The Engine blows finally!!!

[suprflyusmc1]

It doesn't frusterate me really but it is an inconvenience. Bad timing more then anything, but I do have a good mechanic myself if I feel it can be repaired without a rebuild and I can't do it.. I can do alot of the stuff on my own if I actually take the time and do it, but I don't really have the work space and or desire to do it anymore like I use too..It's always an eye sore and a pain as well to have a car broken down and sitting around your house just collecting dust... Can't have that..

I see what happens when you get use to doing that, Lex's beautiful house is a car depot of parts and projects.. Crazy, but Lex is good with that. He must have a very understanding wife...Love those Asian women, need to find me one of those myself one day..

I'm going to take off all the plastic engine crap and check the timing belts, going to check the fuel pump and delivery too.. After that I'll look at the plugs, wires, turn it over some more and listen carefully.. See what I can find.. Time to dust off the Craftsman tool set and put them to good use..

Thanks WD.. You were always a cool dude on the forums.

Jibby I'm sorry to hear about your trouble, if you need a 1993 sc400 engine, at a reasonable price, I have one that was running when pulled, had about 170k miles on it. My zip code is 92065 if you want to see the distance.

 

[WDoherty]

thanks Jibby, i hope its only fuel or spark, but either way it looks like you've got support here to get it back going no matter

 

[jibbby]

Jibby I'm sorry to hear about your trouble, if you need a 1993 sc400 engine, at a reasonable price, I have one that was running when pulled, had about 170k miles on it. My zip code is 92065 if you want to see the distance.

Thanks man... Finding a used 1uz-fe motor in the city of Los Angeles, Ca. is not a problem but I'm not going in that direction, don't have the work area and or the time right now to swap engines out.

I've decided to Tow it into a my mechanic this morning for a quick look over and full diagnosis of the damage. I will know more about the problem after today and report back.. It's a free tow and free diagnosis so what the heck, why not...

If the 1uz..is repairable within reason I've decided I will again completely restore this car. Get it right and running strong again bumper to bumper.I really haven't touched this car in 3 years.. Get it back to tip top showroom shape inside and out.. If the motor is gone, I will parting it out like I said...

That's the plan...

 

[Lextreme II]

I think my buddy SPF-Lexus will be inline for the shell...

 

[a.Lpha]

Good luck buddy! I hate to hear of a 1UZ just up and stopping like that.

 

[jibbby]

My 4.7 hybrid is back into the LS400, this May i'll be home for summer break and will finally get it shredding rubber. I'm looking for a dead SC for a daily driver. David and myself "frankensteined' my other LS400 DD for real cheap and i'm looking to swap the powertrain into an SC shell.



"You know your thinking is out-of-round when your practical 4dr sedan becomes the project car and the 2door coupe becomes your daily"

You will be the first too know if I am infact parting it out, I will be happy to give the shell up for free and complete.. Give me a day or two to find out the deal...

Last couple of latest pics of my broken down ride, still decent looking even though it is a piece these days

 

[Lextreme II]

Make it to good use. Donate it to Lextreme... and SPF will make it run again. He would be the happiest young man out there.

 

[spf_lexus]

dude if this happens.... sushi and sake.... pizza and beer... whatever it be... it's on me!



I will be back in your neighborhood the end of April. thats for the consideration.

 

[jibbby]

Still waiting on the mechanic verdict, it's in the shop now.. Should know soon.. Please don't count on anything too much.. I don't want to dissapoint.. However, like I said it depends on the condition of the motor at this point. From what I can tell it didn't sound very good at all and I think it's 50/50 at this point. I should know by this afternoon for sure.

I hope it works out for me, but if it doesn't I don't mind hooking up a friend of LEX's as it would be my pleasure.. I am a man of my word too... Stay tuned please.. Everyone I know thru Lex has been a real quality person that I like.. Complement to Lex and his buds..

 

[spf_lexus]

I'm not holding my breath until you get your answer from the mechanic. If the mechanic ends up giving you the bad news, I realized I have spring break in a couple weeks and I can drive home and make something happen then. I thought about it and had no real reason to drive the 36hrs round trip for spring break but for an SC I would do it in a heart beat

 

[Lextreme II]

Jib,

I would be interested in your SS headers..

 

[SuperRunner]

I am going to take a stab at it and say the timing belt broke or one of the idler pulleys seized up.

But if you decide to part it out, I would be interested in the LSD

 

[jibbby]

^^^^ Your stab is absolutely correct Super runner. I thought just maybe that was the case too but wasn't sure and that's why I started this thread to begin with..

