3FE rebuild- seized after 7 miles (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Dec 21, 2020
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Location
San Diego
Hi all,

I picked up a my 80 series from a shop after they had it for three months. They rebuilt the 3FE engine block and head. After driving it for less than 10 miles, i heard a knocking sound, exited the highway, pulled into a parking lot, and the engine seized while at parked at idle. There was a knock that changed to a metallic scrape right before the engine stopped.

Has anyone had a similar situation? My guess is they did not keep track of the pushrods, installed them incorrectly, and oil was not able to circulate correctly.

This shop is a Toyota specific shop that has a good reputation, not looking to blast their creditsbility, simply looking for insights from others with experience with a 3FE rebuild.
 
I would take that right back to the shop. Could be anything-distributor installed correctly? Was there confirmed oil pressure? (end of the distributor drives the oil pump).

Sounds bad though. If it's a good shop, they should cover.
 
I would take that right back to the shop. Could be anything-distributor installed correctly? Was there confirmed oil pressure? (end of the distributor drives the oil pump).

Sounds bad though. If it's a good shop, they should cover.
Good question, I assume it was installed correctly. Started right up, idle was perfect.
Oil pressure gauge sat where is should; little above the middle.
 
Not a 3FE, but I once had a 2F rebuilt by shop who installed an F head gasket during the build. This blocked the oil port to the head. Oil pressure showed good, but no oil to the top of the engine. Surprisingly, it lasted about 3 weeks before seizing. S#!t happens.
A reputable shop should take care of it without question.
 
I smell small claims court....

Hopefully the shop takes care of you. Sorry about the bad luck.
 

That’s about the going rate. When called about getting my engine rebuilt only one shop would do it and they just get the engine from reman from jasper and swap. Did they do rebuild on the engine?
 
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That’s about the going rate. When called about getting my engine rebuilt only one shop would do it and they just get the engine from reman from jasper and swap. Did the ship go the rebuild on the engine?
They outsourced the head and block machining.
 
They outsourced the head and block machining.

K, guess if they felt pretty confident in the build. Do you know if they test drove before you picked it up. I just did a rebuild in mine and had to drive it around a coupe time to get all the gremlins.
 
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K, guess if they felt pretty confident in the build. Do you know if they test drove before you picked it up. I just did a rebuild in mine and had to drive it around a coupe time to get all the gremlins.
They put about 50 miles on it, it was driven before I picked it up.
 
They put about 50 miles on it, it was driven before I picked it up.
Hopefully something minor. Based on what your telling me this should have been pretty routine. From what I hear though Toyota engines take a lot of specialized knowledge and experience to rebuild them properly. I bought mine from Jarco engines they supply the dealerships with rebuild engines. When I went to pic it up they walked me through their facility and talked about their building process. They had a ton of institutional knowledge from rebuilding these engines. Which led me to believe unless you have been doing it a while you could make a small mistake that would cost you later.
 
Hopefully something minor. Based on what your telling me this should have been pretty routine. From what I hear though Toyota engines take a lot of specialized knowledge and experience to rebuild them properly. I bought mine from Jarco engines they supply the dealerships with rebuild engines. When I went to pic it up they walked me through their facility and talked about their building process. They had a ton of institutional knowledge from rebuilding these engines. Which led me to believe unless you have been doing it a while you could make a small mistake that would cost you later.

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Looks like someone over torqued the connecting rod cap on piston 1. The bearing is toast, hoping the crank isnt. We’ll see.
Main bearing was not installed correctly. Oil hole on the block and oil hole on the bearing insert were not aligned. Lack of oil flow caused bearing failure. Shop is replacing the rods, the bearing, and the crank.
 
A machine shop did the rebuild, another shop did the pull, re-install, second valve adjustment.
Is your shop standing up for the work? They contracted the machine shop, I assume, so the machine shop will foot the entire bill?
 

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