Engine Help (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Jun 13, 2005
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What's up fellas?

I'm new to the forum. I've been lurking around and I figured its time for me to chime in. Currently, I have a 1994 Land Cruiser with 170,000 miles. For the past month I've been noticing white smoke coming out of the tail pipe at hard acceleration. Also, sometimes after coming to a dead stop and then accelerating whether its hard or gradual acceleration the white smoke would appear. The engine and check engine light would occasionally come on as well. So, I brought it to a local mechanic and he found out that the valve stem seal has gone bad and I needed an engine rebuild. I doubted his diagnosis and decided to get a second opinion so, I brought it to the toyota mechanics and turns out the valve stem seal and piston ring has gone bad. I'm planning on keeping the truck "I think" so, right now I have three options:

1. I can rebuild the engine myself but my experience are limited but still considering it.

2. Purchase a remanufactured engine and install it myselft. Does anybody have a suggestion on who I should consider. Somebody on the forum had mention "thunderbolt". Anybody have any comment on this company?

3. Perform a diesel engine swap. Which is financially inconceivable for now.

Appreciate, the help guys.
 
1st question. Where do you live? That might have a bearing on getting a third opinion from a reputable shop that someone on the list has trust in.
Cheers,
Sean
OH, and welcome to the board.
 
Cruiserparts.net has a 1FZ-FE for $1800 with 35K miles. Sounds like a great deal to me....no affiliation etc.

Good luck!
 
snowcruiser said:
Cruiserparts.net has a 1FZ-FE for $1800 with 35K miles. Sounds like a great deal to me....no affiliation etc.

Good luck!


Definately the direction I'd pursue.
 
Uh, white smoke isn't indicative of a valve stem seal. You're getting smoke blown up your, well - you know where.

Before I'd listen to such a dire diagnosis, I'd do the following:

-Send in a sample of your engine oil to an analysis site such as Blackstone labs and pay for the rush.
-Pull the spark plugs and keep them in order so you can see which cylinder looks different.
-Get a compression test done (or better, rent a compression tester and do it yourself while doing the above.
-Pull the codes from your engine using the standard factory technique. Don't have a factory manual? Get one from Cdan here on this list.

So far, I've spent about $$2000 less than a rebuild and you'll know a lot more. White smoke is unburnt fuel or water in the fuel. If you have a lot of fuel in the oil (Blackstone will tell you), you may need your injectors rebuilt (less than $200 IIRC).

Don't believe the "rebuild it" bullcrap.

DougM
 
MTNRAT said:
1st question. Where do you live? That might have a bearing on getting a third opinion from a reputable shop that someone on the list has trust in.
Cheers,
Sean
OH, and welcome to the board.

I live in florida. I figured going to the mechanic at the toyota dealership would be a reputible place to have my cruiser check out.
 
snowcruiser said:
Cruiserparts.net has a 1FZ-FE for $1800 with 35K miles. Sounds like a great deal to me....no affiliation etc.

Good luck!

I checked the site out and all I saw for $1800 was an engine that has 85k miles.
Thanks, anyways.

Has anyone here put in a used engine in there cruiser?

Has anyone dealt with this company before?
 
I agree with the blow-by, your rings are wearing. The test for valve seals is when you first start your vehicle in the morning and if you see white smoke it is your valve seals leaking. The oil that sits on top leaks through the seals into the cylinders and you burn it off. White smoke under acceleration indicates ring wear- (blow-by) the combustion process is pulling oil into the chamber. That also will probably led to cylinder and bearing wear, so getting into a rebuld without the experience of measuring the bearing clearance and cutting down the cylinder ridge and honing the cylinders so the rings will seat. I would suggest the used engine routine. Just keep looking until you get a good deal and then go for it.

Good Luck
 
I was always under the impression that blue smoke is burnt oil, whether it be past the rings or past the stem seals and white smoke was water in the combutstion chambers, black smoke was far to rich and grey smoke was just an enginge that has not been booted for a while.
 
I experienced what you have described. I didn't have any smoke upon start-up but did when slowing from highway speeds for a toll or off-ramp and then accelerating again. The cause was worn valve stem seals. Rings/compression were fine and since having my head rebuilt by Clearwater Cylinder head in Clearwater Florida for around $400.00 I haven't had any problems with smoke. They told me several of the seals were pretty dried out. It also gave me a chance to address the head gasket issue before it started to give me trouble as well. Like the prior advice, I'd do a compression test myself to see what the specs are before considering a rebuild. The bores on LC's really wear well....
 
Since, I'm not in a hurry to invest on another engine I think I'll perform a compression test and go from there. It's good to know I'm not the only one that experienced this.

Thanks again fellas.
 
Get a leakdown test performed... a compression test will only tell you part of the picture.
 

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