Terrible news

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also i need to keep reminding my self to check this more oops

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Something is definitely not right in that engine with the coolant and fuel levels in the oil. I would be prepping to take another sample soon to see where things stand.
 
Something is definitely not right in that engine with the coolant and fuel levels in the oil. I would be prepping to take another sample soon to see where things stand.

This is it's the second same crap the oil change only had 2,000 miles. I'm tired of oil changeing going threw to much money
 
We need to do a proper leak down test.
 
borrow it from autozone
 
Thats
I don't know you well John, don't mean to be too matter of fact but....

If I recall, 2nd Blackstone with same/similar results. You should be long past putting expensive synthetic oil in it until you get a handle on the situation. Oil is cheap compared to what you may be looking at...again. Some would suggest to spend the $$ and time to do it again in 500 miles, but this test makes choices pretty simple IMHO...You need to have the head removed and properly inspected by an independent mechanic and/or yourself.

Or, you can drive it until it grenades. You'll forget/run it out of coolant, or the leak will become more significant, or it will let go and cause more destruction. None of those options will be cheap.

I won't pretend to understand your finacial situation, if the dealer will ever accept accountability, really doesn't matter at this point. It's not going to get any cheaper from this point on, park it if you have to. Hell, give Stan a call and I'm sure he'd be glad to drop an LSx/4L80e (sorry if I'm using the wrong terminology) into it, still cheaper than fixing a grenaded engine. Otherwise, you're gonna learn how well the transit system works.

Your engine is sick, best way to start to figure out why is to remove the head. Do NOT let the previous dealer perform the work unless they are paying for it. I'd document every step of the process in the event you have legal recourse down the road. But, your engine needs to be properly broken down, at a minimum to inspect the head, gasket, etc.

If you love your rig, quit phawking around and find a way to get it torn down. Otherwise, sell it and start over, sorry but its the best option...
That's all nice but this is my only car and I'm not going to go rent one. So have to drive it not like I have a choice. The dealer in out by 5 months
 
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John, I don't know you very well and don't pretend to know your financial position. I agree with Mtbcoach here, and I am not trying to be a dick. However, you are seeing some fairly extensive wear for a relatively fresh engine. IIRC, the engine is relatively recently rebuilt (or at least the head gasket was redone). The iron, copper, and lead numbers in your sample are quite high and indicate that bearing damage and other damage is being done every time you drive it. With the amount of fuel and coolant in the oil, you are throwing good money after bad by using synthetic in it. (on EDIT: or even changing oil once a month / every 1,000 miles with dino juice).

Biting the bullet and fixing it now may be painfully expensive. But if you let it grenade, the cost will go up exponentially and the amount of time you'll be without your only vehicle will go up.

I urge you to think about the potential costs and downtime you are facing.

I will shut my piehole now .... ;)
 
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John, I don't know you very well and don't pretend to know your financial position. I agree with Mtbcoach here, and I am not trying to be a dick. However, you are seeing some fairly extensive wear for a relatively fresh engine. IIRC, the engine is relatively recently rebuilt (or at least the head gasket was redone). The iron, copper, and lead numbers in your sample are quite high and indicate that bearing damage and other damage is being done every time you drive it. With the amount of fuel and coolant in the oil, you are throwing good money after bad by using synthetic in it.

Biting the bullet and fixing it now may be painfully expensive. But if you let it grenade, the cost will go up exponentially and the amount of time you'll be without your only vehicle will go up.

I urge you to think about the potential costs and downtime you are facing.

I will shut my piehole now .... ;)

I don't use synthetic I can't afford that! And unless you have a car you are going to lone me ;) I have to drive this to make the money to put into it!
 
John, I'll be the dick, mom always said do what you're good at. Jerry and Sam are spot on. Your logic simply does not work. If you stop now you may have enough engine to save. If you continue to drive it at the wear rates your oil is showing you will blow that motor and require a total rebuild, WAAAAAAAy more expensive than monthly oil changes.

We have all been where you are some point in our lives, don't keep digging a deeper hole for yourself.
 
What happened to when you said you'd give me your truck for however long it took to find the coolant leak? What would you have done for a ride in that case?

Now that I've had a chance to review the blackstone oil analysis, which we should have gotten earlier (I really love these blackstone guys now), it's clear that the motor is effed. Screw using fancy Toyota coolant. You're not going to cause any more damage if you put prestone 50/50 in it from here on out. Boom, saving you money right there.

What the situation really boils down to is that the Toyota dealer you brought the motor to put it together well enough to last the duration of the warranty period. You have two options in my opinion:

1. Drive it till it blows up/till you have enough money to repair. Run regular green 50/50 coolant and even try some of that radiator gasket stop leak stuff. It can't do any more damage and it may even help.
2. Take it apart. Replace the oil cooler first to make sure that there is no mixing happening there. If there is (verified by another blackstone), then the head has to come off to replace the gasket. Sell some of your expensive LED lights to finance the motor work. You can always buy more lights later and this way you won't lose the truck.

What would I do? I'd put 50/50 coolant in it and try one of those radiator stop leak kits from your local auto parts store. Worst case scenario is that it helps. At the same time I'd start selling some light bars and other accessories so that I can finance the motor work. On a free weekend, take the oil cooler off and duct-tape a cap to one end and a pressure hose to the other so that you can pressure test it (coolant side of the oil cooler I mean). If the oil cooler passes the pressure test, then put it back on and keep driving till you have enough scratch for the rest of it.

As for the motor, it might be easier to find someone with a good 3FE long block that you can swap in. I tend not to trust heads+blocks that some other mechanic screwed up. A running motor with 150k miles is better than one with 20k miles and a blown head gasket (if that's whats wrong with yours).

@DeeRex, does that parts truck still have the motor in it?
 
