Need help low oil pressure and misfire

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Bossman429

10 Year
Joined
Mar 23, 2013
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So I'm at uwharrie with a buddy. Went on the trail and tested out a mud hole. Slid in further than anticipated and the front got sunk in the water/muck. No water made it into the air box or up to the valve covers. I was at a very steep angle with the front down for about a minute with the car running before my friends pulled me out. Continued on the trail for a bit and realized my oil pressure was way down. Turned off the engine, and saw no issue with oil level or anything of the sort. Turned around up the trail to get out and it started missing worse and worse and eventually stalled. Towed it to the parking lot and let it sit for awhile. Checked some plugs and all are fine. Now that it's cooled it starts and runs on all cylinders but the oil pressure is way down compared to what it's normally at.

My first reaction is the pressure switch is full of mud and being faulty but why would it mis? Maybe because it got hot with all that mud in the radiator but the coolant temp never got above halfway.

I'm gonna have it towed to a dealership. I can't risk driving it and hurting it worse since I'm 10hrs from home


Anyone have an idea what might have happened? Makes no sense to me
 
Ok correction. Still missing although just on one or two cylinders. Before it was missing in like 6 it felt like
 
Did the engine overheat? Did you look at the temp guage when it was nose down in the mud? Was the radiator submerged in mud/water? Also, if you have any pictures to share please do. Knowing the angle the car was at is critical to knowing if the sump would've sucked air. Which would've shot your main bearings instantly, and caused your low oil pressure(oil pressure is almost entirely caused by flow restriction in the main bearings).

(edit, read post more carefully if coolant temp stayed in the normal range then that is a good thing) main thing I worry about is angle of car and oil sump now.
 
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CEL is not on oddly enough. Angle was pretty steep. If you took a straight line from the top of the Toyota symbol on the grill to the front corner of the sliders that would have been level. So probably 45 degrees. I too thought the sump may have gone dry. But wouldn't it come back up once it was level?
 
No, if the sump runs dry for even a fraction of a second your aluminum main bearings will instantly be pretty much destroyed, in Tribology the list of what all can go wrong when a bearing is un-lubricated is too long to even begin to list. Impropper lubrication is the #1 cause of failure in bearings and the #1 thing that our engines try to avoid failure of. The oil pressure would never go back up because the aluminum bearings probably had some metal-flow and possibly skewed rollers, so the path that the oil takes through them has been significantly altered. this is all just speculation though, but if your sump ran dry you are in deep. Hopefully others with more experience on the 2uzfe sump can chime in, maybe the mains are a little stronger in the UZ than they are in other engines, but I really doubt it. I've seen pictures of completely locked up main bearings from a LC engine that was in a "flip over" crash.
 
Your pretty much dead on. Dealership said it's toasted

New engine for me. I'm flying home and will figure out what route to go. Salvage engine or a reman engine from JARCO.

Reman is twice the price. Anyone have experience with them. Are they any good?
 
Bossman429 said:
Your pretty much dead on. Dealership said it's toasted

New engine for me. I'm flying home and will figure out what route to go. Salvage engine or a reman engine from JARCO.

Reman is twice the price. Anyone have experience with them. Are they any good?
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear this. From all my reading remanufacture is best safest bet. But that said with that type of investment I would be committing to long term ownership to off set that kind of investment. Keep us posted.
 
I have no intentions of selling the car. So I hope to get my money out of it, as long as the rest of the truck last (no reason it shouldn't)

My question is is a JARCO reman engine as good as a new Toyota OEM?
 
So here are some pics
ImageUploadedByIH8MUD Forum1412462469.449680.webp
ImageUploadedByIH8MUD Forum1412462480.944911.webp


What boggles my mind are a few things.

1. Oil light and gauge never showed anything but fine while it was stuck. Light never came on
2. Truck ran fine with good oil pressure for 10-15 after this
3. Misfire started happening after I noticed oil pressure was very low. I don't see how a seized main or rod bearing would cause a mis, A bad ring sure but from what I gather the bearings would seize long before a ring would toast
4. Yes it's a steep angle, but steep enough to where none of the 7qts of oil of would be in the sump? Do these things have a floating pickup?
 
