Engine Swap Gives Problems (1 Viewer)

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Feb 24, 2009
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I have a 1988 FJ62 with 3Fe engine.

Background:
I took my truck out into a muddy field about a year ago and while I had fun, I ended up in mud too deep. A bit of digging and rocking forward and backward got me to where I could use the engine to get me the rest of the way out. I didn't have anyone there to pull me and it was just what my friend who was ridding with me and I could do. Needless to say, maybe, we put a little too much accelerator into getting out of the mud in Lo 4, but we made. Drove home and had no problems for about 2 weeks. About 2 weeks after playing in that mud I noticed my cruiser sounded funny so I checked the oil and put some in. She still sounded funny but I had stuff to do and couldn't take her off the road yet so I went about my business. A couple of days later I had to leave her running while I was parked for a few minutes (about 15 minutes) and she just stopped running, died. Wouldn't start back up for anything.
We looked at everything we could think of. (My bother, one of his friends, my dad, one of my friends, me - all have experience working on cars and trucks.) Nothing seemed wrong so I checked the oil and found none on the dip stick. Finding that we decided that we should try turning the engine over by hand; no luck. So my brother and I towed it to a friend's yard for a few months while I got another truck running so I had transportation while we fixed my cruiser.

Swap:
We found a cruiser with the same engine and everything in a guys yard (he didn't know anything more than that there was a TLC rusting out in his yard and was happy to get rid of the drivetrain for some money; said that as far as he knew, when it was parked it ran and the tranny shifted smoothly) and took the drivetrain out and went home with it.
We pulled my drivetrain and detached the engine from the tranny. We then pulled apart my engine to find out what was wrong with it and once we had it apart we couldn't find anything wrong with it. It wasn't seized or warped or anything we could find/tell. I decided that since we had the other engine we should attach it to the drivetrain and put it all back in and I could rebuild my original engine later.
We put everything back in and hooked it all up and viola! It ran great. When we had pulled my engine out we had found that some of the studs connecting the exhaust to the manifolds were rusted to the point of no return so we had cut the exhaust off, drilled out the studs and replaced them. So once the truck was running I took her into town (about a 30 minute drive) to a muffler shop to get the exhaust redone.

Problem starts::mad:
I picked my truck up from the muffler shop this past thursday and it sounded great and ran well, or so I thought. When I got it home I decided to go run some errands now that I had my rig back in action. So I headed accross town and about 1/4 of the way there she just dies (stops running) in the middle of the road going up hill. I notice 2 oddities once I pop the hood. 1. The battery post connector is not not attached fully on the positive post; and 2. my radiator is giving off steam and pressure from the release hose. I fiddled with the terrimal connector and got the truck started again. I decided that my first stop needed to be the auto parts store a block away from where I was heading anyway and kept going accross town.
I then noticed that when I stopped at a stoplight the truck idled really low and just stopped, but started right up again and kept going. Only once I reached about 20 mph I lost the ability to accelerate anymore so I turned off the road and BOOM. I blew 2 hoses off my radiator. Ok, I thought, I definately need a new radiator cap. I put the hoses back on and tried to move my rig on out of the way and she wouldn't start. The battery terrminal connector issue again, so I fiddled with it (not having taken tools with me since it was running fine when I left it at the muffler shop) and got it to start again. So I parked it overnight.
Yesterday one of my friends and I went to the auto parts store I bought new battery terrminal connectors, a new radiator cap, and a gallon of anti-freeze to replace what I had lost. I had tools with me but not what I needed to replace the terrminal connectors so we got it connected better than it had been and started out for my place. About 1/2 way back I hear a POP and see white smoke come out my tailpipe. I decide that turning into a parking lot is a good idea and as I do, BANG, and ratiator release. The new radiator cap is still in place, no hoses have popped off, and oh, what that? The valve cover gasket popped out from under the cover.

I'm planning on going over today and pulling the valve cover and seeing if I can see anything but as things stand both my brother and I are kinda confused. The main thought we both have is that we could have hooked something up wrong but then why was it running so much better on the way to the muffler shop? (Oh, when we started out for the muffler shop I didn't have acceleration after 30 mph for the first 10 minutes but then that cleared up.) The only other thing we can think of is that the muffler shop royally screwed something up.

Does anyone have any ideas or could any of you please point me to where I can find info on this issue? I didn't see anything in the FAQ but then I may have missed it. Thanks in advance.
 
Last edited:
On your new engine, your thermostat was stuck.

Now your head gasket is blown. Top off the radiator and start the engine and watch the bubbles in tha radiator.


The idle and dying problem could be one of the vacuum lines is off or not connected correctly. Certain things open in the vacuum passages depending on the temp of the engine.
 
Good call. When I went to look at it today it was quite apparent that the thermostat sensor is stuck. It also appears that when I did the swap the connector to it came off the wire harness so I need to figure out how to replace it or jerry-rig it to be connected to the electrical.
I checked the dip-stick and it said there was no oil even though I put 4.5 quarts in when I was ready to start it after the swap. It said it was full at that time and so I took it to the muffler shop. Well, as I said I checked it today and it said there wasn't any in there so I ended up putting 6 quarts in. There do not seem to be any leaks though. Anyway, after the oil and some water in the radiator I started it up and it seems to be much better overall.
There is a clacking though coming from the engine. Its a mid pitched clacking not a low pitched metal bending or metal rubbing on metal sound so I think that it could be a lifter problem.
 
So you add 4.5 quarts and then get it running.

You drive it about 30 minutes to the muffler shop. After the muffler shop you run some errands and begin having problems.

And then you added 6 more quarts of oil?

Scratch what I said about the blown head gaskets. Sounds more like a plugged PCV valve or broken rings.
 
Man!! ...... with that much consumption a smoke screen would be present.........or a spill similar to the Exxon Valdez........:lol:
 
I would think there'd be an obvious leak or spill too but nothing. If only the Exxon Valdez had made all that oil dissapear instead of spilling it...
Anyway, after doing the thermostat change, putting the gasket back in place, and starting her up the clacking is still there. I had my brother take a listen to it and he says that it sounds like a connecting rod problem. I guess she'll be off the road for a bit more time unless someone knows something I don't.
Thanks all.
 

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