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What happened to when you said you'd give me your truck for however long it took to find the coolant leak? What would you have done for a ride in that case?

Now that I've had a chance to review the blackstone oil analysis, which we should have gotten earlier (I really love these blackstone guys now), it's clear that the motor is effed. Screw using fancy Toyota coolant. You're not going to cause any more damage if you put prestone 50/50 in it from here on out. Boom, saving you money right there.

What the situation really boils down to is that the Toyota dealer you brought the motor to put it together well enough to last the duration of the warranty period. You have two options in my opinion:

1. Drive it till it blows up/till you have enough money to repair. Run regular green 50/50 coolant and even try some of that radiator gasket stop leak stuff. It can't do any more damage and it may even help.
2. Take it apart. Replace the oil cooler first to make sure that there is no mixing happening there. If there is (verified by another blackstone), then the head has to come off to replace the gasket. Sell some of your expensive LED lights to finance the motor work. You can always buy more lights later and this way you won't lose the truck.

What would I do? I'd put 50/50 coolant in it and try one of those radiator stop leak kits from your local auto parts store. Worst case scenario is that it helps. At the same time I'd start selling some light bars and other accessories so that I can finance the motor work. On a free weekend, take the oil cooler off and duct-tape a cap to one end and a pressure hose to the other so that you can pressure test it (coolant side of the oil cooler I mean). If the oil cooler passes the pressure test, then put it back on and keep driving till you have enough scratch for the rest of it.

As for the motor, it might be easier to find someone with a good 3FE long block that you can swap in. I tend not to trust heads+blocks that some other mechanic screwed up. A running motor with 150k miles is better than one with 20k miles and a blown head gasket (if that's whats wrong with yours).

@DeeRex, does that parts truck still have the motor in it?
I was going to try to borrow truck. And was going to take out another loan for This.
 
I was going to try to borrow truck. And was going to take out another loan for This.

Another loan?!?! Dude! Come on! Sell some of those lights!!! This is not something that needs a loan!!

Are you that opposed to selling some of your LED light bars? We're not talking 10k you need to save up, more like 2k (parts).
 
Another loan?!?! Dude! Come on! Sell some of those lights!!! This is not something that needs a loan!!

Are you that opposed to selling some of your LED light bars? We're not talking 10k you need to save up, more like 2k (parts).
I even if I did I would not get that amount. Still would have to take out a loan.
 
John these are really your options right now.

I'm saying this as someone that is pretty much in the same boat as you financially also I would imagine as my cruiser is also currently down for repairs I can’t afford.

1st thing is you really need to find what the exact problem is… until then every thing, costs and how you move forward are just speculation.
As it appears doing this is over your head mechanically you have a few options.

1. Pay someone to do it (not that Toyota dealer, please take it to Darin or someone else that specializes in cruisers or know there stuff, cruisers are almost the bastard child of Toyotas because no dealer really knows anything about them)
2. Buy or rent the testing equipment and rely on the charity of friends to find out and hope someone has the time during the holidays to help you with that.


Regardless you will need to spend some coin on something or parts to find it out.
Once you find it our then you can move forward to how to remedy the situation.


Your options there really are:



1. If you don’t want to put that much money into a 3fe and adapter from advance and a used TBI (damn cheap chevy motor) is very reasonable. Of course that is the cost effective swap.

2. Find a used 3FE or used parts such as the head to fix if that is the problem. 3fe heads are known to crack and leak coolant.

3. There will also be the option to sell the cruiser… but with the time you’ve put into it I wouldn’t do it if it was me (but then again I do have a 2nd car)

4. Buy a cheap beater to drive… old Hondas, Toyota, diesel mercedes, diesel vw’s are cheap and the cost you will save in gas will pay for them in a year or so depending on how much you drive. This will free you up to slowly learn your vehicle and fix when money is available.

5. Sell lights, roof rack, rear bumper, bumper/winch, to finance repairs or to finance buying a beater.

6. Take out loan to reapair... but you would be better served with a 2nd vehicle

What I would do is buy a beater ( a 2nd vehicle is always a great thing to have especially if you are not mechanically inclined). Then I could take my time to decide... do I want to do an engine swap or do I want to keep the 3fe

But the number one thing you need to do is find the problem… and that will take a bit of money. Before you do that speculating on what your future options are is just speculation.


Don't take all this wrong... everyone here wants to help you but really can't even guess how to untill you find out for sure from a shop that knows what they are doing what is wrong with it. :cheers:
 
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Have you talked to Terry yet about this issue? I think it might be worth giving him a call. He replaced his head gasket once only to find that the first shop did not magnaflux the head. He had to have the head welded and replace the head gasket again due to a crack. Since doing the HG the second time, his motor has been rock solid as far as I know, loving life out on Hawaii.

Please give Terry Pratt a call or send him a message on facebook to go over your symptoms to see if they're similar to yours.
 
Have you talked to Terry yet about this issue? I think it might be worth giving him a call. He replaced his head gasket once only to find that the first shop did not magnaflux the head. He had to have the head welded and replace the head gasket again due to a crack. Since doing the HG the second time, his motor has been rock solid as far as I know, loving life out on Hawaii.

Please give Terry Pratt a call or send him a message on facebook to go over your symptoms to see if they're similar to yours.

But it also looks like my bearings are bad...
 
But it also looks like my bearings are bad...

Will you please just call him?! We're trying to find you a cheap fix here.

Does anyone have a 3FE blackstone oil analysis from a different 3FE with 200k+ miles on it to compare?
 
But it also looks like my bearings are bad...

Ok, I lied about the piehole being shut. If your are basing the above on my post, I did not say the bearings are bad. I did say that they are likely getting damaged (lead often comes from the bearings). The ONLY way to check the bearings is to perform a tear down and lay eyes on them ....
 
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