I was coming back from some trail blazing this afternoon and was heading up over the mountain. my oil pressure has been low, and this 3VZ-E has always been a dog so when I started heading up the mountain and was getting blown by by everyone i didn't think much. When I heard some noise (nasty metallic sound) coming from the engine, I pulled into the rest stop and killed the engine. a few seconds before I killed the engine I got a CEL.

Popped the hood and checked the oil, nothing (NOTHING!) on the dip stick, opened the oil cover, some smoke was coming out!! I called my friend and had her bring by 3 quarts of 10-30. She came, I dumped in the oil, checked the dip stick (I hadn't turned the engine over) and still nada. I turned the engine over, it started fine and quieted down a little but still had very, very, very bad noise... I'm pretty sure it's valve tap. The engine seems to be running smoothly other than the sound but I killed it and left it at the rest stop. Thank god I have two cars.... the jetta runs okay so that'll be my ride till this gets fixed. I'm going to have this towed to the garage, but I'm curious as to what you guys think happend. Bad loss of power, then metallic/valve(??) noise, no oil. Why didn't I get an oil light?

After I turned it back over the oil pressure gauge went up immediatly, higher than i've seen in a while, about 1/3 of the way up or so so I've got oil pressure for sure. I dunno what I killed but I hope it doesn't cost me an arm and a leg to fix, or it's something I can do myself....

Ugh, my baby is broken

 

Rod knock maybe? How loud was the noise? Can you equate it to something?

 

3vze does not have hydraulic lifter so its likely not a valve tapping.if it was out of oil it may have a rod bearing going down now or possibley a cam bearing.does not sound good at all though.good luck.hopefully nothing too bad.unfortunatley with the oil light it won't come on until the damage is already done in some cases.

 

Is there an oil light? I've just got a guage.

 

there should have been a red oil light on the gauge that lit up...did your temp get very hot?

 

Same exact thing happened to my friends carolla on the way to san diego from albuquerque....It never made it back to abq. We added oil, but like 150 miles later the Motor blew and he just left it in san diego.

 

Rod bearing!3.4 swap!Bye Bye dog.

 

I can't really equate it with anything other than something metal flopping around inside something else metal. It was way louder until I added the oil, and now just sounds like valve tap (but apparently isn't valve tap at all...).

The oil pressure gauge was on 'low' for a while but honestly I think anything of it since the vehicle felt like it was running great, didn't smell funny, or anything like that. Just figured it was a bad gauge at worst.

As for temperatures, the temp stayed mid-range, even when the powerloss occured, no issues with overheating (althought it was cold out, about 19F). No oil light or nuttin!

There are no specialized toyota places where I live, and i'm garageless (but may be able to find space in a friend's garage). I've done VW 4 banger swaps before but never something as major as a 5VZ-E swap) Wish there were some yotatechers local to State college, pa.... I've been lurking here for a few months but never really had anything to contribute.

I grew up on VWs and feel pretty comfy with them, but this is my first toy... I love it to death, rolling around in the wilderness has opened up my eyes to so many things, I can't loose it.

Thanks guys, I'll keep this updated with whatever I find out. I'm not even sure where it's getting towed to now... I don't have the money right now to do a full swap, all I have is about $300 cash and maybe $1500 in credit...

wish me luck.

 

Fortunately, the 3.4 swap is about as simple as it gets. Same motor mounts, same transmission/bellhousing. Pretty much all you need is the engine, harness, ECU, and a 2" body lift to get it in.

P.S. Whichever road you go down, good luck and god speed.

Eric

 

So same bell housing means I need a 5VZ-E that was attached to a manual tranny from a donor truck? I guess I should get reading on the swap, maybe I can afford to do it by summer.

If it's a cheap fix for now, and the parts for the rod bearing look cheap(ish) and fairly easy to do (just remove the oil pan and the access to the rod bearings is down there, right?)

I'll get the official RX tommorow, maybe tuesday. she's still out at the rest stop, a friend came by and drove me, my dog, and my gun (too many run ins with whackjobs in the woods) home. I need to stop being so OCD...

 

same bell housing means that the 5vz will bolt up to you current transmission, you could pull the pan and see how bad it is, and put in new rod bearings, but because it was heavily starved for oil, the journals on the crankshaft where the rod bearings ride are going to be scored up and will eat new bearings very quickly, you may have cam/head damage from running without oil too

 

When was the last time you checked the oil. When you noticed the low oil pressure, did you check it then?

I am assuming that the oil pressure gauge worked fine, since it registered higher once you added oil and you just ran low of oil over time.

 

Well, I'm a friggin idiot. I'm also dyslexic. I switched some of the numbers in my oil change mileage and was about 3500K over on dino juice (non synthentic.) I'm gonna start calling aroudn town and figure out where I'm getting her towed for the 'bad news'...

 

Well, if it was only for a few short moments (a minute or two tops) how bad do you think it's gonna be? I think pulling the pan is well within my capabilities, I just have to wait until it warms up to be able to do it, seeing as I have no garage.