Threw a rod @66,000 miles

5w-30 and 5000 miles full-synthetic, longest it’s gone was right around 5250 miles before.
I follow the manual for the service intervals i even had one of the mechanics at my work (I run the detail shop at a dealership (non-Toyota)) give it a quick onceover the day before I left.

 

Did you notice a ticking noise at startup? That was the precursor to my engine blowing. I figured it was a timing chain rattle. It typically went away after 30seconds of running. It was really a rod knock as I found out when 2 rods went their separate ways doing 70ish on the freeway. Sudden loss of power followed by a big cloud of smoke and the dash lit up like a christmas tree. No oil light or anything leading up to it.

 

Any plans to tear it down and see what happened?

 

I remember thinking that it was a little noisier/louder than usual when I started it up after getting gas about 21 miles prior to it going. Since I was so far from home I stopped to check it out and seemed more normal by the time I got the hood open so I checked fluids quick and went on my way. Same thing tho loud bang, no power, smoke and light up like a christmas tree. Called AAA to get it towed and my heart just sank when I saw the oil coming out from under the truck.

 

Bummer

 

I would love to have been able to do that but since it happened so far away from home I’m having a reman put in where the truck is and I get half the core charge back giving the remanufacturer the block so that’s the route I’m going rather than hauling the bad block back up with me.

 

Pretty much...just glad I got it onto the shoulder and got everyone home safe. Having the 2 year old with me didn’t make this whole thing any easier

 

I know these things are rare for these trucks, but sure would be nice to know what happened. Please follow up if you ever discover what went wrong (I understand the OP with running it hard, but sounds like you took pretty good care of it).

 

I’ll post up what I find out if anything as far as what exactly went wrong

 

Usually when a rod goes thru the block or oil pan is the result of oil starvation to that main bearing

You can usually see a burn mark on the connecting rod from the big end of the rod . This indicates that bearing seized / spun and resulting friction overheated that journal transferring excessive heat to the connecting rod

Also once you kick a rod out the piston is pushed further up the bore and smashes into the combustion chamber destroying the cyl head

 

Another example why it kicked a rod out is that cylinder filled with coolant . Since a piston cant compress liquid the resulting damage is a bent rod that locks up and destroying that main journal

 

In my case, I had the #2 rod break and then completely leave the crank to work it's way towards the #1 causing it to fail. Without a complete tear down best I could tell was a spun bearing is what started the uncunting. The oil smelled heavily of fuel, and I attributed dilution of the oil and lack of lubrication to the failure. Possibly caused by a stuck injector or bad rings. This was at 184k. I didn't dig too far into it as it was clearly a lost cause at that point and was more focused more on getting up and running again. One of these days I'll look into it, but the top end seems to be undamaged after looking at the spark plugs and a quick look under the valve cover.

 

First picture of the damage on mine

 

I'm not even sure what I'm looking at..

Is that the starter? Looks like cylinder #6 failed?

 

That is indeed the starter or should I say was the starter

 

This is where I’m at today, ordered

This was my realization today with my 06. I ordered the VVT cam solenoids 5 days ago, as the cold weather startup chatter got severely worse as of recently & their writeup on the issue was almost spot on until 2 days ago when it started developing knocking & some metal on metal rubbing noises that came & went like a wet pulley issue. I’ve been babying it thinking it was just the valves chattering... If only.
Theres 0 lights on the dash indicating any type of problem, using my mounted “scanner gauge II” it comes up empty handed, 0 codes found. Though it’s not a professional grade scanner...
As of yet I haven’t found a whole in the block, but I have a fear there’s a small one on the left bank behind the starter like your earlier posts have shown. It’s been raining non stop lately so it’s hard to tell but the motor mount looked wet compared to everything else down there. Oil level was fine, 5-30 Amsoil Signature series is rated for 25k with just about 7k of run time. (I’ve never really gone beyond 7500m even with that super extended rating)
I’m just kinda in a state of disbelief that the legendary dependable 4.0 met its demise on an absolutely bleak drive down a 40mph roadway!

 

Well I feel your pain. All I can say is start looking for an alternate engine since you're aware of it. Your best bet is a low mileage 05-11. 2010 or 2011 would be my preference. I found a 2010 with ~40k on it for $1500. Shit now that I'm thinking about it, it was pretty much a year ago now when mine went.

The clock, or should I say rod, is ticking. No telling when or where it will happen even if you try and baby it.

 

I’d revise that to 07-11 to make sure you don’t pick one up that’s gonna need head gaskets