5VZFE Engine Noise

[Arclight]

Hi all,

I just returned from a trip to central Nevada. We had an awesome time exploring ghost towns and visiting stuff. I'll post a trip report soon.

Unfortunately, my truck started developing a nasty sound about 475mi from home near Mina, NV. I limped it into Reno (150mi) and towed it back with a U-Haul. Here is a video:


The sound came on suddenly, as I was driving on a pretty ordinary dirt road. I didn't take any hard hits prior to this or run low on any fluids. Here are the things I've checked so far:

-Disconnected the Supercharger, AC, PS, Alternator, fan. None of the belt-driven accessories are making this sound
-Pulled the top timing cover and the timing belt looks OK. Run it this way for about 20sec and it seems like it _might_ have been louder.
-Replaced the timing belt tensioner, because it is easy to do in an Autozone parking lot. No change.
-Pulled each of the left 3 spark plus one at a time. No change.
-Checked coolant, AT fluid and oil. No mixing of fluids or metal on any of the dipsticks.
-Pulled off the oil filler cap. The sound seems to be about the same
-Listened to the exhaust. It sounds about normal.
-Temp, oil pressure (always reads lowish on this truck) and fuel consumption are normal
-No CEL, except a P0330 that came on after driving into Reno.

The noise is RPM-dependent and does not change with 2WD/4WD, moving or not. It quiets a LOT when the engine is loaded with exactly zero vacuum on the boost gauge.

The truck has 205K on it, with a complete timing belt service (both idlers, tensioner, belt, water pump, seals) done about 5K ago.

Any thoughts on what to check next?

Thanks!


John

 

[montypower]

That sounds like a stuck lifter. I'd pull the valve covers and check.

 

[the kid]

that is a knock sensor code. my bet is the knock sensor wire broke. and so the ECU has no idea what the motor is doing as far as timing ect, so it will default to the "safemode" and run that way -did you notice a loss of power?

the way to change or inspect this is to remove the intake/supercharger and look for the sensor which is located in the valley in your block, you have to pretty much remove the entire intake to get to it, the sensor itself should be good, but the wire/s are probably chipped or broken. its actually rather common because of the hot and cold cycles the motor goes through(running and sitting over night) every day or time you drive it, and that wire even though its insulated takes a lot of heat and over time it will become brittle and susceptible to cracking, breaking or other damage. how long have you had you SC? have you done any work on the top of the motor any time recently? sometimes all it will take is the slightest little pump or disturbance of the wire and it will break

 

[BulletHead]

Did you inspect the spark plugs? I would take each spark plug out and inspect the chambers and plugs. I had a similar noise on my 5VZ about 6 yrs ago and a small piece of one of the spark plugs ends had broken off and the valve was slapping against the piece.

 

[coastal616]

That noise is a 1UZ swap excuse. LOL

 

[cruiseroutfit]

X2 On checking the knock sensor harness, somewhat common failure but easily fixed.

 

[Arclight]

I'll definitely take a look at the sensor wiring when I get the top end apart. I'm pretty certain that I also have a mechanical engine problem and not just knocking. It's really loud, like easily heard 30' away.

I went ahead and did some more tests tonight.

1. Checked the crank bolt for tightness. No problem there.
2. Pulled the top timing cover again and checked that the timing belt had not slipped a tooth. With the crank pulley at the TDC mark, both cam sprockets line up to the mark on the back cover pretty closely.

3. Did a compression test and a leakdown test. Here is what I got:

Cylinder 1-185psi, 8% leakage
Cylinder 2-150psi, 8%
Cylinder 3-170psi, 15%
Cylinder 4-175psi, 6%
Cylinder 5-175psi, 8%
Cylinder 6-170psi, 8%

Cylinder 2 is definitely low, (was like 180+ a few thousand miles ago).

4. Looked in the spark plug holes with my new inspection cam. FYI, Harbor Freight has these on sale right now for $89. Anyhow, all I saw was a little carbon, no foreign objects or anything.