Bad news for everyone whom wanted a piece of this car, good news for me...

The timing belt did break. However, with this motor the heads were not effected and or damaged so there was no other internal damage done to the motor. Just need a new timing belt and a water pump and that's it..

Sorry guys... Hope no one isn't too dissapointed..

Again, when I cranked the motor after the timing belt broke the engine really sounded like crap, this led me to believe there was extensive internal engine damage. I really thought the motor was wasted this go around and I was dead wrong. I never had a timing belt break on these 1uz-fe motors. Never even heard of one breaking infact so who was to know?

The 1uz-fe really is a tank of a motor, but those rubber timing belts could snap if they are not changed every 100,000.. Mine was at 120,000 and snapped when I opened the throttle..

Also, my pulleys are making noise, tensioner specifically. I'm getting a replacement kit. I believe without the under body cover the pulleys do begin to show signs of premature wear out and that's from being exposed to the elements. My take anyway, the power steering went to and the alterator which sits very low to the ground is also looking ifffy too.

Maybe it's not such a good idea to not have an underbody cover on these SC400's after all..

 

[jibbby]

I'm not holding my breath until you get your answer from the mechanic. If the mechanic ends up giving you the bad news, I realized I have spring break in a couple weeks and I can drive home and make something happen then. I thought about it and had no real reason to drive the 36hrs round trip for spring break but for an SC I would do it in a heart beat

Sorry man, I could tell you were really counting on this.

 

[jibbby]

I am going to take a stab at it and say the timing belt broke or one of the idler pulleys seized up.

I'm curious as to why you would think an Idler pulley froze up with my situation? Am I missing something here? If so wouldn't that just break the serpentine belt and or cause it slip and smoke against the frozen pulley? Wouldn't the engine still run for a short time and or want to crank and fire up at start up? I believe the motor can still run even without the serpentine belt on and or intact atleast for a short period of time until the battery drains, right?

Just curious, because the mechanic also mentioned he doesn't trust the pulley with the noise it's creating and mentioned something about it affecting the timming belt breakage perhaps? I honesly thought my mechanic was full of crap and trying to squeeze me for extra cash as he wants to change out the pulley tensioner.. Is there any truth to this?

The serpetine belt and pulleys run off the crank, and the timing belt also runs off the crank only but feeds the belt directly to the heads for timing. Aren't the two completely seperate and independant from one another? Pulleys and timing belt?

Am I losing my mind or is my mechanic?

 

[cribbj]

Jibbby, it's not just the serp belt that has an idler, the timing belt has idlers on each side.

If either of these freezes up because their bearings are shot, the timing belt will quickly wear out.

See the diagram below:

 

[jibbby]

Thank you^^^ I honestly forgot the Timing belt had it's own idlers too. Of course it does and this makes complete sense now.. My mechanic did seem to think there is a reason the timing belt broke and he did tell me it's probably not just from normal wear out. This makes total sense now..

Thanks John I should have known that..

 

[SuperRunner]

Man I am sooo good.

yeah, as cribbj said, there are two and they can seize up burning up the belt really quick. This is how I got my whole car for $500. They said the motor was bad and I said....doubt it.

Glad to here it will be back on the road soon.

And replace BOTH pulleys. Might want to replace front main seal if it hasn't been done before.

 

[jibbby]

Man I am sooo good.

yeah, as cribbj said, there are two and they can seize up burning up the belt really quick. This is how I got my whole car for $500. They said the motor was bad and I said....doubt it.

Glad to here it will be back on the road soon.

And replace BOTH pulleys. Might want to replace front main seal if it hasn't been done before.

You are good Super runner...

Yeah, I am definetely going to replace those idlers along with the timing belt as that was infact the probable cause of the timing belt to fail in the first place...

The Bearings in those old idlers after 17 years can apparently wear and can began to freeze up like mine did.. One was clearly making noise apparently. They do however sell a generic Japanese timing belt kit with the pulleys included for around $300, so I gotta go pick it up this morning..

What's great about these older 1uz's is if the timing belt does break while the engine is winding hard no damage will occure to heads and valves.. That is great as I originally thought Toyota didn't make that possible until the later year UZ motors..




If only they could have designed the starter to be mounted outside the motor it would then in my opinion be a flawless engine design.

 

[spf_lexus]

No worries Jib, I finally found an SC to play with! Glad too see your back in action.