Is the oil pump drive gear keyed to the crankshaft a HUGE deal? (1 Viewer)

[adventurers]

Browsing craigslist in the market for a 80 I came across this post and it had this whole write up on how 1996-97 land cruisers have this horrible flaw in how the oil pump drive gear is engaged. I had never heard of this before and don't remember ever seeing a discussion on here about it. I tried searching this forum for various terms in this guys rant but didn't find anything. Any of you more mechanically minded long time mudders feel this guys concern is valid?


here's the relevant piece from the craigslist ad:
1997 Lexus LX450 Land Cruiser - Low miles, one owner

"Toyota's "legendary" 4.5 liter 1FZFE motor was initially designed with an oil pump drive gear that was KEYED to the crankshaft meaning that every time the crankshaft turned the oil pump drive gear turned and, in succession, the oil and power steering pump gears rotated in kind.

In 1996 Toyota/Lexus change the fuel injection and ignition system, amongst other changes, and in doing so they KEYED the rotor for the crankshaft sending unit to the crankshaft, deleting the KEYing to the oil pump drive gear. Instead of KEYing the oil pump drive gear to the crankshaft, Toyota/Lexus relied on clamping pressure of the crank bolt to rotate the oil pump drive gear. I assert that Toyota/Lexus' re-design of the oil pump drive gear from KEYED to non-KEYED is inherently flawed, deviates from industry norms and constitutes a product design defect with readily foreseeable lethal consequences. I refuse to build, drive and/or sell a complete vehicle with such an obvious inherent design defect."

 

[tominboise]

Well, there are a lot of things to lose sleep over. This hasn't kept me awake at nights.

 

[nukegoat]

Youd be surprised how much metal on metal static friction is engineered into every vehicle made

 

[scrowley]

Torque the main pulley bolt correctly and no issues.

 

[ToothDr]

With such a obvious design flaw amazing how many of these motors are over 300,000.

 

[brianh699]

My understanding is this is done to prevent crankshaft damage if the oil pump gear seizes. I wouldn't call it a flaw, as said previously crank the bolt to spec and no problem

 

[Hornd]

Very very very few have issues with oil pressure (oil Pump Cover gasket another story).
I know of no one that has replaced the oil pump after a failure.
Not sure what kind of fear mongering is going on here.

 

[Brandon98]

This seems a non issue. It's somebody trying to offload a pile of problem vehicles and realizing they've got the wrong motor for an easy swap.

 

[bloc]

That rebuilt 94 engine will be difficult to get to work in the 97 chassis because it doesn't have the crank angle sensor that the later computer will be looking for.

In case you weren't aware

 

[george_tlc]

I'd say one of the major flaws is the poor quality control that Toyota put in place that would allow a nut to own one (land cruiser) in the first place.

Think I'll rush out and weld the lug nuts on - imagine relying on a little bit of thread to keep a wheel on at 70mph+... That's only friction keeping the wheels on...

cheers,
george.

 

[Pin_Head]

I thought that all 1FZ engines had an oil and PS pump drive gear that is not keyed to the crank. The craig's list verbiage implies that only the engines with the crank position sensor had this arrangement. Seem pretty unusual to find a seller bad mouthing his truck in an ad. I think $1000 sounds more reasonable for such a defective design.