5. Pulled the spark plugs and they seemed to all be about the same.

View attachment 196088

6. Cut open the oil filter. There was a fair amount of very fine metal in here. There was nothing coarser than cake flour, but the oil trapped in the filter had a definite metallic sheen.

View attachment 196089

At this point, I'm thinking I should pull the oil pan. Does anyone have a good reason I should try the valve covers or something else first?

Thanks!

JN

X2 On checking the knock sensor harness, somewhat common failure but easily fixed.

 

[thefatkid]

Sounds like the piston is hitting the cylinder head. Likely a rod bearing is letting go allowing the little extra clearance needed for contact. I'd pull the pan of and check the bearings. If you see a dark discolored rod cap, start there 1st.

 

[zolo]

My 2 cents.
The knock sensor wont cause a knock if it fails. That is not how it works.
The knock sensor if for pre-detonation mainly. It will retard the timing if your engine starts to ping. Or possibly if it senses any other engine noise.
Its a fail safe for running lean or crappy gas.

I would disregard the knock sensor code and try and find the engine noise.

Sounds very mechanical to me. Id bet the engine has an issue. Sounds hard to determine.
Almost sounds like a top end noise. But noise travels in engines so it could have a bad rod bearing.

 

[Arclight]

I got the oil pan out today. A couple of notes on this:

1. The factory manual says you need to drain the front differential. You don't, as long as you prop it up level after removal.
2. Not stated in the factory manual: The steering arm will block the oil pan coming out. An easy fix is to remove the three bolts that hold the idler arm on and drop it. This gives plenty of clearance.
3. An impact wrench would have been nice. I was able to do this with an 18" breaker bar, but just...barely.
4. A carpet knife works great for separating the pan gasket.

Anyway, the folks who though rod bearing were right. My #2 rod bearing is completely gone (as in, nothing inside the journal at all). Pics:

Here's what was in the oil pan:



Now for the puzzler: ****** are these two shredded steel rings I found in the oil pan?

Finally, here is a pic of everything I used to get the pan out, in case someone has visions of doing this on the side of a trail or something. I could have made do without the extra-long 1/2" extension, but it made the CV shafts easier to unbolt.




So now I'm in the market for an engine.


Arclight

 

[CYi5]

Bummer on the engine! I'm only 5k from that mark, so you've got me nervous! It seems 3.4's can be had for pretty cheap these days, so shouldn't set you back a ton.

 

[zolo]

I got the oil pan out today. A couple of notes on this:



Anyway, the folks who though rod bearing were right. My #2 rod bearing is completely gone (as in, nothing inside the journal at all). Pics:




Now for the puzzler: ****** are these two shredded steel rings I found in the oil pan?

So now I'm in the market for an engine.


Arclight

If I'm not mistaken those are thrust bearings ("washer") for the crank shaft end play.
They go in the middle crank journal to local the crank front to back. The ones with tabs go in the bearing cab and the ones without tabs go in the block side.

If those went bad then it would allow the crank to float and pretty much wreck havoc in the bottom end. Bad deal. But now you know what the issue is and can move forward to repairing the engine.. Id check machine shop cost before replacing the engine with a different one.

I just built a Toyota engine. So I will post photos of what it should look like.

 

[zolo]

This is a customers 22R but the idea and what I'm saying is the same as your engine.

You can see down between the crank and the middle bearing cap the thrust washer. The tab facing up in the bearing cap.

 

[Martinjmpr]

Since you have to throw in a new engine anyway, would this be a good time to think about maybe a different one? Diesel or maybe a 4.7? Not that I know anything about swapping engines (changing oil is about the limit of my mechanical knowledge) but I think I've seen various swaps out there, and given that the 1st gen Taco is such a popular platform, I'd imagine the conversion parts are available somewhere, yes?

Not that the 3.4 is a bad engine, but compared to other engines it's neither particularly powerful nor particularly economical. It's one saving grace was its longevity and reliability but AFAIK the 4.7 and 4.0 are every bit as reliable.

For me, I'm loving the 4.0. Excellent power and decent economy. Going from my 3rd gen 4runner to a 4th gen felt like I was going from a tractor to a race car!

 

[JWP58]

That sucks. 1KZ-TE?