Strange oil problem I have never seen..... (1 Viewer)

[flintknapper]

@flintknapper is there even a good reason to run the larger filter? I haven’t since that one time and left it at that.

Not for most folks. If you live in a dusty environment (as I do), the increased amount of filter media can be a benefit. But a person could also just change a smaller filter more often. I change my oil and filter every 5k-6k miles...and use either Rotella or Delo 400 oil (whichever is on sale at the time).

But for normal...daily driving in the city, no Sir. No gain to be had IMO.

 

[LINUS]

IIRC, I believe it is close to 14 qts....Filled it right up to the bottom of the fill hole .

Good to know....sounds about right with a few qt airspace below crank centerline & my rough guesstimate of 3qt to chuckfill the head, a couple more in the passages.

There we have it folks....if you use nearly all of 3) - 5qt jugs, you did "too good of a job"

Even more, you 're just showing off

 

[flintknapper]

IIRC, I believe it is close to 14 qts. I actually had a former coworker that decided to change the oil (for the first time in his life, on any car) on his dad's 80 and did this. Filled it right up to the bottom of the fill hole .

I bet its more than 14 qts. Just the area under the valve cover would probably hold 6 qts. There is a LOT of room around (and above) the crankshaft. I'm thinking more like 5 gallons (total) to 'top it off' at the fill hole.

Heck the dipstick and fill hole are almost the same height. And since liquids tend to 'seek their own level' you'd probably have oil coming out the top of your dipstick tube (dipstick removed).

Anyway, the 'dipstick' is there to provide empirical evidence of your oil level. It is the one and ONLY thing to be trusted.


The purpose of the oil level sensor is to let you know:

1. You had a sudden loss of oil since you last checked the dipstick and the level was OK. (Stop and check it NOW).
2. You aren't checking your dipstick often enough. (you let the level get low, check more often).
3. Your Land Cruiser is laying on its side. (nothing else need be said).


Edit to add:

Females also sometimes drive Land Cruisers and they NEVER check the oil level. So its there for that reason too.

 

[BILT4ME]

220, 221, whatever it takes.

 

[ghosttowner]

Zero mystery here.

OP got an oil change in which they underfilled it, then never bothered to check the level himself, even after the light came on.

No damage done, but no "strange oil problem" either.

You were right, CJF. It could be that it was slightly underfilled, which is why the level went low in a short period of time than normal. It could be the filter I supplied. I use Mobil1 M1-102 oil filters, which doesn't look big enough to soak up a whole quart or two in it. But, it contributed to the low oil level.

Today, I warmed up the truck to 176° (by Ultragauge) and then shut it off, took the dipstick out and let it rest for 5 minutes and then checked the oil level over and over to be absolutely sure that it was low. Dipstick came out dry every time. So I added a quart first, rechecked and added another quart till it almost touched the fill mark, near the cross hatches. The oil level looked good. However, it looked like the oil was close to the brim inside the fill hole, just like last night. So I stuck a clean shop towel wrapped on a flathead into the hole, and it touched the metal cover inside the hole. I soaked up the oil and the plate became clearly visible. There was indeed a thick film of oil on top of it. That's what threw me off last night. Somehow the oil was dark and it pooled on top of it and looked like it was filled to the brim. Took it to Toyota and explained what happened, they cleaned the pool of oil off that metal half-cover as well and told me it is there to prevent objects from falling into the engine. Design wise, I think the open half of that cover should face away from the front of the truck, so you could see the abyss of the engine. Anyway, I feel like for not checking with the dipstick before panicking

Good thing is, the idiot light on the dash seems to be working in this old truck.

I am grateful for your concerns and sage advise.

 

[ppc]

When you change the oil and filter measure the amount oil that drains out and report back. That information is going to be very important in diagnosing a problem if one exists.

The "large" 8 inch long filter you used is not going to hold 2 quarts of oil, maybe slightly more than one quart. Rather than dumping in all 8 quarts at one time when refilling, I always put 7 quarts in, start the engine and let it run for a couple of minutes to fill the filter. Turn the engine off, pull the dipstick out, let everything settle for at least 5 minutes. Check the oil level and add oil to bring the level to the full mark on the dipstick.

 

[-Spike-]

Glad you figured out the issue, now we can play with the subject of how much oil does it take to fill a 1fz.

Start with 9 quarts for a normal fill. The engine displacement is 4 liters, so unless the rings are air tight at rest, there's a gallon. I'd bet you could easily fill another gallon or two into the crankcase before even getting to the bottom of the cylinders. Then there's the space in the front cover, easily another gallon, and then the space under the valve cover, another gallon or so easily, and if anything I'm probably underestimating all of those. If you managed to fill all of that, oil would shoot out of the dip stick tube, as it's lower than the valve cover.

I'm gonna go with 8.6 gallons. What do I win if I'm right? And who's gonna test this? Anybody got a blown engine they could fill with water?

Oh, and just to fire off some more controversy, I dump 9 quarts of oil into my truck on every oil change, without checking anything. When I first started doing this I would check the stick afterwords, and I could hardly read the overage. The sump is so friggin' huge that a half-quart more or less doesn't even register. The extra half-quart gives me peace of mind, since I know the truck is going to drink a quart before the next oil change anyway.

 

[LFD2037]

Damn!!! 3 pages on how to read a dipstick?

 

[Pighead]

There's a blonde joke in here somewhere...

 

[tacosupreme]

Damn!!! 3 pages on how to read a dipstick?

