2LTE blown. Engine swap, new truck, or repair? (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Nov 10, 2020
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3
Messages
16
Location
Santa Rosa Beach, FL
New to the site-

Just bought a ‘92 LJ78 Prado with the dreaded 2LTE. After 2 weeks of ownership, timing belt broke, which bent the valves and broke camshaft. I’ve heard about the head problems with the engine, so I kept the truck at low RPMs and rarely went above 60. I wasn’t educated on the risks of an old timing belt though.


I have my truck at my local diesel shop. They told me that there’s a chance they can repair it, but it would be unlikely.

I started the thread to ask anyone’s opinion or if someone can point me in the right direction. Anything will help.

Sell the truck with blown engine and find another truck without the 2LTE?
or
Swap engine?
or
Try and repair?


Additional info- 95,000 miles, auto trans, RHD, Interior brand new condition
 
A broken timing belt is not the engine's fault....

That said, sorry to hear of your problems. I guess your options depend on how much you want to spend, and can you do this work yourself?

Cheapest option is cut your losses and sell as is.

Next cheapest is buy another 2LTE to replace the failed one. Do all the maintenance when installing such as full timing belt job, water pump, all belts, t-stat etc. You can part out the old motor and gain a lot of money back. Injection pump, turbo, injectors, etc. All worth money.

Most expensive is swap to a different engine. Sooooo many people have gone down this road and abandoned their project. So you really have to be committed, and have lots of $$ ready to invest into it.
 
A broken timing belt is not the engine's fault....

That said, sorry to hear of your problems. I guess your options depend on how much you want to spend, and can you do this work yourself?

Cheapest option is cut your losses and sell as is.

Next cheapest is buy another 2LTE to replace the failed one. Do all the maintenance when installing such as full timing belt job, water pump, all belts, t-stat etc. You can part out the old motor and gain a lot of money back. Injection pump, turbo, injectors, etc. All worth money.

Most expensive is swap to a different engine. Sooooo many people have gone down this road and abandoned their project. So you really have to be committed, and have lots of $$ ready to invest into it.

Exactly what I would say. Finding a used 2LTE replacement engine would be a great option based on how nice your Prado is; with the right maintenance and upgrades you’d be able to enjoy it for years to come. The engine swap option is definitely not for the faint of heart, but if that’s your thing then go for it. There are a lot of power plant choices out there. I’m very nearly done with my swap, but it’s taken almost 3 years and double the original purchase price of the vehicle to get there.
 
A broken timing belt is not the engine's fault....

That said, sorry to hear of your problems. I guess your options depend on how much you want to spend, and can you do this work yourself?

Cheapest option is cut your losses and sell as is.

Next cheapest is buy another 2LTE to replace the failed one. Do all the maintenance when installing such as full timing belt job, water pump, all belts, t-stat etc. You can part out the old motor and gain a lot of money back. Injection pump, turbo, injectors, etc. All worth money.

Most expensive is swap to a different engine. Sooooo many people have gone down this road and abandoned their project. So you really have to be committed, and have lots of $$ ready to invest into it.
Appreciate the response. Definitely won’t be doing the repairs myself. Going to do more research on repairs, and talk with my mechanic before possibly listing the truck. Hope to be back on the trails soon. Cheers!
 
Just updating my post as new information comes in- I was just informed by my mechanic that he found that when the camshaft broke it dropped some valves. He will pull the head off to see if there is any piston damage. If no piston damage, he says he can repair it with a new head and a new cam.

If there is no damage to the pistons, should I stick with the option of repairing my existing engine?

Thx.
 
Just updating my post as new information comes in- I was just informed by my mechanic that he found that when the camshaft broke it dropped some valves. He will pull the head off to see if there is any piston damage. If no piston damage, he says he can repair it with a new head and a new cam.

If there is no damage to the pistons, should I stick with the option of repairing my existing engine?

Thx.

I would if I was you. If the bottom end of the motor is fine, buying a new 2nd gen 2LTE head will give you peace of mind going forward. The 2nd gen heads are much improved and seem to last at least 200,000km. Doing some of the upgrades to the motor that a number of us have done make it not a bad engine. Decent power, economy and reliability.
 
I would if I was you. If the bottom end of the motor is fine, buying a new 2nd gen 2LTE head will give you peace of mind going forward. The 2nd gen heads are much improved and seem to last at least 200,000km. Doing some of the upgrades to the motor that a number of us have done make it not a bad engine. Decent power, economy and reliability.
Much appreciated. This is heartwarming. Fingers crossed.
 
I would swap the engine. If you decided to fix it probably you will spending almost the same amount of money in the end.
You could probably find many 2LTE, lots of people swap them.
 
Much appreciated. This is heartwarming. Fingers crossed.

If the bottom end is ok, I'd also recommend having them pull the oil pan off and change the big end bearings in situ. It's going to be very possible they were damaged when the pistons hit the valves. They could be a ticking time bomb if you leave them.
 
Also, here are all the manuals for these trucks if you don't already have 'em. Stick them on a Flash drive and give them to your mechanic. There are lots of things (like head gasket thickness) that are critical to success when doing this sort of work. Help!
 
Engine swap.

Cheers
If u fix it , u will need while set valve shims ... liner back to standard size pistons will help . Crank , dont think it will reach that damaged ... check also cyclinder heads if cracked .... here is some pictures of my own build from a broken timing belt ... pictures attached back wards ....and it has a new turbo . Old engine was 311,339 kms ... used up 2 turbos and 4 times repaired turbo and injection pump ... i would suggest that u upgrade to a 1kz.t engine . Better power ... or a 1kd.t engine . 3.0 diesel ...
 

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