Rod knocking after pulling trailer up steep hill

I did this once on a Cadillac 472. Left the engine in the car though so didn't touch the oil pump. Timing set and resealing the front made a difference, and the water pump added a little reliability.

 

I daily drove them off and on each for over 15 years (2005 camry, 2006 sienna (bought used) and before that 2000 echo) but like anyone else who owns a vehicle there’s a bunch of other trips in them too, road trips, family vacations etc. My wife drove them as well and she’s closer to work than I am. 2 car family. Camry had 312,000km when I sold it in 2020 and the Sienna had 297000 when I sold it. Both had 1000s of 6 mile trips in them. Now it’s worth noting that im always on top of the oil changes and they ran synthetic most of their time with me. OCI about 6000 miles.

 

These are zero tolerance motors, you cheap out now, you are doing it again, it will just be a time thing. Why drive an unreliable, short cut, half right motor? You see the sludge (everywhere), you know the issues, stop trying to do it cheap. Buy a reman motor, or look for a lower mileage used motor, with clean internals. Then, stop taking the thing to the dealer for oil changes, and use your friend, and provide the oil and filter for him. I know you say you sat there and watched them but, if they didnt open up new jugs of mobil1 in your presence, and just used the bulk pump oil, from the machine... You never got full syn oil but, they told you, and billed you for it. Take control of you, (and your truck's) destiny. Like the old fram oil filter commercial... You can pay me now, or pay me later. And when you do pay later... IT WILL BE A LOT MORE!

ski

 

So, you averaged over 10k a year. They definitely had more long trips than 6 mile ones.

 

i believe my '17 owners manual says D4 only for towing, No 5, 6th gear overdrive. Push that motor to the curb. your going to spend alot of money at Toyota parts counter to fix that engine right. Or you can bandaid fix it and roll the dice. At least it will be easier to pull the motor 2nd time around. Not hating just giving you the auto mechanic POV

 

4k rpm going down hill to help with braking, yikes. Thats like max rpm. I’d be going to 3k and that’s about it

 

I recall Toyota had the major oil sludge issues with Camry a few years ago that was a combination of engine design/oil quality/ and neglected OCIs. The cause of sludging here will likely never be known and is water over the dam at this point. With an 8-year old vehicle at 177K you'll need to do the cost-benefit analysis of engine replacement versus repair versus moving on from the vehicle altogether. You have expertise and a good mechanic, so a rebuild seems plausible.

 

the 3.5 v6 redline is 7000...

Ski

 

That’s what the gauge says

 

are you starting a conspiracy that this engine has a 4K redline?

 

Probably 5500

 

So are you saying your Tacometer has a 4K redline? You must have a very different Tacoma than I do:

 

Engines don’t always make power to the redline on the gauge

 

Irrelevant, your claim was maximum RPM is 4,000.

 

Your mention of the 4K RPM used for engine braking, not making power?

 

This is another lost 1st gen'er...

 

It’s “like” 4k. Might have been over exaggerating a bit

 

4K is “like” 64% of redline. Your suggestion to stick to 3K is less than half of redline.

 

I think stock is 6300, tunes pushed it to higher

 

Max RPM?

Redline is 6k RPMs, 4K is nothing. I tow and quite often engine brake ~4K RPMs.