LX450 Engine lost power and radiator exploded!!!!

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tmsimonson

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Jan 19, 2007
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Looking for advice. My 1997 LX450 w/ 200K miles had a bad day yesterday climing a steep grade highway. I was passing a camper (2nd gear @ 4000 rpm) and I started to lose power. I pulled off to side of road as quickly as I could and before I could stop the raditor blew apart (top seam of raditor facing engine now has a 1/4 gap and blew off the fan/guard). I had the vehicle towed home. What to do now????

Looking for advice on how to proceed. I did refill the raditor (yes up to the point of the gap on top) and started the vehicle and it did start up but seems to run rough and didn't want to run very long. I did check the oil dipstick and oil looked normal.

Thanks for advice. Don't have a ton of money so trying to fix if can be done reasonable but don't want to throw good money at if if it is toast!
 
Sounds like your headgasket blew out, that can pressurize the cooling system causing the radiator to burst. Do not attempt to start the engine, that can cause even more serious damage.
 
Kernal is right. check the dipstick for milky oil & the fill cap for the oil should look the same.

The good news if you didn't cook the motor, is that a new HG & a older model brass 3 row radiator will make your LX more stout than it was prior to your unfortunate problem.
 
If it is running rough, you probably lost the head gasket. Easiest way to check is a compression test.
 
OK. So I pulled the spark plugs and they looked mostly normal. There may be something on cylinder #6 plug but hard to tell. I drained the radiator and it looked mostly normal. I had lost most of the coolant yesterday when the radiator exploded and then refilled last night so not sure how valid this is. I did not see any oil in the coolant. I then drained the oil and it looked pretty normal as well (nothing obvious). As a precaution I did pour a little oil into each cylinder once I pulled the plugs and turned the engine over a couple times to help lube the cylinder if I do have a blown gasket.

One other note and not sure if this is related or not. It was a pretty warm day yesterday and we had the A/C on. About 45 minutes before the radiator exploded the A/C quit working (again not sure if this is related or not). I did not notice if the car temperature was getting hot or not. I did check it a few minutes after the radiator exploded and it was in normal range. I will try to check the compression tomorrow although now that I have put some oil in the cylinders it will most likely affect the compression test?

Thanks to everyone for you suggestions and anything else I should try would be greatly appreciated!!!
 
Update on my LX450. I did a compression test this morning and here are the results:
#1: 220psi
#2: 80psi
#3: 240psi
#4: 230psi
#5: 220 psi
#6: 80psi

I did have a problem due to the oil I put in the cylinders as it increased the PSI readings to around 300psi (too much oil). I tried to remove as much oil as I could through a suction hose but I still think it bumped up the readings (they seem really high to me).

Anyway it looks likes #2 & #6 are bad. Note the vehicle has been burning about a quart of oil every 500 miles before this happened. Mostly driven around town on short stop/go trips. However when I take longer trips it burns much less oil. Any thoughts on the oil consumption issue?
 
I read on the forum there is a DVD on how to replace the head gasket. Always good to have reference material to help avoid common issues. Can someone point me where to buy this? Also the radiator on my rig has a brass top (I guess this is not a stock radiator for the 1997?). It must have been replaced before I purchased the vehicle. The seam opened up about 3" long and 1/8" wide on the top. Can this be repaired or is it best to just buy a new one?
 
tmsimonson said:
Update on my LX450. I did a compression test this morning and here are the results:
#1: 220psi
#2: 80psi
#3: 240psi
#4: 230psi
#5: 220 psi
#6: 80psi

I did have a problem due to the oil I put in the cylinders as it increased the PSI readings to around 300psi (too much oil). I tried to remove as much oil as I could through a suction hose but I still think it bumped up the readings (they seem really high to me).

Anyway it looks likes #2 & #6 are bad. Note the vehicle has been burning about a quart of oil every 500 miles before this happened. Mostly driven around town on short stop/go trips. However when I take longer trips it burns much less oil. Any thoughts on the oil consumption issue?
Click to expand...

You might have bad valve guides. That would account for the oil consumption.

It sounds like you overheated it and warped the head. A radiator, head gasket and some machine shop work on the head and you'll likely be good as new.
 
tmsimonson said:
I read on the forum there is a DVD on how to replace the head gasket. Always good to have reference material to help avoid common issues. Can someone point me where to buy this? Also the radiator on my rig has a brass top (I guess this is not a stock radiator for the 1997?). It must have been replaced before I purchased the vehicle. The seam opened up about 3" long and 1/8" wide on the top. Can this be repaired or is it best to just buy a new one?
Click to expand...

It is produced by IdahoDoug. Do a search and you will find it.
 
If only using the stock temperature gauge, the a/c cutting out is many times the first indication of an over-heating motor in the 80 series. If you just refresh your head, you'll need to take a look at your cooling system. With a new radiator (and rebuilt head), the next thing would be to check the viscous fan clutch. Lots of threads on upgrading to the blue one.
 
So I decided to replace the head gasket. I tore down the engine removing the head and here is what I found. There was some signs of water in cylinder #2. However the stranger thing is that cylinder #6 has what I can best describe as scarring on the cylinder wall. The rest of the cylinders look to be in pretty good shape but #6 has vertical scarring on the cylinder wall and it is noticeable to the touch (I can run my finger across/around the cylinder and can definitely feel the ridges in the wall. Also there is some small deposit of what appears to be metal at the top of the cylinder stroke.....not a lot but my guess is it was what was scraped/gouged out of the wall and deposited at the top of the stroke? So I am not an engine guy but my guess is this not a good thing! What should I do now. Does it make any sense to spend the money on the head gasket and valves at this point or do I need an entire engine rebuild or engine replacement? I am not sure what caused this grooving of the cylinder wall but if I don't touch the bottom half of the engine will this cause an engine failure. If I could get another 20,000 miles out of this engine I would be happy for now. Any insights or advice would be appreciated. I can post pictures if it helps but is somewhat difficult to get a good picture of the cylinder.
 
OK. Here are a couple of pictures of #2 and #6
IMG_9188.jpg
IMG_9185.jpg
 
What does #6 cylinder feel like at the top where the silvery color is in the top photo above; does it feel like something extra (metal) is stuck on the cylinder wall? Can you get a photo of #6 cylinder looking a bit more straight down from above?
 
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