Overheated '05. Failed leak down. Next steps?

Curious if anyone can make heads or tails out of these pics from the cylinders. Plenty of oil in the valves also confirmed by oil on the plugs -- bad piston rings and/or valve seals? who knows what else?

Do I just get on with removing the heads at this point? I am on the lookout for another motor but am also very curious to find the root cause along the way.

All the plugs look similar with the burnt ring above the thread.


cylinder #1




cylinder #3:



cylinder #5




cylinder #2



cylinder #4


it looks like there is a hole with light coming in ... not sure if that is a reflection from my cheap camera?




cylinder #6

 

Wow - this just happened to me. '06. 170k. Friends were driving truck and it lost power, erupted in steam. Had it towed to mechanic - they are recommending an engine swap. OUCH.

 

Damn that sucks. are you going the engine route? I'd love to hear if you or the mechanic has a recommendation on an engine. reman? salvage?

 

They have a 120k salvage engine. I’m going to talk to them tomorrow to hopefully get more details on what exactly it is. Will let ya know what I find out.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/remanufactured-1gr-fe-thoughts.835865/

I have been looking around online at remanned engines.

all of the websites that advertise them seem pretty sketchy. ebay too.

Looks like many slavage yards are straight forward, even showing a copy of the scrapped title, mileage, VIN and other information.

Local salvage yards seem to be the best bet for a used motor.

 

I agree that salvage seems the best bet. I've been watching this site - https://www.car-part.com/ - it aggregates a bunch of salvage yards and will likely visit / pull the trigger on one of these once I figure out where I'm going to do the work.

 

Found a salvaged engine. 2008 with 130k miles. Running when pulled. Hoping to get it in the next week. Fingers crossed. If all goes well it's strange to think I'll be going from 206k down to 130k miles on the engine.

 

Well, engine swap apparently went without a hitch except for the massive black hole in my wallet… Left Bozeman, drove about 3-1/2 hours to camp spot, got up in the morning drove about 20 minutes and the check engine light came on and then we lost power… Cylinder two misfire code, the mechanic’s diagnosis is bad ignition coil so I am in Cody Wyoming on a Sunday seeing what I can find!

 

Ok so, it was a bummer this happened but I love owning an older taco. Drove in to Cody. 4 auto parts stores all open on a Sunday. All had the part. Swapped the ignition coil and we are good to go. And yes I bought a spare. lol.

 

Good to hear! glad you're up and running again. My swap is in progress. The engine is in and it started up and sounds good. It's getting buttoned up on Monday and then I hope I'm good. However, I had to get back to CO so the truck is in TX and I'm up in CO. I could either a) let it sit until mid October or b) fly down Friday and drive it up Saturday. option b) would be awesome but leaves little room for error.

 

I was thinking “I wished I’d driven around Bozeman for a week” but who knows. Maybe the problem would have manifested or maybe it wouldn’t. Hard to say with all the little potential ticking time bombs. But I am going to really revisit the inventory of spares we carry.

 

Update: on our way to Fort Collins. Check engine light came on *again!* Code P0117. You don’t want this one! As I pulled over engine started pre-igniting. Stopped. Coolant cap blew off and steam spewed out. Awaiting tow. WTF!!!!!

 

Oh fn no

 

oh damn. argh is right

 

Were you able to get home? Any idea on what happened / next steps? Do you have compression? It sounds similar to what I experienced and a few days later I realized - the coolant overflow was full. The radiator was low and I could add coolant indefinitely and watch it flow right out of the exhaust. At a minimum hopefully there is a warranty on that engine but it's such a PIA.

 

They’re doing a leak down test now. I’m flying home but hopefully coming back in a couple weeks to drive it home. Fingers crossed it’s just a faulty new radiator (doesn’t seal against the cap!) and not a head gasket. Apparently in addition to the 90 parts and labor warranty from the shop that did the work there is a 2 year 24000 mile warranty through Napa. But it sounds like navigating that is going to be a pain.

 

The bad news continues! Failed leak down. Coolant in cylinders 4 & 6. Now I'm trying to figure out if we find a different used engine, a reman, or do head gaskets. I think the labor of swapping for another engine is probably stupid given we could run into the same issue. It's the devil I now know vs a new devil... thoughts?

 

I wouldnt trust another swap. Do the HG.

 

Isn’t it under both mechanics warranty and NAPA warranty?

Anyway, I hope it works out for you.