Good and bad day in SoCal - New FJ40 Owner

[FloridaTom]

Well today I had some time to conduct the compression test again. I found it worked much better with the throttle open, and the FJ40 hooked up to another vehicle via jumper cables to give the battery enough juice. These are the numbers I came up with:

6:130
5:120
4:115
3:115
2:120
1:120

The numbers are not amazing, but they don't seem too bad either. After doing the test I decided to go ahead and drop the oil pan and see what the rod bearings looked like. This is what I found at the bottom of the oil pan.


I checked all of the bearings for play, and I found that #5 was really loose, and I could move it and make the knocking sound. Finding this, I removed the #5 cap first. To my surprise, even though this is the first time I have done this, there was no bearing whatsoever between the cap and journal. Is it possible that it could have been totally torn apart? This is what the cap looks like.

This is what the crankshaft journal looks like.


I also noticed that all of the other rods where easy to move up and down in the cylinder to get to the top bearing, while #5 was much more difficult and did not seem to have as much lubrication. Is it feasible that I can replace all of the bearings, and possibly emory cloth the crankshaft and she will be okay, or do I have a much larger problem on my hands?

Another option is to find a replacement engine and go that route. I would rather not rebuild and engine, as I am looking to drive and enjoy the FJ40 in the near future.

 

[FloridaTom]

Here is a picture of the #5, #4, #3, and #2 caps and bearings, from top to bottom, for reference.

 

[D'Animal]

Don't mix the caps up.





I personally have never seen a bearing that erroded itself to the point it was completely gone from the connecting rod and crankshaft,

 

[FloridaTom]

I didn't think that it was likely either. Is there any concern with the piston on #5 being more difficult to move than on the other cylinders? And I made sure to mark the caps extremely well.

 

[D'Animal]

Just thinking our loud here, not saying it is your problem.

If the head gasket blew, it generally blows between 5 and 6 or 4 and 5. (My personal experience only). A PO (Previous Owner) could have done two things.

A. Said the heck with it and let it sit and the coolant/water rusted and pitted the cylinder.
B. Could have kept driving it and the coolant/water washed the cylinder walls down and allowed the piston to score the piston due to lack of lubrication.

Either A or B will score the piston and cylinder. The scoring will add extra stress on the lower rod bearing since it it pushing and pulling harder to move the piston up and down the cylinder. The end result is a bad bearing.

Again, I'm just thinking our loud here, not saying it is your problem. There are guys who have tons more experience on these than I do.

 

[pb4ugo]

From what I see w/your pics, regardless of the cause, your looking at a rebuild or a replacement engine. You can pull it ,tear it apart and determine the dollars involved to rebuild, then see what a new or good used motor is. Just replacing the bearings & smoothing out the journals w/o tearing the motor apart is throwing $$$ away. I'm sure the mains don't look any better.

 

[landcrusher909]

If you need anything give us a shout Tom

 

[FloridaTom]

Well short story is the FJ is running and I drove it today. The clunking is gone, oil pressure is good, and seems to be no problems. I only have about 7 miles on it so far.

I spent most of Friday after work putting the bearings in and re-installing the oil pan. When installing the bearings I used plastigauge and all of the clearances checked out. After installing all of them I ensure there was no binding and the crank was still easy to turn by hand. The tips found on Mud were a lifesaver and definitely saved me a ton of time installing the oil pan. Poured in the oil and no leaks. Made sure everything that I had unhooked was hooked back up, and the spark plugs went back in and went to start the engine. Turn the key and nothing from the starter. I didn't really have time to diagnos the problem so frustratingly I had to put it off until today.

Today, I get down there and start going through all of the wires to see what the problem could be. Turnes out I had knocked the positive wire to the starter off. I re-connected the wire and it started to turn over. Finally got the distributor right and she started up and no knocking. It took about 10 sec for the oil gauge to register pressure which made me pretty nervous. Set the timing a drove her home. Hopefully everthing is good to go and there will not be any residual problems.

Thanks for all the help from everyone.