Death of a 3MZ-FE!!! Sludge pics inside!

[The_Eric]

A family from Texas was traveling the area over the holidays when their 2004 Highlander broke down. They said the oil light came on and it lost power. For some reason, they tried a new battery, which obviously didn't work... It was towed to our shop where we figured pretty quickly the engine was seized. Also FYI, the vehicle has about 234,000 miles.

We got the job to put a re-man'ed engine in, so during the parts swapping, I was able to snap a few pics...

Front bank, under valve cover... As soon as I saw this, I knew exactly what fate it suffered.

With the lower oil pan section removed, you can see all the sludge build up, including where it plugged up the pick up tube.

The inside of the lower pan.

Finally, the cooked, baked remains of the crankshaft!

 

[GearheadTool]

Do you know what kind of oil it maybe had in there???????????????

 

[daman]

234k is not that much,must have seen cheap conventional all its life.

Or are these engines known for sludge?

 

[david_ES2]

Very Nice pics, did you happen to ask the owner the history on it?

 

[skyship]

Originally Posted By: GearheadTool
Do you know what kind of oil it maybe had in there???????????????


Factory fill or Iffy lube special?

 

[Falcon_LS]

It really amazes me how these engines run on really poor quality, recycled Group I 20W-50 here with high sulfur gas, yet sludge isn't a common issue on the 5S-FE, 1MZ-FE or 3MZ-FE. I'm starting to think this had more to do with owner neglect than the engine or the oil.

 

[Falcon_LS]

Originally Posted By: skyship
Factory fill or Iffy lube special?


Jiffy Lube is owned by SOPUS. With regular maintenance intervals, you'd be hard pushed to sludge up the engine with Pennzoil, Quaker State et al well known for their cleaning abilities.

 

[spasm3]

Originally Posted By: Falcon_LS
It really amazes me how these engines run on really poor quality, recycled Group I 20W-50 here with high sulfur gas, yet sludge isn't a common issue on the 5S-FE, 1MZ-FE or 3MZ-FE. I'm starting to think this had more to do with owner neglect than the engine or the oil.


That, or over there they get to operating temp quicker, less condensation.

 

[Falcon_LS]

Valid point I didn't think about actually.

 

[GearheadTool]

Originally Posted By: Falcon_LS
Valid point I didn't think about actually.

That is a lot of condensation.

 

[skyship]

Great pics, did the oil come out of the drain plug in lumps?
I presume the owner could not remember the last time it was changed.

 

[ChiTDI]

A little coolant leak and some long OCIs can go a long way in a hurry.

 

[DrDusty86]

More Toyota junk..sludge prone scrap. So much for the quality

 

[The_Eric]

I know very little of it's service record, only that it had a Kendall sticker on it and an Firestone branded oil filter.

Our shop uses Kendall pretty much exclusively, along with Wix/NAPA Gold filters. So the replacement engine got Kendall semi synthetic 5w-30 and a NAPA Gold 1348 filter.

I'm pretty sure this engine had known sludge issues along with it's little brother, the 1MZ-FE...

 

[ChiTDI]

The cam lobes look undamaged to my near blind eyes, so I'm leaning toward contamination. Coolant likely, clogged PCV system, maybe.

 

[Turk]

Another example of extending OCI's too far.

 

[The_Eric]

Originally Posted By: skyship
Great pics, did the oil come out of the drain plug in lumps?
I presume the owner could not remember the last time it was changed.


No, it pretty much poured right out. I don't think the boss quizzed them on their services. When they come to pick it up, I'm sure he'll press it, and the need for uber conservative changes...

 

[hounddog]

If I am not mistaken that engine is a known sludge monster. I have a bud that is a retired airline captain. He bought one of those. At 20k it was toast. He had proof of oil/filters by the book. One by him,one or two by the dealer and one by a quick lube place. No more,no less. You could hardly see the rockers in his. Found out a known problem.

 

[The_Eric]

Originally Posted By: ChiTDI
The cam lobes look undamaged to my near blind eyes, so I'm leaning toward contamination. Coolant likely, clogged PCV system, maybe.


Could be. It would have to be from head gaskets though.

 

[bepperb]

Originally Posted By: DrDusty86
More Toyota junk..sludge prone scrap. So much for the quality


234,000 miles isn't enough, eh?