This will be an engine rebuild thread for a 2UZ-FE engine with VVTi in a 2007 Sequoia, aka the 4.7 liter V8. We found very little information on the web regarding people who have actual experience rebuilding this engine. We found one person (@errryday_outdoor on Instagram) who had a few high level videos. Therefore, we decided that we would share what we learned for the next person. We thought about a video, but we are not equipped for that and it would have ended up being a soap opera anyway. We will be sharing lessons learned along the way.
If you own a 4.7, this is good news. There isn’t a lot of detail on the web because no one rebuilds these engines. No one rebuilds these engines because they are so well built. There are at least 2 documented cases of the engines making a million miles.
Before we start, a little background. This is my son’s car (@CarterB341). He’s 19, and a college student. We got him this car for college, replacing a 2004 Sequoia with 241,000 miles (aka: The Warhorse, which deserves its own thread. That truck took it like a champ). We bought the 2007 from my in-laws, who bought it new, had all the maintenance performed by a Toyota dealership, garage kept the car. Basically, it was a babied, low miles (110k) car that we knew the entire history of, and we got the family discount.
My son was rear ended about 3 months after we got the car, through no fault of his own. The insurance company was very close to totaling the car, but the adjuster worked with us and that didn’t happen. Then he puts an OME 2” lift, KO2s and Method wheels, a winch bumper from Brute Force Fabrication, a Warn VR12, and a nice sound system in it. He loves the truck and it is his baby. His friends nickname it the “Mom-quoia”.
The lifting of the truck and the addition of the bumper required him to cut away the inner fender plastic liner. This exposed the combustion air intake plenum to the open wheel well. This will play a factor in later events, and is the leading root cause of the reason for rebuilding the engine.
In January of 2020, myself, the 19 year old, and the 21 year old son (aka: The Heckler), decide to go wheeling on a local powerline track where the cops don’t bug you. This is coastal south Mississippi, there are no hills, it is very flat, and there is lots of standing water. We approached one water hazard, I’m in the lead vehicle (FJ60) and I choose a line and make it through. The 19 year old picks an entirely different line, dips the passenger fender into the water, and the truck stalls. This is what it looks like at this point
I am unaware of the modifications to the combustion air intake. The hood of the truck never dipped under water. The risk of water ingestion never crossed my mind. We attempt to restart the truck. You guessed it, it ran for a second and stopped again. We winch the truck out of the puddle with the FJ60 and notice that dried mud is in the air filter and the Mass Airflow Sensor is wet. I now realize the situation with the air intake and realize we likely pulled water into the engine. The Heckler takes the FJ60 and to the store and buys tools to pull the plugs and a new air filter. We pull all the plugs and started the engine, with water coming out of cylinder #5 and #7. Then the engine locks up and will not turn over. We now realize we have a significant problem. Not only to we have a hydrolocked engine, we have a dead 6000 pound car, way back in the woods, and it is now dark. The FJ60 flat towed the Momquoia all the way back to the pavement, through some pretty gnarly hazards. The 60 is a beast. We called a friend with a trailer and dragged her home.
Needless to say, the Wife was less than pleased when she realized the engine was toast and the cheapest estimate was $5000 for a junkyard engine.
We looked around for a low miles parts car to take an engine from. No Luck. We looked for a complete used engine. We found the non-VVTI engine all day long, the only VVTi engine we found was 4k and had a lot of miles. A non-Toyota rebuilt engine was $5000 plus shipping. I had rebuilt a few small block Chevy’s with a friend 30 years ago. I told him it was possible for him to rebuild the engine and I would help. He made the decision to rebuild it.
Here we go.
Lessons Learned from this installment:
If you own a 4.7, this is good news. There isn’t a lot of detail on the web because no one rebuilds these engines. No one rebuilds these engines because they are so well built. There are at least 2 documented cases of the engines making a million miles.
Before we start, a little background. This is my son’s car (@CarterB341). He’s 19, and a college student. We got him this car for college, replacing a 2004 Sequoia with 241,000 miles (aka: The Warhorse, which deserves its own thread. That truck took it like a champ). We bought the 2007 from my in-laws, who bought it new, had all the maintenance performed by a Toyota dealership, garage kept the car. Basically, it was a babied, low miles (110k) car that we knew the entire history of, and we got the family discount.
My son was rear ended about 3 months after we got the car, through no fault of his own. The insurance company was very close to totaling the car, but the adjuster worked with us and that didn’t happen. Then he puts an OME 2” lift, KO2s and Method wheels, a winch bumper from Brute Force Fabrication, a Warn VR12, and a nice sound system in it. He loves the truck and it is his baby. His friends nickname it the “Mom-quoia”.
The lifting of the truck and the addition of the bumper required him to cut away the inner fender plastic liner. This exposed the combustion air intake plenum to the open wheel well. This will play a factor in later events, and is the leading root cause of the reason for rebuilding the engine.
In January of 2020, myself, the 19 year old, and the 21 year old son (aka: The Heckler), decide to go wheeling on a local powerline track where the cops don’t bug you. This is coastal south Mississippi, there are no hills, it is very flat, and there is lots of standing water. We approached one water hazard, I’m in the lead vehicle (FJ60) and I choose a line and make it through. The 19 year old picks an entirely different line, dips the passenger fender into the water, and the truck stalls. This is what it looks like at this point
I am unaware of the modifications to the combustion air intake. The hood of the truck never dipped under water. The risk of water ingestion never crossed my mind. We attempt to restart the truck. You guessed it, it ran for a second and stopped again. We winch the truck out of the puddle with the FJ60 and notice that dried mud is in the air filter and the Mass Airflow Sensor is wet. I now realize the situation with the air intake and realize we likely pulled water into the engine. The Heckler takes the FJ60 and to the store and buys tools to pull the plugs and a new air filter. We pull all the plugs and started the engine, with water coming out of cylinder #5 and #7. Then the engine locks up and will not turn over. We now realize we have a significant problem. Not only to we have a hydrolocked engine, we have a dead 6000 pound car, way back in the woods, and it is now dark. The FJ60 flat towed the Momquoia all the way back to the pavement, through some pretty gnarly hazards. The 60 is a beast. We called a friend with a trailer and dragged her home.
Needless to say, the Wife was less than pleased when she realized the engine was toast and the cheapest estimate was $5000 for a junkyard engine.
We looked around for a low miles parts car to take an engine from. No Luck. We looked for a complete used engine. We found the non-VVTI engine all day long, the only VVTi engine we found was 4k and had a lot of miles. A non-Toyota rebuilt engine was $5000 plus shipping. I had rebuilt a few small block Chevy’s with a friend 30 years ago. I told him it was possible for him to rebuild the engine and I would help. He made the decision to rebuild it.
Here we go.
Lessons Learned from this installment:
- Do not modify the wheel well liner to expose the combustion air intake plenum to the wheel well. Any rain puddle or, mud puddle, etc will through water and mud up into the plenum, at best clog your air filter, at worst hydrolock the engine.
- If the car stalls in a water hazard, even if the hood didn’t go under, take no chances and pull the plugs and turn it over.
- Carry these spark plug removal tools with you when you wheel.