i did it. i broke a 3.4 and i don't have a supercharger. i went through a big puddle, heard a little clunk and it stalled. i rolled out out of the mud with the clutch in and pulled the plugs which were all wet. it still wouldn't crank over. put some jumper cables on it and it still wouldn't turn.

at this point we decided the starter might be screwed so i hooked it up to a friends truck to try to get the engine to turn while in gear. as he pulled me around i let the clutch out and it just locked the rears wheels up, pressed the clutch in and it rolled freely. i put it in 4wd and it still locked the wheels up. keep in mind the plugs were still out of it at the time.

my questions are, which years of engines can i use in my '04 tacoma? which years had differences. i know mine has the drive by wire which should be easy to swap over to another intake manifold but i don't know of any other differences that would hold me back. are '96-'02 4runners any different?

anything else i should know about here?

 

sounds like you seized it... but I wouldn't have cranked it until i did an oil change. try that.

 

there is no water in the oil

 

you sure? have you checked? a friend of mine hydrolocked his 22re and this is what his oil looked like.



you might want to check.

 

If there was any hope for his engine there certainly isn't now after dragging it around in 4wd. If a motor is seized and you try to force it to turn your just multiplying the damage big time. This is the third hydrolocked thread I've read just this morning. Hitting puddles as fast as you can go is bad people!!

 

Hehe... If only people were nicer to Toyotas we would see true mileage...

 

there was no hope for it. i got it to free up today by rocking it back and forth in gear. i then hit the starter without the plugs in it and it will turn over nicely without funny noises for 2 to 10 seconds before it hits a brick wall and needs to be rocked back and forth again. i figure that it's got a broken rod that is flopping around and jamming against the block or something.

i don't have time to get into a rebuild project so i'm trying to figure out if i should go with the $700 random craigslist motor which claims low mileage or a wrecked '04 tacoma motor with 80,000km (50,000 miles) for $1800.

i am leaning toward the $1800 option for reliability long term.

it was more of a mud pit than a puddle. i hit it at high speed just to try and get accross it. a snorkel will be the next mod.

 

its gets us all, I got lucky with mine, hit a huge drop off, not going that fast, and flooded it out, pulled the plugs turned it over, No love.

Had to dry the MAF out, and then after a few days tinkered with it again and it started right up, got really lucky