Rust on cams after sitting with milkshake oil

[spencergonomo]

Hello,

I am new here, so apologies if I am posting in the wrong spot. My brother purchased a '97 collectors edition Landcruiser a few years ago with a blown head gasket with hopes of fixing it, but it ended up sitting outside for the past 3 or so years. This weekend I pulled the valve cover in hopes of replacing the head gasket and found that the cam lobes are rusty from sitting in the milkshake oil (see image).

What is the next step here? Does the engine need a full rebuild? I would love to simply get the cams machined/replaced, but am worried about rust on the rotating assembly. Is there any way to get my borescope into the crankcase? Would love to see inside without pulling the upper oil pan with the engine in the truck.

Let me know! Thanks.

 

[Mandrake]

Ooof. You're probably SOL on those cams, but I'd spray 'em down with rust remover to see what you're working with under the rust. Those lobes with the crusty crust on 'em aren't promising, but you never know until you see what's underneath. As for the borescope, you could go down the dipstick tube and if you have a fancy one that you can control, then you might be able to look up at the crank. Otherwise, drop the lower oil pan and scope from there.

 

[Fj80oregon]

Pull the spark plugs and look at the cylinder walls that should tell you all you need to know. You might be able to save the cams still as long as they are not heavily pitted they might polish up with some emery cloth. Cams are around $1k for a set so not terrible.

 

[White Stripe]

Looks like it will need a rebuild to me.

 

[TheBussman]

that exhaust cam is toast. The intake MIGHT clean up. Pitting on the base circle of the cam you can get away with but anything on the lobe can cause you issues. used cams arnt that expensive. I know somebody that might have one. Keep going on your headgasket job and keep looking for other things that might be rusted out. I suspect the majority of the rust will be on the top of the motor.

 

[Kernal]

Any cylinders that had water/coolant sitting in them for all this time will likely be severely corroded/eroded along with the engine bearings.

IMHO with a blown head gasket if you aren't going to rebuild it immediately it's important to get all the water/coolant out of the engine. At a minimum drain the oil and coolant, remove the oil filter, remove the spark plugs, remove the EFI fuse (leave it out), crank the engine to blow out water, add oil into each cylinder, repeat to get all water out of the cylinders, add fresh oil and a new filter to the engine, crank the engine to circulate the oil until you see oil pressure, drain that if you want to be sure, repeat, remove the valve cover, clean/remove water/sludge, etc, etc. A lot of work but the idea is to avoid what the OP is looking at and what he can't see (yet).

Better to rebuild it ASAP and not let it sit for weeks, month, years.

@fj80 Oregon rebuilds engines so will have more experience as to what might or might not be rebuild-able.

Here's one example.

I'm not a machinist but that might be able to be bored out, then larger pistons, etc but rebuilding that engine (if possible) using
Toyota parts can get close to the cost of a new short block which comes with new pistons and crankshaft (but not the head or camshafts)

Here's another example caused by coolant/water sitting on top of the piston (worse than above):