Sharky's Musterious Isuzu! May have broken it again :(

[Murcie_LP640]

Ain't got nothing on the 2.2.

Though I am surprised the Corolla came with a diesel in that era. Never heard of it before, learn something new every day.

 

[Sharky.]

I never knew E100 'Rollas came with a diesel engine either. "Research" (aka reading the Toyota Corolla page on Wikipedia) says that there was a 2.0 4cyl NA diesel producing 72hp (2C engine). Mate that with a three-speed automatic transmission and stir in 300,000 kilometres and you have one of the slowest vehicles known to man.

It's so preposterously slow I have to thrash the balls off it to get anywhere - I had the throttle pinned as I turned down a street and a Mazda Familia in front of me was actually shrinking.

 

[GDII]

At least it doesn't have the 1C.

Toyota were making diesel corollas as early as 1979 with the CE70 series.

 

[Sharky.]

So, I got some news about my engine today.

Some is good. Some is bad.


The good news: it was the head gasket and not the head. I also know how much it's going to cost.

The bad news: it's apparently had some botched/iffy repairs in the past and could either expire for good next week, next year or next decade. It apparently has a bottle of some description fixed underneath the engine to catch oil or something, and the engine itself has chrome bores which can corrode and fail, and that would be very bad. Total cost will be either $4k to put the current engine back together and into the truck (with the possibility for more problems later down the track), or $5k to have a tested second-hand engine installed (the big issue here is in sourcing one that doesn't have issues this major).

Well, this complicates things. Either I can ask that the engine be reassembled and shoved back into my truck but take a risk that further problems could be just around the corner (but could equally be many years away), or wait for an indefinite period until a tested, healthy, used 4JB1 is found and installed instead...

 

[Punknoodle]

V8 swap

 

[Sharky.]

I've heard that 302 Fords fit (just), anyone selling one on the cheap?

 

[Mike Rotch]

What about finding a Hilux engine?

 

[Sharky.]

The only Hilux engines I'm going to find around here are either the 2.4 diesel or 3.0 petrol, both of which are as bad as each other - 2.4s barely move anything, 3.0s have a drinking problem!

 

[Sharky.]

Going to (hopefully) go inspect my engine in person tomorrow so I can see exactly what sort of state it's in. Part of me is inclined to just get it put back together and reinstalled because I haven't had any issues with it beyond the stuffed head gasket... yet. I have no idea of the extent of the "so-so repairs" are, but from the sounds of things if I kept on top of regular oil changes (every 5000km or so) I *may* be able to get away with it.

On the other hand, if I was able to locate a good, healthy used 4JB1 with equal or fewer kms on it than my current one (182k kms) and have it installed, I could give it a wee bit of a tune and not have to worry about something else going pop - I read of someone that had a 4JB1 running at 155hp and 340Nm against stock 110hp/225Nm for a good 100k kms and the thought of more power/torque as well as the turbo being able to wind up some 500rpm earlier is a nice prospect.

However, the place it is being fixed by have said they will want to see a replacement engine running (presumably in person) before they will have anything to do with it, and from what I can tell specialised Isuzu part places are all up north around Auckland... ie the wrong end of the country :\

 

[Korza]

The only Hilux engines I'm going to find around here are either the 2.4 diesel or 3.0 petrol, both of which are as bad as each other - 2.4s barely move anything, 3.0s have a drinking problem!

The 3.0s are horrible to drive as well. What about a 1KZ-TE 3.0l diesel? They make around 140hp and 340nm of torque.

 

[Sharky.]

False alarm. Apparently someone sucks a big one at relaying information, either over the phone (diesel specialist guy) or in person (my mother). The diesel guy rang home on Saturday while I was out, so my mother took note of what he said and told me when I got home.

As it happens, my engine is fine. Head is fine and is off being machined ready for reinstallation, front face of the engine needs to be machined flat due to the front gasket being stuffed, the chrome cylinder bores are worn but not excessively so - the amount of wear is in line with what they would expect from a 4JB1 of that age - and the catch can for the oil that blows past the rings due to the bore wear gets the majority of it before it finds its way into the intake manifold (taking the manifold off occasionally and cleaning it would ensure the engine won't suck up any oil that may have collected in it). Head gasket was stuffed around the second and third cylinders. It wasn't physically cracked that I could see, but it definitely wasn't sealing properly. Radiator may have a leak in it but that's no big deal, it's going to be sent off for testing and if it fails then a replacement will be dumped in, so no chance of dramas there. The fuel injector pump is 180deg out though for some bizarre reason - again, nowhere near as dramatic as it sounds as it just means everything else related to it has to be 180deg off from "normal" to make stuff work properly (which they are, and it does). Going to get water pump and cambelt replaced for good measure as well - I wanted to get them done anyway and I figured I might as well make the most of this

If the head and radiator get sorted quickly I might be able to get it back at the end of the week

Part of my engine...

... the rest of my engine

The chrome bore in #3 cylinder - you can see the wear, but it's within acceptable limits for a 21-year-old diesel engine

My wee blue thing parked out front, sans heart. Was a bit surreal seeing it there and knowing that the most important part of it was some 20-odd metres away inside. I was amazed at how tiny it looks in a Pajero and Terrano sandwich, too

 

[Sharky.]

