'Runner threw a rod!
 

Un-freakin-believable. I really need some help with this one guys. Here's the scoop.

I have a '95 Runner with the notorious 3.slow. Head gasket blew last year and at the time for various reasons I replaced the engine with a rebuilt 3.0. Three weeks ago, I had an overheating problem (fan clutch) and it was in the red briefly, but long enough to blow the head gasket again. Here's where it gets interesting...

My mechanic is a good guy who also owns a 2nd generation 4Runner and he and I have established a friendship based on our love and obsession with 4Runners. I have also refered a lot of business to him. In short, I trust him and the quality of his work. He had the heads ported and polished and I decided at that time since the heads were already off anyway to have Downey headers put on it. As soon as I got it back there were major problems, first and foremost was a shaking/vibration at certain speeds. This ended up being a bad 3rd member and he put the old 3rd member fom his ride (manual tranny; 4.11 gears) in my ride so I could drive it this weekend (auto tranny and something other than 4.11 gearing). I have manual locking hubs in front, so it was no problem to do this as long as I didn't put it in 4x4 mode -- and I absolutely did not.

Driving home from Sedona this evening (long road trip to PHX with some major hill climbing at spots), I was admiring the sound of my new headers and marveling at how well the engine was running -- great power, sounded nice and smooth, and had some extra pull going up hill for a change. Not more than 20 miles down the road I started climbing another hill and noticed what I thought was some unusually loud "ticking". I rolled down my window to see if it was coming from my vehicle or some other source and it was definitely MY engine. I quickly looked at the dash board -- temp was fine, but the oil pressure was WAY low and I had it floored. At the instant my eyes made contact with the oil pressure guage a loud BANG shot from the einge compartment, followed by a drop in power, followed very quikcly by several smaller bangs, followed by a complete engine shut down...followed by a lot of profanity and a flood of homicial and suicidal thoughts.

It's clear and obvious with the explosing of motors oil all over the road that I threw a rod and my engine is toast. I understand what happened, but I have NO idea why? What the frig went wrong? I trust my mechanic and I hate to point the finger, but it seems that something went terribly wrong as the result of something he did or didn't do. I really don't think that the gearing had anything to do with the engine melt-down, but I threw that in there to give you guys a complete history anf chronology of what has happened recently. Maybe there's something I'm missing.

Perhaps most importantly, what kind of questions should I be asking my mechanic?

Thanks in advance for your input and I apologize for such a long post.

Ed

BTW -- I'll be making another post asking for input on how to proceed with my engine choices.

Sorry to hear about your ordeal.
Well for your next engine I suggest doing the 3.4L swap.

As for what happened, that is very strange because regearing should have nothing to do with an engine meltdown. It could have been that you were running very lean but you also should have seen a rise in engine temp too. It is also possible that the oil pump went on the truck and that is the reason for the loss of pressure. Only true way to check what happened is to tear down the motor and see what really happened.

Did he do the rebuild or was it bought? Hard to tell what started the meltdown without taking it apart, I would guess it spun a bearing or maybe had a tiny crack in a rod that got missed.

If you only got 3 weeks out of the engine, I would take it back. That is a good point, was it a used engine swap or a full rebuild?

A used engine can be bad.

He wasn't the guy who I bought the rebuilt engine from. That was a different shop last April -- one of the worst places to do business with in PHX, as I found out. Some very simple issues early on with that shop makes me certain that there's no chance in hell that they'll honor any aspect of the warrenty that came with the rebuild. Among the things that voided my warrenty are the K%N air in-take mod, the headers, and not the least of which was over-heating last month that led to the head repair by this other guy.

I'm not sure if the head work that was done recently has any sort of warrenty, but what I'm wondering is how would I prove liability for this incident? I mean, if he is the guy who did the recent work and he's also the same guy who is checking to see why it blew up...let's just say that we're going to be testing his integrity today.

Speaking of which...time to go drop off the keys and explain all this crap to him. :roll:

RE: the engine swap. I'd LOVE to do the 3.4 L swap, but I have an automatic tranny. And I don't have the time to jack with it myself. I need this thing running by this weekend for a trip up to Zion, followed by a three week stint in Yosemite. I gots to have wheeeeeeelzzzz dood.

Ed

Sounds like a bummer deal.

Where is the shop that you have provided negative feedback to? I want to steer clear away from this shop.

Certified Engines
531 S. 1st Ave.
Phoenix, AZ 85003

Their customer service is abysmal and mechnically they're a bunch of thumbless idiots.

My mechanic has the engine pulled and is checking it out as I type. Hopefully the heads are salvagable, but everything in the block is history. There's a huge whole on the drivers side of the block and a smaller one on the passenger side. I plan to take some pictures for warrenty purposes.

I'm still looking for suggestions about who to buy another short block from. There's an outside shot that the above mentioned shop will replace it, but they are not likely to honor the warrenty without serious pressure and hassling from me and it will likely take letigation to resolve. In the meantime I can't just wait around for this to sort itself out. I need my ride back, so I'll probably drop the $$ on another engine.

Ed

Get the BBB on them. What a bunch of hosers. :chair:

Sounds like they cut some corners on your rebuild. Oil pump maybe wasn't replaced or not put in right.