, that's alright. If the builder is reputable and the warranty is okay, it will probably serve you well. Wish I could help you install it, that's the fun part! Pretty much plug-and-play these days.

 

Notes from my installation and refresh.

Transmission

Transmission shaft seal. I used a PVC tee for installation. I used my old Autocraft seal puller to remove this seal.

Pictures in the following link.

http://s286.photobucket.com/user/RidgelineCS/slideshow/Toyota/Tacoma/1999/Trans_Seal_Installation

Transmission dip stick o-ring. The dipstick is in two pieces. You need to remove the upper part for the engine pull. I removed the pan to get the lower part of the dipstick out of the way.

Tube of the Red Toyota PTFE for transmissions to reseal the pan. I was lucky to not find hardly any metal fragments on the transmission pan magnets. Color me shocked on that one.

Engine

Rear main seal(s). This is a two-piece assembly. The outer housing and the oil seal. I froze (in the freezer) the oil seal before installation so it didn’t require any special tools to mount the seal.

Front main seal –Included with the Timing Kit.

Camshaft seals – Included with the Timing Kit.

For front main and camshaft seals, I use PVC pipe caps, couplings, and a tee. Freezing seals before installation makes it go better. I put a thin film of red grease on the metal surface where seals were installed so there was no danger of the seal being pinched during installation.

Intake manifold gaskets. I originally bought OEM gaskets for this. Then after I started working with the heads and intake manifold, I found some pitting had occurred around the water ports. So I did not have a perfect surface on the head for mounting the intake manifold. Later, I bought the FelPro gasket set with the silicone seal for mating surface area. I felt more comfortable using the FelPro gasket in this location so I went with it.

Small gasket on the intake manifold for the neck that connects to the upper radiator hose. I used OEM for that gasket.

Engine Temp Sensor and Engine Coolant Temp Sensor – I replaced both of those sensors out of tradition when I perform a mid-life refresh on this type of engine.

Upper and lower intake manifold gaskets. I’m using the metal OEM gaskets for those locations. The upper and lower mating surfaces cleaned up like new so I stayed with OEM.

Throttle Body Gasket – I used the metal OEM gasket.

IAC gasket- Because I cleaned the IAC while I had the throttle body off, I went with FelPro for this gasket. Primarily, because I bought it locally at the last minute. There are two water hoses that support IAC cooling. I replaced those also.

Valve Cover Gaskets – For valve covers, I use FelPro blue silicone gaskets only. Yes they are expensive compared to others. I’ve had too many years of great service with those on engines similar to the 3.4. Be sure to freeze the sparkplug tube seals before installation. Again, freezing seals before installation makes it go so much smoother.

Oil cooler – Need the big o-ring and the bolt seal. Install these before installing the engine.

Injectors – Get your current injectors serviced. That service should include new screens, o-rings, and pintle caps. You’ll be glad you did to avoid leaking o-rings from age in the future.

Fuel system hoses. I replaced the main input injector rail hose. That is an expensive part that contains a banjo bolt on one end and a threaded pipe fitting on the other. There are two other hoses named fuel hose #1 and #2 that I replaced also. I replaced those due to the age of the vehicle. I don’t like to run old fuel lines. Period.

Fuel pressure regulator – I replaced it due to the fact mine was 20 years old. I automatically replace the FPR as part of a mid-life refresh.

Injector rail crush washers. You need six of these if you remove the rail as part of the injector service.

Oil cooler hoses – I can tell these will be a real pain to install after the fact. Be sure to install the hose clamps oriented so they can be accessed and removed after the engine installation if necessary.

Radiator hoses – upper and lower – OEM with OEM hose clamps.

Heater hoses – OEM and OEM hose clamps.

Hose Clamps – This is strictly personal preference but I only use OEM hose spring type clamps or shielded clamps from NAPA.

Power Steering Pump Reservoir - You may want to remove the reservoir and back flush with brake parts cleaner it to clean it. There is an o-ring that is used to seal it with the PS pump.

Vacuum hoses – I replaced the PCV hose and PCV crossover hose. There were other vacuum hoses on the intake manifold that I replaced. I used a vacuum hose diagram to identify the parts. Also, the vacuum hoses associated with Y shaped splitter on the intake manifold.

Exhaust Gaskets – Because I was working alone, and new to this engine swap process, I pulled the crossover pipe before pulling the engine. This made accessing the upper bell housing bolts easy. There are two gaskets for the crossover and two for where the crossover connects to the Y-Pipe. Other people who have done 3.4 engine swaps run long extensions up over the bell housing to access the two bolts at the bell housing. Since I was basically installing the engine alone, I made some guide pins that I screwed into the two upper bolt holes so the engine would easily mount up with the bell housing pins. This may seem like a lot of work, but when everything came together without issue, I thought it was worth it.

