Broken 1KZ-TE

[ChrisCrowie Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ChrisCrowie]

Help!!!!

Went for a play today at Beerwah north of Brisbane and had a ball, but coming home on the highway the car had the following symptoms...

1. Noticed that temp guage was in the high zone (not in red yet)
2. Lost power in the engine,
3. Thought might be a fuel issue so switched from sub to main
3. Drove fine for about 20 secs
4. Temp started to come down
5. At 100 km/h the engine died, no electrics, no power steering, bugger all brakes
6. Managed to get her off the road and the radiator overflow was bubbling away

After letting it cool could not start it, thought might possibly be air in the fuel line so primed it and disconneted fuel line a little and turned her over till fuel came out... no air in the line. Connected it all back up and nothing. Batteries fine (did do some winching out of a bog hole but nothing major), water level in the radiator is still full. I have no idea.

So I rang a mate who used to be diesel mechanic who came and had a look and to tow me home and he thinks maybe the main bearing is shot.

So now I think I am looking for either a full rebuild or a new engine (I have been eyeing off Pradofreak's creation, but I am not sure :P ) I wonder if you can fit an LS1 engine in there!!!!

Can anybody please assist me with a good diesel mechanic on the Southside of brisbane? I am not 100% sure of the issue but I need somebody to look at it and preferably be the person who can fix it as I need to tow it there.

Did I mention the humilation I sufferred at having to be towed home on the back of a... Nissan! ops:

If you can help me out with the name of a good diesel mechanic on the southside that would be great....

[Crammy Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Crammy]

What about your water pump?

[ChrisCrowie Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ChrisCrowie]

Good point Crammy, I didn't even think of that. Though would that stop the engine from kicking over?

I did manage to get her started this morning and she ran like a pig, the whole car was shaking, smoke billowing from the exhaust...

[Fazza Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Fazza]

ChrisCrowie,

Doesn't sound good

To me it sounds like the motor has overheated & siezed :cry:

I hope i am wrong.

Fazza

[Mark Smith Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark Smith]

Chris

Did the "check engine" light come on? Reason I ask is that the ECU can shut the engine down or at least cause it to go into limp home mode if it decides some of the operating parameters are reaching unsafe levels.

Mine did this to me 250k's from home on Saturday due to ( I think) dirty fuel blocking the fuel filter. It was still drivable but had approx 50% power compared to normal. It's at the mechanics now having the fault codes analysed.

I believe disconecting the battery for about 20 minutes will clear the fault codes. If it is ECU fault code related.

Cheers

Mark

[ChrisCrowie Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ChrisCrowie]

Hi Mark,

No warning lights at all, just the symptons as above and then nothing.

Got a few quotes yesterday - about $8k for a reco second hand and $15k for a new one....

I am going to go with a full rebuild, but I will take it in and have it stripped down first to diagnose the issues.

Found a place called Wynnum Engines who can do the work and have been recommended to them by a couple of other mechanics I spoke too so I will go with them.

Just trying to sort out how the warranty I took out on the engine goes, as the warranty mob are now saying the warranty is void, even though there is still 18mths left on it... bastards, they don't want to cough up but were quite happy to take my money... :evil:

Keep you all informed of how it goes.

[goanna Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close goanna]

Man, you poor bugger! Sorry to hear about! Love the idea of the LS1, Guess im not the only one who has those thoughts, a couple guys over at the big ls1 forum are putting them in 80 series! Good luck with your repairs mate!

[ChrisCrowie Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ChrisCrowie]

Engine only has 217000k's on it. Oil levels were fine and I have since checked for any water in the oil and none found.

Oil and filter is changed religiously by me every 5000k's, new oil and new filter.

Car is second hand and when purchased took out a 3 year warranty on the engine. Conditions were that it needed to be serviced every 10 thousand k's and I had to send in reciepts and get a book stamped.

This I did with me servicing every 5 my self. However, when I called the warranty company yesterday they advised me that my warranty was void??? :twisted:

They claimed that they did not have a reciepts from me for over 12mths. Yet I sent them to the company so I faxed off the reciepts and the booklet showing all works had been done as needed.... then came their next twist.

In june last year I drove brisbane to Cairns to Cape Trib and got the car serviced at 198000k before the trip, also did the 160k service instead of the 200k service as it covered more things, then in Dec got the next service done at 210000k. The warranty company now claim that because I was only out by 1900k's the warranty is now void as it was not serviced every 10000k as they needed it to be... what a crock of crap.