I bet we can get it to 7 or 8 pages easy. I used to be a tow truck driver. My #1 best customer was the Walmart oil change bay, followed by the Jiffy lube, then the Ford dealership. Either they would forget to tighten the drain plug resulting in catastrophic oil loss (and a couple of fires) at some random interval, or they would forget to put oil in it at all. People that can't change their own oil generally ignore the Christmas tree on the dash and just keep mashing on the skinny pedal till the motor seizes up.

 

[ghosttowner]

Damn!!! 3 pages on how to read a dipstick?

Ok, ok, fine, I feel like , but I learned a few things from it

PPC, I will follow your process of refilling in my next oil change, and measure the amount of oil that I drain out as well. Although, there will be additional 4-5 quarts to account for by then.

Thank you all

 

[CJF]

 

[Tools R Us]

@flintknapper is there even a good reason to run the larger filter? I haven’t since that one time and left it at that.

No, the 1FZ makes almost no junk, runs very clean.

 

[Tools R Us]

Not for most folks. If you live in a dusty environment (as I do), the increased amount of filter media can be a benefit. But a person could also just change a smaller filter more often. I change my oil and filter every 5k-6k miles...and use either Rotella or Delo 400 oil (whichever is on sale at the time).

But for normal...daily driving in the city, no Sir. No gain to be had IMO.

Do you run an air filter, what have you found in the oil filter? Have cut many 1FZ filters open and have never found anything, most of them off rigs that are often wheeled in desert conditions, ~10mi+ OCI, etc. Blackstone reports reports on motors run under the same conditions are very good, so see zero reason to run the big filter.

 

[MoCoNative]

For the original poster, I didn't see it explained, but the 8 quarts of oil that your engine holds sits solely in the oil pan at the bottom of the engine. As you discovered the little cover thing in the fill hole was giving you a false picture. The dipstick reaches down into the pan to see how full it is.

I guarantee the place you took it to, put in the standard 5 quarts that almost any new passenger car holds and called it good. So yes you are about full after adding 3 quarts. Next time you go in, tell the dumb asses at the shop you want 8 quarts of oil put in the damn thing and stand there and count the jugs. They will probably argue with you. I'd go back the shop and see if they accounted for the quarts used on your change, they should have billed it out.

On that note, I started running the smaller Toyota filters on the 1FZE, because I can't the bigger ones in and out of that stupid fxxxing hole Toyota decided to bury the oil filter in. Why in the hell did they stick it on the side of the block, in a hole blocked by a cable, power-steering reservoir and the top of the coil. First when you break it loose it runs oil all down the side of the engine, which runs all over the oil sensor plug, which makes it more finicky. Then you can't get it out without tipping it upside down so it then runs oil on the coil and fuse box and paint of the fender. If you try to wrap a rag around it, you cant get out of the hole it is in. It's almost as stupid as the upside down filter of a 2F that dumps half a quart all over the fxxxing front axle when you pop it loose, or the 5VZFE which also sits sideways and spews its load all over the front frame of a pickup and the ADD system. Which is really good to soak the vacuum lines on it in hot used motor oil for 20 years.

I also despise the dumb as flap they put in the fill hole of the 1FZE. So what if something falls in the engine, don't do that. Why put this nice big fill hole on the top of the valve cover for an engine that takes 8 quarts of oil, yet you have to dribble it in an once a minute, cause if you pour too fxxxing fast it over-spills all over the valve cover and runs under the beauty cover and soaks your spark plug leads. Good call on that one Toyota. Right up there with burying the EGR solenoid under the manifold in engine hell.

Either way, big or small filter, I put 8 quarts in all my Land Cruisers and they like it. When the light starts to come on routinely in that oil and gas guzzling 80, I give it another few weeks and then I change the oil, it is always low, but 8 quarts is excessive to begin with, they have extra built in capacity for this reason. Seems to make 3-5000 miles between changes. My T100, with 5VZFE, on the other hand will run 10,000 miles between oil changes and hardly be low, go figure. It has nearly twice the miles too.

I can confirm, an oil guzzling/leaking and neglected 2F will run with normal oil pressure all the way down to about 3.5 quarts left in the pan, then it will loose pressure while travelling up hill, at least according to the gauge.

TGIF

 

[ppc]

It is much easier to remove the filter from the bottom side. I cut off the top half of a gallon milk jug and shove the top half underneath the filter as close as I can get it to the block. Unscrew the filter quickly and let it drop into the milk jug. Using the handle of the jug to pull pull it down and out. It gives a good grip, flexes around all the obstacles with very little mess.

 

[ghosttowner]

Hey, that's my ex-gf, Kitty!!! Where did you find that clip?

Yup, she taught me how to check the oil in my truck some time back. In that clip she is topping off transmission fluid, I think. After a long drive in the desert, she showed me how to check the coolant level in a hurry. I didn't really get to see what she was doing, but we broke up right after that. You gotta admit, she was definitely a fine example of a callipygian woman

 

[flintknapper]

Do you run an air filter, what have you found in the oil filter?

Yes. I run an air filter, blow it out regularly, even empty the 'tuna can' from time to time. Have never opened an oil filter, so naturally...I have found nothing.


Have cut many 1FZ filters open and have never found anything, most of them off rigs that are often wheeled in desert conditions,

OK. I live on a working cattle ranch with dirt/gravel roads and travel them every day, I'd wager I see a LOT more dust in a year than most of the rigs you deal with.


Blackstone reports on motors run under the same conditions are very good, so see zero reason to run the big filter.

Well....actually, you seem to be making an argument for NO oil filter at all?

But since Toyota chose to fit these vehicles with an oil filter, we may surmise...they are indeed necessary. So....I've just chosen to go with something a bit larger than Toyota deems sufficient. And I am going to continue doing that, despite your less than scientific evidence suggesting I should not.

I do appreciate the input, nonetheless.

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