I can't say for certain but that angle does not look bad enough for the oil pickup to be uncovered.
 
That's weird, that angle doesn't look bad enough to cause an engine failure. I would have thought there'd be mud halfway up the hood.

Did the shop say what they did to determine it needs a new engine? Not saying they are wrong, but I saw a lot of misdiagnosed cars in the dealer world (mainly due to it's easier to change a timing belt than perform a tough diagnosis). How many hours of diagnostic did the dealer use to determine the recommended repair?
 
Well I stopped by the truck on my way to the airport but before the dealership was open. The front was all covered with mud so they didn't even bother cleaning it off, and I doubt they would have probed too deep into it without cleaning it first.

The service manager sounded pretty forth coming and was a fellow wheeler, and I think is even at expo east this weekend too. He seemed pretty sure it was seized up, but I literally was able to drive it onto the flat bed (albeit with a misfire) so I don't think it completely seized while sitting there overnight.

At absolute most they spent 3-4
Hours diagnosing because I called at noon and they had already gotten prices on a new engine for me

I do think the picture makes it look a little less of an angle than it was, but not drastically so
 
Wow. If you replace it, I hope you are able to find out what the engine looks like when it's disassembled.

I had a truck that was rolled on its side and ran a bit before being cutoff. It ran fine after righting it (after smoking for a while).

I don't understand how it would run if the main bearings were shot and how that would cause a misfire on one or two AND no check engine light. And from what you say, and the pictures, it doesn't seem like something got sucked into the engine. Bummer man, seems like you are stuck with your vehicle far from home.
 
I agree with others that angle is not bad at all. I have gone down numerous trails much steeper than that. I agree with SWUtah, I would take it to another shop for a second opinion. This just does not add up. If it's not seized and it is just a misfire it could be something simple. Perhaps some mud and water go into one of your coil packs. I would explore all options before going off what a service manager at a dealership says no matter how cool he seems. I used to manage a car dealership. I know first hand how they like to swap parts out rather that doing troubleshooting and proper diagnosis. It's all about billable hours. That's my .02. Best of luck to you my friend.
 
Here's what else is odd, as the engine ran the misfire got worse and worse. Like it would mis on one or two, then as it kept running it was missing on like 3-4, then it seemed like it was missing on all but one cylinder. Then as it sat for 30-40 min it ran and was missing on one or two again.

So it seemed to mis more the longer it ran/hotter it got
 
SWUtah said:
Based on your picture that mud hole looks like a small lake ;)
Click to expand...


It was a steep drop in but literally there was only an inch or two of water above the mud. You could see the bottom. I just wanted to test it out for my buddy with a stockJeep to go through and once the front tires went over the crest it just slid rid in(all four wheels braking). I couldn't believe how much it sank past the surface of the bottom especially at such a slow speed
 
Bossman429 said:
So here are some pics View attachment 949572View attachment 949573

What boggles my mind are a few things.

1. Oil light and gauge never showed anything but fine while it was stuck. Light never came on
2. Truck ran fine with good oil pressure for 10-15 after this
3. Misfire started happening after I noticed oil pressure was very low. I don't see how a seized main or rod bearing would cause a mis, A bad ring sure but from what I gather the bearings would seize long before a ring would toast
4. Yes it's a steep angle, but steep enough to where none of the 7qts of oil of would be in the sump? Do these things have a floating pickup?
Click to expand...
This is concerning for me too. The angle does not seem steep enough to toast a motor. I would attempt that angle even if I saw it without water . Can someone please enlighten me? This seems to me a true Achilles heel.

Edit: so I posted before reading through and now see others with similar concerns. However this still doesn't sit well we me.
 
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From my research the oil pickup line in the 2uzfe is biased forward(i.e. its really hard to run it dry when going down hill), I really don't think that there is any way that the sump ran dry from the pics you posted. I would check other things like water in the coil packs or something like that. I really think that your engine should be good, I thought you were saying that your car was almost vertical! My bad!
 
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