Especially when you read the contract on the warranty and it states that servicing needs to be done once the car has travelled MORE than 10000k's...

Either way they are screwing me around and I am not going to take it, I have done everything they needed me to do and more, I have actually done more services than what was required.

Now waiting on their claims GM to call me back and advise where I stand. On top of that I also said that now if my warranty has been voided by them can I get a refund on the remaining portion... the answer was no as it was not them that arranged the warranty..... :evil: They had better watch out as this is not the end of it.......!

[Roktruk Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Roktruk]

This may be a long shot, but try and hit Toyota up for the motor (Warranty hassles aside). Get the head crack tested, specifically number three pre-combustion chamber. The casting is about as thick as alfoil - Toyota are on the third revision to fix this problem. If this failed, you could argue that it caused the engine failure.

The symptoms are exactlly what mine did - started to run rough, like bad fuel, then came right after swapping tanks and 10 minutes later temp went through the roof. Mine died 5 days before the statutory dealer warranty expired (Pennant Hills Toyota). They tried some crap - stalled until after the expiry date, which immediately went away when I forwarded the original email (with reply) to the dealer principle. Had the head replaced, new injectors, water pump and radiator service - $3700.

This is a known problem which seems to happen to about 10% of the 1KZs, mainly TD autos. I think Toyota may just handle them on a case by case, as a recall would cost them millions.

Mine was a genuine one owner, 95k km serviced religiously every 5k by dealers.

[ChrisCrowie Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ChrisCrowie]

Finally got the bad news today,

After spending $500 to get the head off and tested and termostat tested, compression test done I stopped further work as it was found compression was only solid on one cylinder.

Cyl 1 = 460 psi
Cyl 2 = 150 psi
Cyl 3 = 200 psi
Cyl 4 = 200 psi

= Not good!!!

With the head off you could see the scorching to the cylinder walls which meant only one thing.... full rebuild needed. (will post the pic later)

Off to the engine rebuilders next:

Re-builders plucked and dismantled it to find that the balance shaft bearing had siezed (actually got so hot it welded itself to the block!!) due a lack of oil flow, oil pump has shat itself, CAM bearing got red hot and the block is now totally stuffed. :evil: :shock: :evil:

** And the winner is Fazza with overheating and siezed ** :P

Good news is that head is still fine with no cracks or warping and the crankshaft is still ok

So it leaves me needing to get a new block as well as rebuild done which at the moment is running at a cost of $10,470.00 (mind you this also includes Turbo service, injector service, Fuel Pump service, and a custom built heavy duty clutch install, )

Now I have to see if the warranty company will come to the party with some of the cost :x

There goes my planned Simpson trip for this June as well as a lot of other things for the time being....

At least at the end of this exercise I will basically end up with a brand new engine in the car!!!

All i can do now is go home tonight and pour myself a nice big glass of Bundy Rum and enjoy it!!!

[MickL Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close MickL]

This engine is easy to find as a low km import engine. I have seen one in Adelaide at a Jap import wreaker for $3k, very low km's with turbo, AC compressor, pump and alternator still attached.

The 1kz was fitted to Surfs, Hiluxs, Prados and Hiaces and even though there were many production changes, the basic engine (head and block) are the same.

Try calling around the Jap wreaker's in your area. Also try the Trading post (online) and Ebay aswell as I've seen them pop up from time to time.

$10k will buy a whole Surf! a 2.4lt one anyway!
Mick

[MickL Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close MickL]

A quick search found this:
http://www.autotrader.com.au/iteminfo/a ... SQSearchDi
splayPriorityIndAVSCotRZSQ1BJDZfdRZSQFirstPublishe d_sqt_2_srch_1kz_state_9_stpg_1_subs_Wheels%2c+Tyr es%2c+Parts+%26+Accessories_

[MattWhite Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close MattWhite]

If you are serious about keeping it we got a flyer the other day from Toyota. Short motors are about $3200 at the moment and while I realise you still may need a head on top of that it literally would be brand new. Good luck.

Matt

[ChrisCrowie Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ChrisCrowie]

Thought I had better supply an update on how this all worked out, the good news was the missus was ok with me spending big to fix it all...

1. Full engine rebuild has been done. Total cost a touch over $13k. Included the following:
- New engine block
- New turbo core
- Fully rebuilt fuel pump
- New injectors
- Custom built heavy duty clutch
- Rebuild radiator
- The only items that were 'kept' from the old engine were the crank and the head, everything else is new!!!

