2GR-FKS failure at 150K, looking for input/some questions

Good morning everyone. So like the title says, my 3.5L 16' SR5 with 150,000 miles died on me two days ago on the way to work. I'm not talking about catastrophic failure like many of the posts on this site have been regarding the 2gr-fks, the damn thing went out with a whisper.

I was lined up with some cars waiting for my turn to drive through a one-lane construction zone, when I moved to drive through, the dash put up the "Trans temp too high - low oil pressure" warning and swapped over to limp-mode, no grinding, no jolt or sudden stop, if it weren't for the warning I wouldn't have noticed the truck died. I initially assumed it was another failed CMPS, since that's exactly how it presented once before around 60,000 miles (before the CMPS TSB came out) but after getting pulled to the side, the truck wouldn't turn over, even after a battery reset.

Got the truck towed home, waited around 8 hours and went to turn the truck over again and heard the starter grind against the flywheel. Let it rest a bit figuring there may be a flooded cylinder, when I tried again the next day I heard that telltale single "CLACK" when I turned the key.

I've ran a scanner and found no pending, current or history codes(this was before pulling the battery). No loss of coolant, oil is clean with no shavings (changed about a month back), and no damage to the outside of the motor, battery is strong. I tried turning the engine over with a breaker bar with the truck in neutral and no luck, so it seems that the motor seized but for the life of me I can't figure out why.

I maintain the truck like a motherf@cker, oil change and filter ever 3k - levels chacked every day, spark plugs at 66k, coolant always checked and air filter cleaned on the regular.

Any thoughts or previous similar experiences would be appreciated.

My next steps will be to remove the upper intake and spark plugs and try to turn the engine by hand again, if that doesn't work I can't imagine it could be anything but a locked motor and from there it'll be a teardown top to bottom to figure out what the hell happened.

The fun part is a new 2GR-FKS runs $21K (On Sale! ), and a used 2gr runs $3k. Hopefully its something salvageable.

 

Sorry to hear that. Not a lot of things that can cause that without making some noise prior to failure. I am thinking the timing chain let go and you are jammed against the valves. Hopefully you will update us with your findings when you tear into it.

 

I'd be on LKQ looking for a used engine

 

Subbed to see where this goes. Sorry to hear about your troubles, hope you are able to figure this out expediently.

I picked a truck that came with a lifetime powertrain warranty for this exact reason. Random stuff happens.

 

Good luck on your search for answers OP. Please give us updates, and don't fall off the face of the earth like the last few guys to have a catastrophic failure. The collective blue balls in the search for answers is slowing killing us all.

 

Let's not compare blue balls, okay?



Good luck, @Woodythebluetaco !

 

Oil pump failure caused the seize??

 

@WarFab Armor

 

ls swap

 

Another car motor?

 

yes

 

Geez. At least put a truck motor in thar.

 

Same....then off to the Toyota dealer to trade it in on a 2021 before engine two blows.

 

Can u pull codes? Might be some good freeze frame data in there.

 

I wonder if there are 3rd gens out in the LKQ yard, I hadn't seen any before but I guess there are a lot more third gens out there @Itchyfeet. We'll see.

@coopcooper @tonered , I looked up the cost of a new 2GR and when I saw it was $25K I immediately looked up turnkey manual hellcat crates ($29K) but then came to my senses and looked up used 2gr's. But still, an LS turnkey crate with an auto trans runs around $8k....

@Arries289 @TacoGreg @Skydvrr I checked history codes and data on my scanner before I pulled the battery and it came up clean except for some voltage issues in the headlight array. Had I known it wasn't the sensor I would have waited to run a full diagnostics before the hard restart.

Oil in the pan was clean, no burnt smell that I would imagine would be there with an overheat failure. Looks like the 2GR is non-interference so fingers crossed it's a timing chain that jumped or broke and damage is limited to the timing assembly, not cheap but not motor-swap $$.

If the upper end is damaged, it may be an opportunity to swap out with some MWR valves and springs, maybe a cam... if the engine really is non-interference and the upper end is okay, then maybe some MWR valves and springs, maybe a cam...

Requesting some vacation time off from work in a couple weeks, I'll update on the tear-down then. My only anxiety is having to dig to find all the torque values and procedures when (hopefully) slapping everything back together.

 

I was mainly joking about motors.

Check car-part.com also.

Lemme maybe help here with a couple SM choices:
http://www.ttguide.net/toyota_tacoma_2015_2018_service_manual-171.html

Or a PDF (140mb):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cx5nnlnCzlhI45D1vbBMj1ni983SKdKf/view?usp=sharing


There is also a Torque Listing somewhere, but it might be more 2nd Gen stuff?

 

You mentioned the Trans warning. You ever check the oil level and quality on that? Wonder if something in the TC failed and thats whats locking it up...?

 

@SR-71A I top-off and drain the excess fluid in the trans with the oil-change. The ATF fluid gets burnt real quick otherwise, I've found. That warning comes up in reference to the Camshaft position system too, apparently so I figure it could be a timing issue more so than a trans issue, hopefully.

If it is the trans locked up and fused with the motor, I'm gonna lose it. Had that happen to a 93 blazer.

 

@tonered Thanks for the links! got some reading to do.

 

You're welcome!