[actionseeker]

Hi guys, last night my engine kicked the bucket. Severe knocking came from the engine as a result of oil starvation due to my negligence to check my oil. Ended up running her a bit hard with basically no oil, and after breaking down I had oil delivered to me to try and get the engine going again. It ran, but with a notable knocking sound coming from the intake camshaft. Up until this point I was narrowing down a nasty rattle I've been having and after replacing a bunch of other things that were failing, I ended up fixing the noise for about 40 minutes before the engine blew.

Now I have the car back home and am inspecting the top for damage. So far, the only major wear I've noticed is the Lift cam lobes on the intake side are wiped out badly, and the slipper pads show pretty nasty wear. I wanted to remove the cover for the VVT Acuator to see if there's any damage in there, but the bolts are 5-point???? They look like 10mm, but I don't have any penta-sockets, and want to confirm the size before I go out and buy one.

UPDATE: The failure has been discovered to be a spun #4 rod bearing, the engine has been torn down and is now in the process being cleaned. My current replacement list is as follows:

Crankshaft
Intake Camshaft
Intake Rocker Arms
VVT Sprocket
Head Bolts
Main Bolts
Rod Bolts
Thrust Bearings
Main Bearings
Rod Bearings
Piston Rings
Connecting Rod
Lift Bolts
Crankshaft Key
Hollow Head Dowels
Oil Pickup Gasket
Oil Pump Gasket
VVTL Housing Gasket

This thread will now serve as an archive of what to (or maybe what not to do) during a repair of this failure condition. My current goal to get her back up and running is 3 weeks to a month, but that may vary.

 

[mxaustin]

Engine failure? Was that due to the 10k-15k mile oil changes we talked avout a few months ago?

Mwr part number QRP-13050-BOLT4

2000 GTS Turbo

 

[actionseeker]

Engine failure? Was that due to the 10k-15k mile oil changes we talked avout a few months ago?

2000 GTS Turbo

Not this time, it was entirely empty. At some point I lost all of my oil in 2 weeks and that led to this event. My mistake was not checking the oil after all the work I had done.

 

[mxaustin]

Not this time, it was entirely empty. At some point I lost all of my oil in 2 weeks and that led to this event. My mistake was not checking the oil after all the work I had done.

Owch, well im not sure the bolt size or pitch but that is the part number for new bolts. Just order em from mwr.

Also you can peolly get an inverted torx to bite on those theres hardly any toque on em like 10ftlb if that. Prolly take em off with pliers even.

2000 GTS Turbo

 

[actionseeker]

Owch, well im not sure the bolt size or pitch but that is the part number for new bolts. Just order em from mwr.

Also you can peolly get an inverted torx to bite on those theres hardly any toque on em like 10ftlb if that. Prolly take em off with pliers even.

2000 GTS Turbo

You were right, I got them off with vice-grips and will replace them with the MWR bolts, but now I have a different hang-up.

My Lift cam lobes on the intake side are wiped to hell. I know this is a thing with 2ZZ engines, but does it get this bad without throwing a code?

 

[mxaustin]

You wont see a code most likely, aslong as the actuator is functioning the ecu thinks all is well. If it doesnt trigger than youll go into protection mode and get a code...

Theres no sensor actually saying ur valves are opening far enough

2000 GTS Turbo

 

[actionseeker]

You wont see a code most likely, aslong as the actuator is functioning the ecu thinks all is well. If it doesnt trigger than youll go into protection mode and get a code...

Theres no sensor actually saying ur valves are opening far enough

2000 GTS Turbo

Ah, that makes sense. Well, now I'm wondering what my next move should be. I fear that the cams being so wiped isn't what killed the engine and that I may have way more work cut out for me, but this will be only my third time tearing down an engine, and my first time actually rebuilding it. I know what I'm doing, but trying to avoid having to do the most. Should I just say fuck it and remove the head at this point?

 

[mxaustin]

Ah, that makes sense. Well, now I'm wondering what my next move should be. I fear that the cams being so wiped isn't what killed the engine and that I may have way more work cut out for me, but this will be only my third time tearing down an engine, and my first time actually rebuilding it. I know what I'm doing, but trying to avoid having to do the most. Should I just say fuck it and remove the head at this point?

Depends how you wana go about it, u can get away with not pulling the head but the engine will need to come out else your gona be regreting ur life choices.

If it was me id do a full rebuild, take the head off check out the cyl walls if that checks out replace an upgrade valves and springs while ur there... your gona have to spend time cleaning out the oil paths, and replace the cam and slipper pads or the followers in general i cant remember if the pads are replacable mine were in good shape when i tore down my engine.

Pull the rod an main bearings and replace those bc 100% theyre trashed. And while ur there choose if u want to upgrade the pistons to a lighter higher or lower compression piston. Id suggest a oil pump replacment too just because ur right there anyway.

2000 GTS Turbo

 

[actionseeker]

Depends how you wana go about it, u can get away with not pulling the head but the engine will need to come out else your gona be regreting ur life choices.

If it was me id do a full rebuild, take the head off check out the cyl walls if that checks out replace an upgrade valves and springs while ur there... your gona have to spend time cleaning out the oil paths, and replace the cam and slipper pads or the followers in general i cant remember if the pads are replacable mine were in good shape when i tore down my engine.

Pull the rod an main bearings and replace those bc 100% theyre trashed. And while ur there choose if u want to upgrade the pistons to a lighter higher or lower compression piston. Id suggest a oil pump replacment too just because ur right there anyway.