Knock Sensors and Knock Sensor Wiring Harness

Bolts

Need to get new crankshaft (front and rear) and torque converter bolts. One of the torque converter bolts is different by design to be the first bolt to be threaded from the flex plate into the torque converter. That bolt is called the black torque converter bolt.

Tools

OTC multipurpose tool with modified pins. It can be used for cam and crankshaft pulley installation. Here's a link to the page about it.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/timing-belt-project.611161/page-3#post-20735475

Autocraft seal puller. You can see I’ve been through the mill with the one in the transmission seal slideshow.

Torque wrench – I already had a ¾ inch drive wrench that is capable of going over 300 ft lbs.

PVC tools – You can save a lot of money by taking seals to Lowes or Home Depot to find matching pieces of PVC pipe or couplings instead of buying seal installers. Again, freezing seals before installation makes installation easy.

I’ll post some pictures of the PVC tools that I used during the installation.

 

Oof dude. That should have been like $300 max.
I had a similar story. Thought it was just o2 sensors acting up, ended up being that they were actually working and telling me the cat was bad. $100 magnaflow on Amazon, $60 weld.

Just whatever you do, shop around and don't ever go straight to the dealer. These trucks are easy to work on yourself

PS: Nothing your son could have done would have caused this.. but I think you know this by now

 

Better than Haynes or Chiltons

 

Yeah I known I paid a premium for the cats (2 of them!) because they have to be California approved. The smog shops check that the parts are in fact stamped with the correct part numbers. I might have been able to get away with non California parts (except it's hard to find somebody who will ship to Cali) but it could end up biting me in the end.

Thank you for all the help! When you said in the other thread "I'll work on this over the weekend" you weren't kidding! I really appreciate it!

 

Thank you. Note that I moved the list to the "smalls" thread and made some updates. I will update that list as I think of more items to post. There's an updated date and time note at the top of the posting.

 

Strange indeed...

 

I gotta find the exit wound, we're washing the truck today to make life more pleasant in the garage. I'll borrow my buddies cherry picker this coming week. This picture was taken when I arrived on scene. You can't see but there was a trail of oil spots back to where the event occurred (the rod cap is barely visible in the distance of this photo I think). Small spots in the trail though.

I asked him "where are you when you heard the noise?" "Was it back there where that big piece of metal is?" Pointing to the rod cap in the street, which was at that point quite obvious and followed by a trail of oil spots.

 

I was cleaning my garage the other day and found the sticker that came with my online used engine I bought for my Honda, worked out well. https://www.hmotorsonline.com/
Check RockAuto.com for other parts if you aren't already. Good luck.

 

I don't think the 3.4 is any worse than any other engine about headgaskets overall.
We have to face the fact that even with regular oil changes and correct antifreeze intervals there is a certain amount of 'wear' that occurs to gaskets.
20 yrs. of a wash effect can leave those gasket passages paper thin, get out on the road someday bringing up the temp. and 'whoosh', it finally breaks through and into the combustion chamber. Simply worn out.

I'm not saying your going to find that in this instance but it happens.

 

It's really about the heads being aluminum and the block is made out of iron and getting into an overheating problem can Warp the heads really easily, it's really imperative not to let these engines ever overheat having a scan gauge or some other type of gauge to know what your temperatures are all the time

 

I've done a 4th to 2nd gear shift, boosted almost 14 psi at 17.3 AFR's, and still have all my rods. Could've been a money shift... anyone say that yet?

Usually the rods fail at around 430-450 HP, so I've read. If anything else, probably previous owner neglect... or ya know, just bad luck. Sorry about your engine.

 

X2 I agree, My 1st motor was boosted at 10 pounds with 480,000 miles before it popped a head gasket.

Bottom end was still perfect at 480,000.

 

But those are great for starting fires........... if they are dry

 

Lookin forward with the investigation, unless you're short on time I'd just swap another motor in there and just call it a strange coincidence.

 

I've been slowly working on the truck as time permits. Today I removed a bunch of accessory brackets and got to a good point to investigate what happened.

I didn't remove the heads yet, but I turned the engine upside down and removed the oil pan. Oh boy, it really exploded in there! It looks like there were 2 rod failures.

One thing I really noticed was the SMELL inside the engine. Really an odd smell, it had a strong petroleum rubber kind of smell. Not like drained engine oil smell.

I don't know the correct part name, but it appears the cast iron bracket that holds the crank/bearing broke into two pieces when things were flapping around in there. I removed the left portion of it before deciding I'd seen enough of the internals tonight.

In the third pic below you can see where the block was penetrated (towards the bottom of the picture you can see daylight through a hole).