The engine is smooth as and strong. Done about 5k on it now and notice a real difference with it. Initially had some issues with overheating but this has been resolved. Fuel economy is currently averaging about 12.4 l/100km but this is ok given I have steel bar, winch, dual batteries, 265/75 tyres and rear drawers and the engine is still running in...

Went for a run up Rainbow Beach about 1.5hrs before high tide (i know, I know... 2 hrs before is ok) and slugged it up in 2nd the whole way from Noosa to the camp grounds and the engine didn't skip a beat!!!

After spending this much I figured I may as well complete all the other stuff that needed doing, so I have also replaced the following:

- New Bilsteins on all 4 corners (the original ones were leaking and not worth a rebuild)
- new lower ball joints
- New sway bar mounts front and rear
- new power steering rack mounts
- new power steering rack (what a massive difference this made)
- had a complete rebuild done on the front brake callipers...

Now I have a weapon of a car that is going wherever I point it with no issues. Handling is improved ten fold and the engine is going strong. All up total cost to ‘fix’ everything is a touch over $17k :shock: … but… I basically have a car now that has had all major components replaced/serviced and I should expect many years of trouble free motoring out of her. I did weigh up getting a new D4D to replace her but at the end of the day I would have had to spend far more than what I have to get it up to the same stage where mine currently is.

Got to say that I am very, very happy to have my baby back… :P

Update for all 1KZ-TE owners:

With the engine on a bench it provided a good time to look at causes for this issue and what was found was very surprising. The sump on these engines has a well at the front where the pick up gets the oil from; the issue here is that on an extended climb uphill (or any angle where the car is facing upwards) all the oil in the sump will flow to the back of it leaving the well exposed and after a short period of time the well will drain of all oil and if still continuing uphill there will be no oil circulating in the engine as it does not flow back into the well… Looking at a solution to this it was quite easy actually, all you need to do is add another 1ltr of oil to the sump. This leaves room for the crank to not be thrashing around in the oil but enough that when facing uphill oil will still flow into the well at the front of the sump and not starve the engine of it.

[damonat Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close damonat]

Thought I had better supply an update on how this all worked out, the good news was the missus was ok with me spending big to fix it all...

1. Full engine rebuild has been done. Total cost a touch over $13k. Included the following:
- New engine block
- New turbo core
- Fully rebuilt fuel pump
- New injectors
- Custom built heavy duty clutch
- Rebuild radiator
- The only items that were 'kept' from the old engine were the crank and the head, everything else is new!!!

The engine is smooth as and strong. Done about 5k on it now and notice a real difference with it. Initially had some issues with overheating but this has been resolved. Fuel economy is currently averaging about 12.4 l/100km but this is ok given I have steel bar, winch, dual batteries, 265/75 tyres and rear drawers and the engine is still running in...

Went for a run up Rainbow Beach about 1.5hrs before high tide (i know, I know... 2 hrs before is ok) and slugged it up in 2nd the whole way from Noosa to the camp grounds and the engine didn't skip a beat!!!

After spending this much I figured I may as well complete all the other stuff that needed doing, so I have also replaced the following:

- New Bilsteins on all 4 corners (the original ones were leaking and not worth a rebuild)
- new lower ball joints
- New sway bar mounts front and rear
- new power steering rack mounts
- new power steering rack (what a massive difference this made)
- had a complete rebuild done on the front brake callipers...

Now I have a weapon of a car that is going wherever I point it with no issues. Handling is improved ten fold and the engine is going strong. All up total cost to ‘fix’ everything is a touch over $17k :shock: … but… I basically have a car now that has had all major components replaced/serviced and I should expect many years of trouble free motoring out of her. I did weigh up getting a new D4D to replace her but at the end of the day I would have had to spend far more than what I have to get it up to the same stage where mine currently is.

Got to say that I am very, very happy to have my baby back… :P

Update for all 1KZ-TE owners:

With the engine on a bench it provided a good time to look at causes for this issue and what was found was very surprising. The sump on these engines has a well at the front where the pick up gets the oil from; the issue here is that on an extended climb uphill (or any angle where the car is facing upwards) all the oil in the sump will flow to the back of it leaving the well exposed and after a short period of time the well will drain of all oil and if still continuing uphill there will be no oil circulating in the engine as it does not flow back into the well… Looking at a solution to this it was quite easy actually, all you need to do is add another 1ltr of oil to the sump. This leaves room for the crank to not be thrashing around in the oil but enough that when facing uphill oil will still flow into the well at the front of the sump and not starve the engine of it.

don't mean to sound harsh, but for $17k you could have bought another vehicle.
thats my opinion :?