Anyone blown a cylinder or 2 on your 200?

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lcgeek

lcgeek

Glad to meet you!
Joined
Dec 26, 2005
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Location
Goodyear, AZ
My wife's 2008 LC was running fine until last Friday. Wife was driving, she said is started shaking a bit and went into limp mode, so she pulled off the road and parked it. I went to meet her in a parking lot and it had the VSC, check oil, and sundry of and other check engine lights on. It would start fine but idle a tad rough and get a bit rougher the more gas it got. We had a flatbed pick it up and take her to the doc. The diagnosis -- two cylinders got ZERO compression. Truck has 225K. Decisions, decisions.

Here she is, the one on the right :oops:

 
Zero compression could be a very simple problem. Coil pack wiring could of fried. If worse, the timing fell out, could be a failed timing chain tensioner which would explain two cylinders failing at the same time.

But when you say blown cylinders, I think a rod was hanging out of the side of the block.

So I would absolutely dedicate the time to figuring out what’s wrong. That’s just me though. Would love to hear what you find if you did.
 
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I agree with @Taco2Cruiser. More diagnostics will help. Checking the contents of the oil pan is easy. If there’s metal in the oil pan, there’s big problems. If no metal, then it’s time to start looking at the top end.

Which cylinders dropped compression? You can inspect the cylinders for scarring by removing the spark plugs.
 
Thanks for feedback. Sadly I am a half a banana :banana: mechanic guy (that's being generous). I personally won't being doing any inspecting, and I envy those of you who have the chops. The cruiser now sits at Camelback Toyota where @murf and his reputable Land Cruiser staff are diagnosing the problem. Sorry if my description of "blown cylinder" was "blown" out of proportion. The no compression cylinders are 5 & 6. Also #1 has oil on the plug. The truck was also supposedly 3.5 quarts low on oil. I had a recent oil change less than 5k miles ago, so their thought is it's consuming oil which puts bottom end as suspect. The decision now is to start tearing it down to find true root causes or skip that altogether and replace with refurb'd motor - $$$. I posted to see if others may have experienced no compression with similar characteristics and seek any input I could - so thank you! :)

Oddly, the truck was running fine before. I personally drove it on a round trip 400 mile journey through the mountains a few weeks ago and it ran flawlessly. On day of problem, wife was driving on freeway but exited due to heavy traffic. One mile off freeway driving 20mpg in stop and go traffic, the truck started shaking a bit and running rough. She immediately pulled into a parking lot and called for help. Go figure.

Any and all thoughts welcome.
 
I’m curious what the pcv valve looks like if it was consuming oil. Granted it may well be abnormal if compression was that low on two cylinders, but apparently the pcv system is yet another thing that needs attention on these engines to keep them healthy.
 
lcgeek said:
The no compression cylinders are 5 & 6. Also #1 has oil on the plug. The truck was also supposedly 3.5 quarts low on oil.
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Ouch.
 
TonyP said:
Timing chain not belt.
Did they actually do a compression test on each cylinder or just a guess?
Unless I'm missing something, I don't know how a bad coilpack can cause low (measured) compression considering you remove the coilpack to test the compression?
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Caught me before I could change it. You’re right about compression and coil packs. I don’t think that is it, I was more trying to say that things could be easy, or they could suck. But now knowing it’s about 60% oil capacity is... interesting. I’d love to get my hands on it.

One things for sure if it’s bad, your mention of a tundra motor is the best option if it’s catastophoc failure.
 
I want to know what the cylinder walls look like from the plug holes.
 
Sandroad said:
Where was the oil changed? Any chance it’s been 3.5 qts low for 5000 miles?
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Anythng is possible, but unlikely its been low that long. Had last oil change at the closest dealer to my house, Avondale Toyota. In 10 years they've always been reliable, and I've had many oil changes on many land cruisers.
 
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Sorry to hear of your troubles. Having an engine grenade on a 200-series is not a common occurrence. Not even at 225k.

If it turns out to be the worst and they tell you they need to rebuild the engine... I would say don't. Not even a dealership. There's very few shops if any I'd ever commission to build/re-build a motor. It'll be nothing close to one that comes out of the factory.

As mentioned earlier, Tundra (and Sequoia) motors have proven to drop right in with very little ancillary changes. There's many many low mileage ones that can be found from auto recylcers for dirt cheap. And the labor to drop one in is nothing compared to the labor and skill required to build one.

www.car-parts.com

This thread may help: '08 Engine Problems - Options
 
TonyP said:
If you decide to sell, I call dibs :D
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LOL, vultures circling :)

TeCKis300 said:
Sorry to hear of your troubles. Having an engine grenade on a 200-series is not a common occurrence. Not even at 225k.

If it turns out to be the worst and they tell you they need to rebuild the engine... I would say don't. Not even a dealership. There's very few shops if any I'd ever commission to build/re-build a motor. It'll be nothing close to one that comes out of the factory.

As mentioned earlier, Tundra (and Sequoia) motors have proven to drop right in with very little ancillary changes. There's many many low mileage ones that can be found from auto recylcers for dirt cheap. And the labor to drop one in is nothing compared to the labor and skill required to build one.

www.car-parts.com

This thread may help: '08 Engine Problems - Options
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Thanks. That was one of the options floated, drop a used Tundra motor in.
 
TonyP said:
It's rare, that's for sure.
A guy a few months ago went though something similar, he ended up using a Tundra motor as replacement. So that's always an option.
Either way, it's going to be a spendy repair. Hope for the best.
If you decide to sell, I call dibs :D
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I remember reading about that guy getting a Tundra motor replacement, quite a deal IIRC. You recall how many miles this guy had on his 200?
 
Super bummed. I mean a 200 Land Cruiser, really? Service and maitenance kept up to date from Toy dealers, never a hiccup of notice, no warning lights, no codes, and all the sudden 2 cylinders shot? Never imagined this, sure on a lesser vehicle, but on a 200 Land Cruiser? Never imagined this, its why I drive Land Cruisers.
 
lcgeek said:
Super bummed. I mean a 200 Land Cruiser, really? Service and maitenance kept up to date from Toy dealers, never a hiccup of notice, no warning lights, no codes, and all the sudden 2 cylinders shot? Never imagined this, sure on a lesser vehicle, but on a 200 Land Cruiser? Never imagined this, its why I drive Land Cruisers.
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They are great rigs, but they are a machine and as such, some will fall to one end of the bell curve or the other. Sucks, for sure. Seems like the low oil might have played a role in this failure.
 
Why 5&6? Those are opposite sides of the engine, but across from each other. Separate valve trains, separate gaskets, no direct connection. Seems no chance of coincident failure of those 2 cylinders from low oil. And oil on #1 even though running well? What the heck? Second opinion time?
 
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