Cleaning out engine?

Sadly, after 372k, my 2006 Taco needs a resurrection...

I took my truck in to a transmission shop a couple weeks ago to diagnose something which I thought was a torque converter (had one go before, replaced tranny and tc at around 228k miles). They ended up pulling a code (despite no illumination on the dash), P0022 - ie over-retarded cam shaft. Their suggestion was to get the engine checked out, since that was most likely the culprit. I drove it to Toyota...

Toyota said it probably was the timing chain tensioner/OCVs, and told me they thought they could open it up and repair for ~$6k, which, in this market seemed like the smart thing to do. Once they opened her up, they seemed to be scared off by the buildup of sludge and said it would be better to do a full engine swap for $14k . Needless to say, I have the truck back with the engine apart and am planning on cleaning and doing the repair myself. It honestly doesn't seem all that bad, certainly not chunks of sludge like I've seen on other vehicles *ahem Ford*.

Anyway, since this truck has become a fixer upper while I wait for my new 2021 DCLB, has anybody cleaned out an engine before? Worth it or worth doing a swap? As far as I can tell there is some slack on the timing chain, and plan to replace it along with the guides, gears and ocvs. I'm not trying to get this back to a daily driver with some "like new" engine, just for dump runs and yard work.

Pic for attention

 

replace the chains, guides, oil control valves, and the lil valve filters. Slap her back together n fuggin run her. Keep up on oil changes and she will live a long life.

 

You can do this or find a junk yard motor with a 30 day warranty and good luck! Edit: and if the frame is any good

 

This, you could find a good recycled engine with an install kit for a lot less. Plus a little searching and you could shave a lot of miles off as well.

 

Where's the sludge? The innards on that 1GR are pretty damn clean for 372k miles!!

I've seen oil pump pickups plugged solid from sludge on other engines with a fraction of that mileage, due to neglected oil change intervals. I'd say you did a decent job of maintaining that one, personally.

Slap a timing set in it, add in a new balancer and adjust the valves for good measure, then drive it until the frame rots out.

 

Yeah, I was looking for sludge. It looks pretty good to me when you consider....

 

I don't think I would ever take it back to that dealer. The tensioners don't even look that bad don't believe the engine is an issue.

 

I don't see any sludge in that engine...

 

Yup... 1000% agreed.

I probably woulda pulled the oil control valves and cleaned the filter screens and put them back in. Truck would of probably stopped throwing the codes at that point.

 

I see some varnish, but we'd need to see photos under the valve covers to see if there's actually sludge.

 

I bought a full size Chevy truck with a 4.3 liter/stick that had never had an oil change as far as I could tell, and it had almost 80K miles on it. Somebody had abused the truck, breaking the instrument cluster lens, ripping off the visors, breaking off the glove compartment, and the tailgate was missing. The engine seemed to run fine except the lifters were clattering like mad, seriously collapsed. I made the car lot a ridiculously low offer and they took it, so I decided to drive the truck until it blew up, planning to put a crate motor in it since I worked at a Chevy dealership and could buy the replacement engine reasonably.
I took the truck home and put a quart of automatic transmission fluid in it right away, along with enough oil to register on the dipstick as full. I drove it to work and back for a week, 80 miles a day, and changed the oil. Another quart of tranny fluid and topped it off with oil, and drove it for another week. The chunks of sludge drained out and the engine got quieter with each oil change. After a month I only changed the oil monthly for a couple of months and then went to normal intervals and stopped using trans fluid. By then the engine sounded normal. I found replacement parts for the missing pieces in wrecking yards and the truck looked good.
I sold the truck a couple of years later, several thousand miles more, and made a good profit.
I really thought that engine would blow up when I bought it. But that truck got 24 mpg and it never gave me any trouble.

 

I humbly disagree. While sludge would stick to the valve cover as well, gravity is a wonderous thing. Here's one example (albeit extreme) of a 1GR-FE that was not maintained and got sludged up as a result:

 

^^^ that makes me want to cry

 

Holy smokes that’s terrible.

Extreme case.

Severe neglect.

 

My truck threw the same code a year ago. 300 miles before I changed oil I put some seafoam in the oil, then changed it. Haven’t had a problem since. I’m planning on doing the same with my 95 legacy that has 253,xxx miles on it

 

While you're in there...https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/cam-gears-for-v6-add-power-and-mpg.618266/

 

Looks like one of the used ones that I purchased.

 

Without a hot tank, or similar, you'll have a hard time breaking off or removing that burnt on oil. Minus cleaning off what you can very easily, leave it as it is. You don't want that stuff to remove itself and then clog the sump's screen.

If you can, I highly recommend checking the sump's screen. However, that does require removing the lower oil pan. At this point, it is easy enough to do, and worthy.

A clogged screen, will result in spun bearings. Happened on my used engine. Better safe than sorry, since you are in there.

Also, what is your normal OCI?

 

Looks like melting chocolate.

 

I’ve seen this done before as well. With a Lexus but still the same basic procedure.