3RZ: It's not obvious why the #1 cylinder filled with coolant

Question #1: Why did it go from no known problem to hydraulically locked in a few days and not many miles? (see Question #2 below)

1999 3RZ that I did a head gasket and such on a few years ago. It started occasionally running rough on let's say days 1 and 2. On day 3 steam was coming out the exhaust pipe as she was backing out to go to work. I said to go for it. The engine clunked when she tried to start it at after work. Got it towed home. A long drill bit down each cylinder => coolant in #1. I've got the head off and the head gasket doesn't look OBVIOUSLY damaged to that point (I've had worse). I don't see a crack in the head.

For reference, I had a 1997 3RZ that was fouling the #3 plug occasionally. It ended up hydraulically locking months and many miles later. The head was cracked, the #3 cylinder had a crack in it, and I don't recall what the head gasket was like.

I plan to take the head to a shop (I didn't do that during the previous head gasket job), show them the head gasket, and ask what they think, but I figured I'd try here, too.

Question #2: Is the lower left area obviously the problem?



Edited to add: By the way, the machine shop owner said these engines are notorious for blowing head gaskets, cracked heads, and cracks in the cylinder bores.

 

Its obvious to me...
7:00 - 8:30
But yes, thats alot of coolant compared to the small failure youre seeing...
How's that cylinder wall, looks very rusty at this point from what I can see, kind of a crappy pic...

& yes, dont even question it, take the head to a machine shop, have it checked for cracks, have valves inspected, & have it surfaced...

When you put it back together, you have to be CERTAIN theres zero fluids in any of the head bolt holes in the block....
Compressed air....
Cant just do these huge jobs with cordless tools.....

 

Just a thought, it might be time to source a junkyard or reman motor. 2 headgasket failures and a lot of rust buildup in cylinder 1 seems like this thing aint worth putting the effort into to fix.

And any chance the bottom end got hurt when it clunked and was hydro-locked?

 

It was obvious to the engine machine shop owner by looking at the head, too.

Yep, I don't know what I was thinking the previous time. It's in for a $65 wash, crack check, valve sealing check, and resurface.

Thanks for the tip on getting the water out.

More questions for anyone: It failed smog for hydrocarbons, then I fixed a big exhaust leak, then it barely passed with a minor exhaust leak where there are pinholes from someone not doing the best welding job when putting a catalytic converter in. What are likely contributors to hydrocarbons emissions? How much difference might a complete cylinder head job do toward improving the hydrocarbons emissions?

 

I think my previous one locked worse and it was good for several more years till it was crashed into. The rust is not as bad as it looks- it's just around the top, not in the bore.

 

Those passages are fooked and I'd bet a huge part of the reason whatever failed. I'd bet there was a heck of a hotspot in that cylinder and head passages above it.

What were you running as coolant, salt water?

Bottom left is likely the failure point.

 

Incomplete combustion. Like weak or missing spark, low compression.

Picture (theoretically) a liquid drop of unburned fuel going down the exhaust. That's HC

 

Hmm, interesting. The coolant came out looking pretty good. It's quite possible that I've run this without enough coolant in the mix in the time I've owned it. Hmm, what to do, what to do?

 

Coolant sludge in that area wasn't necessarily the cause of the HG leak but likely a byproduct of the leak. Coolant sludge is caused by the chemical breakdown that occurs when atmosphere is allowed to interact with the cooling system for a period of time.
In this case the "atmosphere" came in through the leaking HG so it makes sense the sludge is in that area

 

All of them look like that though:

 

You got a lot going on here. And none of it is good.

Pink arrows. Obvious cylinder head gasket failure from darn near 6pm to 12. You don't see that?!?!? Wut? Contrast that to the other side with yellow arrows and text.

More importantly, or really - even worse - is that piston is not even sitting anywhere close to the center of that cylinder. Ouch. I could fart and that cylinder would not be able to hold a single methane molecule before it passes straight thru to the oil pan.

Coolant passages basically 100% totally plugged. 10 and 2 pm.

I dislike being the bearer of bad news. But I will tell the truth. There is not a $65 dollar cylinder head repair hack that is going to resolve this. Not one that is going to last more than 10-12 miles. Feel free to substitute "minutes" for miles.

Dislike me, disregard me, disagree with me. That is not the outcome, of course, that I wish. But that is a catastrophic engine failure. You have some difficult choices to make.

Best wishes and HTH and good luck!

 

Well the sludge can get distributed throughout the cooling system since everything is circulating. Im just saying sludge situations are often accompanied by a leak into the system somewhere. Somewhere for atmosphere to enter..

 

Dear @BigCarbonFootprint,

I wish she would be more comfortable with getting rid of this thing and getting a Leaf with a much smaller carbon footprint. She drives out of the city two times a month for work- otherwise, an inexpensive 60-mile range Leaf would work well. No more head gaskets, oil changes, smog checks, constipated catalytic converters, etc, etc. Gawd that'd be such a relief.

As for the cylinder/piston supposedly being out-of-round: I'm pretty sure that picture is with coolant completely covering the piston- I want to say at least half an inch deep. So, I don't believe you're seeing out-of-roundness. But, that's a good point. I'll take as good of a gander as I can at the pistons and bores.

If the coolant passages are plugged, I should be able to fish some sludge out- right? And the coolant would've come out worse than it did- right?

Maybe I should freshen this thing up with a dip in a hot tank, good measurements, some new rings, etc. I think it's got 250k miles on it. Her 3RZ went 330k without a rebuild, but it's in a similar state of disrepair, too. There's the contrast of being somewhat of a hero for getting more miles out of this thing and me being tired of messing with 3RZs.

 

It was sealed up enough to hold the coolant sitting in there when he took it apart. If it was as bad as you say shouldn't the coolant molecules have passed straight through to the oil pan?




Also, do you always talk like you're in some Shakespeare play or something?

"Love me, or hate me.. I cometh bearing bad news. Hate not the messenger, for he speaketh the truth "

 

@BigCarbonFootprint

I think what you're seeing is mostly how the gasket was designed, and it looks rusty. All of the kidney shapes on the gasket are from the block passages- the gasket only has ~1/8" holes in the same positions, except for the #4 area, it has smaller kidney-shaped holes. That can be seen in the second picture. You can also see that the block coolant passages are pretty clear. I can see down to the coolant level, which is about level with the block coolant drain. The first picture is with the gasket face up, and the second is flipped over. I used my finger to pick at the worst looking spot of the gasket, one of the kidney-looking parts, and that looks to be where it failed because the gasket was a bit torn.

 

Coolant sludge...
Can also happen when the vehicle has toyota red & you refill with say vc5 green....
Not all coolants are mixable & the coolant coagulates..
We would CONSTANTLY get reminders from ford on this as they have atleast 7 different coolant colors....

Me looking in that cylinder, looks awfully green....
Just saying...

unless its from the reflection of the leaves on the trees....

 

I don't think I've ever used red coolant. Maybe that's why I've had so many problems. But not the first 3RZ with a cracked cylinder.

 

look at the 2:00 - 2:30 position just before the N is the the piston ring joint or am I seeing things, theres no way you should be seeing that...
I think its just a wacked picture, playing tricks on us, maybe...

 

Im not a toyota guy, I can only assume your truck uses red, like every other toyota I opened the hood on...

 

I think that everything seen on top of the fully submerged piston is the coolant reflecting like a mirror.