That was Tuesday, it's almost Sunday now so I should be getting my blue thing back this week, hopefully sooner rather than later

I still have the services of the loan Corolla, which is also good!

 

[Sharky.]

T-t-t-triple combo!

Engine is back together, unfortunately it is still lacking the whole "being in a vehicle" thing. Hoist issues, apparently... my engine was reassembled almost a week ago but it won't be able to go in until late Monday at the absolute earliest because there's some form of holdup with their hoist

Still waiting on the radiator as well - unsure if my existing radiator is good enough or if a new one is being put in - but that's a much lesser annoyance than the engine being back in one piece but unable to go back into the vehicle!

 

[Terronium-12]

Ah, the conveniences of owning a vehicle and the conveniences of sitting by while it's lies about in pieces.

Is it wrong that I want to work on an engine now? Give me yo' car.

I'll charge you double. I mean, half. Yes, half.

 

[Sharky.]

Go buy a 2.2 Camry.

 

[Terronium-12]

That would take out all of the mechanic fun as the car could basically fix itself.

No thanks.

 

[Sharky.]

Been just over two weeks since I went to inspect the engine and give the guys the all-clear to proceed with whatever had to be done, and about a week since my engine has been reassembled... however it is evidently still not back between the front wheels where it belongs, because, well, I'm still driving this beat-up diseasel 'Rolla. I've put over 500km on this pile of junk!

I miss my Mu. I want it back.

Hopefully tomorrow - Thursday... likely going to be going 4WDing with mates this weekend so it would be nice to be able to do it in my own car and have the thing back before I start my new job on Monday :\

 

[Sharky.]

Check out what I got back today...

And check out what I lost today...

 

[GDII]

Should have bought an SW20...

I'm happy you got the MU back. Bring on the mountains!!!

 

[Korza]

And that was for a head gasket?

 

[Sharky.]

+ front gasket
+ full gasket set
+ new radiator core
+ new fuel and oil filters
+ water pump
+ timing belt
+ antifreeze
+ oil
+ taking engine+gearbox out
+ putting engine+gearbox back in

Yep. Ended up being almost a complete rebuild, about the only thing that wasn't done was a rebore...

Oh, and $115 for a full tank of diesel because it ran out of juice literally 30m down the road when I drove it away. I know it didn't have much left in it when I left it with the diesel guys and I knew they would need to use some of it to move it around and test-fire the engine when reassembled, but when the guy said "it doesn't have any fuel" I took it to mean "get to a fuel station asap", not "it literally has no fuel" Ended up in the middle of Lincoln Rd in the early afternoon, thankfully a couple of passing women helped me push it to the side of the road at which point I ran back to the diesel place, asked for their jerrycan and made an emergency dash to a Mobil 500m away. Turns out it was so starved of fuel that just filling from the jerrycan - about four litres or so - and cranking the engine wasn't enough, I had to manually prime the fuel pump!

 

[Korza]

I'm glad I'm not rebuilding my engine then! I'm just getting rid of it and buying a donor car to use the engine from.

 

[Sharky.]

You have a Surf, how'd you break your engine?

(it isn't a 2.4, is it?)

 

[Korza]

Its a 2.4. It blew the head gasket resulting in a warped cylinder head. Its still going though.

 

[Sharky.]

I've heard every 2.4 is guaranteed to do that at least once.

Although how it could pop a head gasket and then a head is perplexing, considering those things are incapable of movement

 

[Korza]

From what I've been able to figure out, the head gasket went quite a while ago without anybody knowing it. Then one day it decided to overheat causing the head itself to warp.

They are known to do it at around the 150,000km mark. Mine's done 320,000.

 

[iMARKALEXANDER]

I like it! Nice buy.



.

 

[Sharky.]

Uh oh, oil drips. Something's dripping oil and creating a faint oil smell when driving - this isn't what I expected to have to deal with after what amounted to a near-complete re-gasket of the engine

Could be the sump plug, loose sump bolts, the oil itself (no idea what oil it originally had or what it was refilled with) or something a bit more sinister... can oil problems cause a diesel to run smokier than normal and seemingly be down on power?

 

[Punknoodle]

If oil is getting in to the combustion chamber, yes, of course. You need to take it back..

 

[Sharky.]

Crisis averted... again.

The injector pump screw needed re-tightening - normally they would've done this after reassembling the engine and running it for a bit, but as there was no fuel in it they couldn't. While they should've said "this will need retightening soon, come back to us after you've been running it for a couple of days because we couldn't run it ourselves" when I picked the Mu up, full credit for knowing exactly what the 'problem' was when they took a look at it. Almost all the stuff on the lower passenger side of the engine was coated in diesel (not oil as I thought)!

Fuel consumption should be a lot better now too - the fuel gauge hit the halfway mark (30 litres of 83) with only 180-ish km on the trip meter, whereas it should be closer to 300


Went for a quick drive around the Waimakariri River on the way back home (this isn't the main part of the river, just a minor braid - hence why it's so small):

👍