2000 GTS Turbo

Dang, I'd love to build the engine up, but I don't have the budget for that right now. I guess I'll just figure out what all I'll need in the meantime. Luckily, I have a place where the car can sit and don't immediately need the car running again.

Build-wise I'm not sure exactly what I'd want to do. Reliability and simplicity are my primary focus, so I'd want to keep it N/A unless I simply just can't get enough power for my wants. The car is lightened considerably and weighs just over 2300lbs.

 

[Sheik Ya Bootie]

Mains are not easy to change. Do the big ends and decide at that point how much crap went through and if it’s worth pulling the crank.
Head off is required because there is not much pictured there to give a clack or knock.

Easier if the engine is out for the mains but for now, head and sump. Then big end check and pop a piston.

pictures of where you get to next.

 

[actionseeker]

Mains are not easy to change. Do the big ends and decide at that point how much crap went through and if it’s worth pulling the crank.
Head off is required because there is not much pictured there to give a clack or knock.

Easier if the engine is out for the mains but for now, head and sump. Then big end check and pop a piston.

pictures of where you get to next.

Yeah, my current plan of attack was to get the head off and inspect the cylinder walls and tolerances. Basically everything outside of the engine is brand new with less than 20k miles collectively, and it would be great to slip away from this with just a head job, but I agree that nothing up top is looking like my fail point so I'm starting to feel I may have lost a main bearing.

 

[Sheik Ya Bootie]

I’m thinking a bent or broken valve.

 

[Sheik Ya Bootie]

Main or big end is a more solid or deeper sound.
I hope it’s not like our race engine that had the valve head go through into the sump.

 

[actionseeker]

Main or big end is a more solid or deeper sound.
I hope it’s not like our race engine that had the valve head go through into the sump.

The engine was able to run knocking for a good 20 miles before it died for good. Turning the engine by hand it feels as if compression is even among all cylinders. It died at a lower rev as well, so luckily I wasn't mid-lift when it went kaput. A damaged valve is a possibility, and I'd be so thankful if that's all that went out. Checking the VVT actuator yielded no notable damage either, but I'm going to be replacing the intake cam and slipper pads regardless due to how wiped out they are. Right now, I'm trying to price out the damage, and hoping the head and block are still salvageable.

 

[Sheik Ya Bootie]

Waste of time and thinking power until you get the head and sump off.
Ours did almost 2.4 km at 7000 rpm before it stopped. But it didn’t turn over by hand.. or at all .
These came out of the sump after.

 

[actionseeker]

Wow, that's a lot of damage lol. I guess I'll be converting this into a rebuild thread and updating this as I tear down the engine.

 

[Sheik Ya Bootie]

You won’t have that

that was a std wreckers motor after 45 hours of endurance racing.

 

[actionseeker]

You won’t have that

that was a std wreckers motor after 45 hours of endurance racing.

Gnarly, good thing I don't plan on doing all that with this car at least. Budget aside, I initially wanted to supercharge it, but I'd rather keep it simpler and do an N/A build. Already I know I'll need a new intake cam and VVT Actuator, the exhaust side looks fine though. I should be able to have the head off tomorrow and be able to see what the failure point was, but assuming I'm going to have to rebuild the engine entirely, I want to try to keep the spirit of the engine as stock as possible. I'll probably keep the pistons and rods stock, and get a knifed-edged crankshaft. Then a MWR Stage 0 Intake Cam and MWR Slipper Pads, Flat-Faced Valves, Springs, and Retainers.

We'll see tomorrow if I'm going to need a new block and head as well.

 

[2000$ilverGTS]

Depends how you wana go about it, u can get away with not pulling the head but the engine will need to come out else your gona be regreting ur life choices.

If it was me id do a full rebuild, take the head off check out the cyl walls if that checks out replace an upgrade valves and springs while ur there... your gona have to spend time cleaning out the oil paths, and replace the cam and slipper pads or the followers in general i cant remember if the pads are replacable mine were in good shape when i tore down my engine.

Pull the rod an main bearings and replace those bc 100% theyre trashed. And while ur there choose if u want to upgrade the pistons to a lighter higher or lower compression piston. Id suggest a oil pump replacment too just because ur right there anyway.

2000 GTS Turbo

Replace your Oil Squirters, the original Squirters require higher oil pressure to activate, Get the MWR Oil Squirters, they are much better, and replace the oil pan from a 1ZZ Engine because those pans have a oil baffle at the oil pick up to avoid oil starvation on hard cornering. The 2ZZ engine oil pans are just a cereal bowl. Get the Billet oil pump, don't replace with the sintered metal oil pump. A new TRD oil cooler would be a consideration. I used a used oil cooler off a 96 Camry, but ordered the threaded connecting oil filter tube from Japan. I've never had any problems with it, my engine never gets hot and it cools my oil down. Much cheaper than a TRD oil cooler that were standard equipment on overseas Celicas....Just my two cents worth.

 

[actionseeker]

Bruh, yall are wild lol. I'm just trying to get her back running as soon as I can, not run 45 hours at Le Mans. Despite what I was saying earlier, if everything checks out I will only replace what absolutely needs to be replaced, everything else will be getting reused until the motors dies again. I will definitely upgrade anything that need replacing while I'm there, but I don't have deep pockets and can't afford to just replace every single on it.