So what’s with all the aluminum in my oil? (1 Viewer)

[Bud_Dude]

So today I cut open the oil filter...
Very little if any particles respond to a magnet...

 

[elripster]

That's a bummer.

 

[Bud_Dude]

That's a bummer.

So I met with the guys at Alternative Automotive today. Nice looking clean shop. This is the same shop and guys that rebuilt Frank’s engine not long ago. Bottom line is everyone is in agreement that the bottom end of the engine is caput… Just a matter of how badly.

In all my research it seems there’s precious little that anything done in the process of last years head gasket project could likely have caused the low oil pressure that likely resulted in the damage to my bottom end. The perhaps good news is that the non-magnetic properties of the metal particles in the oil filter may indicate that the bearings are still chewing through the aluminum and copper Babbitt material and have not been worn down to the steel, so perhaps no crank damage… maybe…

So my basic options at this time are:

Option A -
Jeff found a potential replacement engine with transmission for me in Phoenix from a guy embarking on a LS1 swap project. Only $800 which is a stellar price, unknown year, but it’s got 287K miles on it whereas mine is a 170K n... This is tempting.

Cost for the shop to swap out my old engine for this older engine is about $2K and 2 weeks, but I won’t know that engine’s history or how long it can be expected to hold up. So, for about $3K I can have a replacement engine, and my old engine on the side for potential rebuild if and when needed. And IF that option ever came to fruition I could expect to spend about $1500-2000 rebuilding it and another $2K to swap it back in. Call it $4K… on top of the initial swap of $3K, for a potential outlay of $7K… maybe… and always wondering when the other show was gonna drop…

Option B -
Cost to just remove my engine now and rebuild it will be $6-7K and will take a month. But I’ll know it’s been done right and likely never have to mess with it again.

At only $3K with a long term potential for $7K and having a lifetime of spare parts available Option A is somewhat attractive. However, I’m leaning toward option B to just spend the 6-7K up front and be done with it once and for all.

I need to sleep on this for a couple of nights.

 

[elripster]

Also need to be ready for the shop to find other issues or near issues when in there. I ended up having a cracked head which was replaced with one of the few factory units left out there. I doubt you'll have surprises like that but sometimes the while you are in there stuff adds up.

Frank

 

[Bud_Dude]

Also need to be ready for the shop to find other issues or near issues when in there. I ended up having a cracked head which was replaced with one of the few factory units left out there. I doubt you'll have surprises like that but sometimes the while you are in there stuff adds up.

Frank

Yep, he (Steve?) mentioned that, but also said hey if your head was machined, rebuilt and tested by the Paradise VW machine shop in San Marcos it's probably good to go as those guys do great work. So, that was comforting. So he felt that not having to mess with the head was probably something that 'might' keep the job closer to $6K... Fingers and toes crossed on that...

 

[elripster]

Good whichever way you go

Frank

 

[RET2]

IMHO I'd opt for B. I'm positive you have more important things to do besides storing a timebomb engine.

 

[BMinSD]

New Toyota short blocks are available. Online from Lemmon Grove Toyota is about $3500. You’ll spend around another $2500 for the gasget set and other while your at it parts but you would be springing for the gasget set and other parts regardless. Doing a quality rebuild probably is not much cheeper.

 

[elripster]

For the time and money, and the distance we travel from civilization, I'd go with reliability and peace of mind. If you go through a shop you will also have a warranty you can lean on if you need to do so. I looked it as I could fix this land cruiser or buy a new one... clearly as much as paying someone to do a rebuild is, it is a lot cheaper than a new LC.

As to the transmission, does your truck run well enough to try adjusting the pressure cable? Maybe your year did away with it? If not, it's that lower cable that goes from the throttlebody to the transmission. The more pedal, the more pressure. When mine snapped in Moab my trans was a hot mess slipping, flaring, etc... so try adjusting the slack out of it. If the problem goes away, that was it.

Frank

 

[Bud_Dude]

For the time and money, and the distance we travel from civilization, I'd go with reliability and peace of mind. If you go through a shop you will also have a warranty you can lean on if you need to do so. I looked it as I could fix this land cruiser or buy a new one... clearly as much as paying someone to do a rebuild is, it is a lot cheaper than a new LC.

As to the transmission, does your truck run well enough to try adjusting the pressure cable? Maybe your year did away with it? If not, it's that lower cable that goes from the throttlebody to the transmission. The more pedal, the more pressure. When mine snapped in Moab my trans was a hot mess slipping, flaring, etc... so try adjusting the slack out of it. If the problem goes away, that was it.

Frank

Thanks for the tip on the transmission throttle cable Frank! Quite easy to get to and adjust, a good write up on it here... 80-series Throttle Adjustment - Land Cruiser Tech from IH8MUD.com - https://www.ih8mud.com/tech/80throttle.php
Indeed it was a little loose, but not terribly so; so I followed the instructions and set the gap of the little ferrule to be about half a millimeter out from the rubber bushing and gave it a good test drive of simulated stop-n-go style traffic and the transmission take up issue seemed to be greatly improved of not eliminated altogether.

What was really sloppy loose was the cruise control cable, which I noted about 10-20% of the time when activating cruise it would fail and result in a blinking light on the dash. So I took at least 90% of the slack out of that cable too. Then during my test drive enabled set and disabled the cruise control over and over and over again; and couldn't make it fail. So, I reckon that the excess slack in the cruise control cable might have been more than it could bear and after detecting no feedback from the throttle after activating it may have gone into some kind of fail safe and disengaged.

So it seems two nuisance issues are rectified and its just down to fixing the motor... To that end the folks at Alternative Automotive will get their chance to rebuild it starting next week.

The shop that did the head seemed perplexed on how to go about the bottom end and spoke of trying to do it without removing the engine. Whereas Alternative Automotive were right on it and knew what and how to do the job. One interesting comment from shop owner Doug Prout on the possible (and I mean real longshot here) reason for the bottom end going out after the head job - maybe the 6 mils cut from the head along with the valve grind (eliminating any valve leakage) might have slightly increased the cylinder compression enough to cause excess pressure on the rod bearings causing them to fail.

 

[elripster]

Good luck!

Frank

 

[saltycoconuts]

Nowadays the CA smog rules are so strict, I haven't heard of anyone being successful in registering anything non original, especially diesel swaps. Factor having to register it out of state into your decision of doing any kind of swap. Alika from the club has a story where he paid the fees, got plates at a local DMV for his 70, only to get a letter from Sacramento saying that they can't honor it, and refused to refund him his fees. I was lucky to sneak in before regs changed and get mine CA registered, I still worry they will come and revoke it.

Years later and I’m still bitter