Blew ‘er up on the trail last night.

Did the motor in last night. I was on an off camber climb out from the river and apparently my oil catch can filled up and pulled oil through that into the engine, filled the #5 cylinder and hydrolocked. Not sure the extent of the damage but with the plugs removed I’m unable to turn the motor over by hand (with a huge breaker bar) at all so I’m guessing either bent rod or worst. What’s promising is there’s no metal in the oil or filter.

The # 5 plug just happens to be the last one I pulled and when I did oil just started pouring out the plug hole (that’s what the pic is of)

Gonna do some thinking now if I want to rebuild this one or swap something else into it (like an LS) but won’t even be at the decision phase till I’ve got this motor pulled apart. The one thing I’m not doing is buying another 2GR for it, if this one isn’t rebuildable it’s swap time. Whoever put that PCV valve in that location is an idiot.


Pic shows the number 3 plugwell clean and dry with number 5 behind it oozing oil. When I pulled that plug it was like I tapped a well, it just poured out.


Edit: feel free to read the whole thread but here’s the final pic. I didn’t find this till I had the motor pulled today and took the starter off. The counterweight on the crank and the bottom of the cylinder bore were hammered pretty bad, even without the hole the bottom end would still be toast and isn’t even rebuildable.

 

Sorry to hear this.

 

Well, if you're going to trash your Taco motor, this is the way it should die! Kinda like snapping your favorite fishing rod fighting a big fish.

Sorry for your mishap brother, and keep us posted on your repair progress.

 

That’s shitty

 

It was a good death

 

Amen

 

Reminds me of the guy that won first prize for loudest stereo 100.00 but he broke the back window out which cost over 200.00 hey y’all hold my beer and watch this

 

Did the can fill and not have the capacity for the situation/duration or was it not emptied recently enough? I ask because I plan to do this and will go with a larger capacity can if I need to.

 

Doesnt seem like toyotas, in general, very often have rapid unplanned disassembly like this, best of luck

 

Bummer. Don’t get me wrong, I love my truck for what I do with it. But Everyone raises these trucks up so high on this pedestal of off roading, but really they aren't nearly as great for the trails as their reputation has everyone believing. They do fine on moderate stuff, but they aren’t a great choice for harder trails IMO. Their biggest asset is probably a rear locker, but you can put a rear locker in anything so that’s kinda moot to me. Besides that, these truck have a lot of things going against them in this dept… the long wheel base that doesn’t help getting over stuff, lots of nanny tech after 2018, an exhaust that hangs below the frame asking to get torn off, engines that fatally hydrolock because they got tilted off camber (WTF Toyota??), terrible approach and not too great departure angles, still heavy as hell for a mid size, wide body, terrible view of what you’re crawling over from driver’s seat compared to pretty much any other vehicle I’ve ever driven off road, etc..

I’m not hating on the 3rd gen, honestly. I really love my truck. It’s just not nearly as great on actual trails as everyone makes them out to be IMO. Pound for pound, my 3rd gen 4runner runs circles around this tacoma on the trails in every one of the ways I mentioned above (and being IFS, I don’t think my 4runner is at the top of the off roading list either, but it’s far better than the 3rd gen Taco). I just find it amusing that Toyota still markets these trucks as amazing off roaders (with the word in the name even), when they really just aren’t.

 

Lol everyone has their own definition of "off road."
So don't even think that your definition is correct. Tacoma is amazing off road, compared to most other vehicles mass manufactured today.
Let's be realistic... If you want to go hard off road, build something that can go hard off road.

 

I'll venture a guess that the piston broke and is jammed in the cylinder. Rod probably bent and maybe even the crank. Sucks.

 

That stinks! Do you think that without a catch can your engine would be fine?

 

Has nothing to do with the reliability of the engine. If this genius did not have a catch can installed for no reason, this would not have happened. Was it worth having that catch can to destroy an engine? No, of course not.

 

Are you implying @Cereal_killer' catch can caused this problem? Because the catch can is intended to mitigate this problem (and is effective at it until it fills up)

 

Wow. How gnarly was this hill?

 

What do you think caused it? OP states himself that the catch can filled up and dumped the oil back into the engine, hydro locking the engine. This does not happen on stock motors.

 

The catch filled up because oil was coming out of the PCV valve at a high rate. That oil would've gone into the intake whether the catch can was there or not.

The stock 2GR isn't alone in this by the way. Jeep's 3.6L Pentastar does the same, and there are catch can kits for those.

 

Sure, but would it have been at a manageable rate where the engine burns it, smokes, etc but does not lock? Does the catch can act as a reservoir that dumps rapidly upon becoming full or does it just buy time and once full pass oil to the intake at the same rate that the factory PCV system would. It sounds like it depends on the catch can internal plumbing, incline/tilt angle, etc.

Have any stock engines without a CC had hydrolock cylinder(s)? I know there have been many that have smoked out the tailpipe, stalled, etc.