Well, it seems to never end.....

I was out wheeling the 4runner today, started noticing a decrease in power. Turned around to come back, couldn't take it out of first without losing some major power.

Suddenly the truck died.... I tried to restart, it restarted, but then died shortly after...

After a few starts I realized that if I HELD the key into start, I could keep the engine running. So I drove out a few miles with the key held into start. Finally it stopped for good. I probably fried the starter.

While diagnosing the starter issue I checked the oil to make sure it wasn't yet another headgasket.

No oil registered. 2 days before it was full....

I had the car towed home, it's in the garage, I haven't checked for a seize.....


any ideas where to start???

 

drain your oil (if you have any) check for metal debris in the oil. will the truck turn over now? i would start with a compression test.

 

It could be the distributor. I'd check that, too.

 

if his distributor is leaking that much oil...he'd know it...hell if ANYTHING was leaking THAT much oil..then you'd know it..i say it's burning it!

 

Well, the distributor would help explain the gradual loss of power, and eventual result of the engine dying. But not necessarily the loss of oil, although we won't know untill he checks everything out.

 

Sorry guys, still not able to check on it. Apparently it's a hell of a week for my cars. My 2002 Tahoe just died too. Damn automated cars.

 

Ok, I had a chance to slap a breaker bar on there and turn the engine by hand. Engine is not seized. I need to add some oil and slap a new starter on there to see what happens.

What could cause this thing to burn 3 quarts of oil in 4 days??

I checked for oil leaks, I have a feeling the rear main is leaking slightly. I've got some oil on my bellhousing. But other than that, I don't see any leaks.

Does anyone have any ideas here? I'm probably going to start digging into the engine here in the next week or so. I just got back from vacation

 

wouldn't this thing be smoking like crazy if he was burning that much? I would think you could smell it!!

 

no smoke. believe me I'm confused.

 

Oh yeah.... MAF was unplugged... go figure...

 

Well, that would explain why it wouldn't run. When you plugged it back in, did it run ok? And it's a VAFM, not MAF.

 

Yeah, ran great after that.... until I spun a rod.... now it sits dead in the garage, waiting to be SAS'd and a new engine installed