Oil starvation damage repair

[96gxe5spd]

Hello ORG!!!

I've tried a few searches on this and have not figured out the right keywords; so if you can point me in the right direction I would be very appreciative. Also, this is not for a Maxima (although a fairly similar engine, read on...) , so please bear with me and don't ban my @$$!!! Seriously, I don't know of anywhere else on the net that has folks who know motors like the orgers.

I just found out a buddy of mine has a 99 isuzu trooper with the 3.5 liter 24 valve (I think all aluminum like the VQ) DOHC engine. It's been sitting in an auction garage for the last few years, and I could probably get it for a little bit of nothing. Here's why:

He bought it for his daughter around 01 or 02, and she took it to a quick lube place that didn't tighten the oil filter all the way. You can probably guess what happened next. The daughter drove it without realizing anything was wrong until the engine siezed up.

Since I haven't seen the engine, and my buddy never got a really good look at it, I don' know whether it threw a rod or the bearings galled and siezed up. My question is, what is the possibility that the engine is salvageable in some way? The rest of the truck is a cherry with around 40k miles and all the factory options, and would be a great car for my wife to haul the baby around (nice upgrade from an old 2-door grand am--ICK!!), and I'd like to have a truck for pulling a trailer, etc.

I figure it's a loss (unless I can track down a cheap short block) if it threw a rod through the crankcase or something catastrophic (SP?) like that. But I seem to remember that replacing the main and rod bearings is sometimes a engine in car operation that may only take a couple of weekends. This may only be true in the old pushrod V8's.

Ideally someone will post and tell me that you can drop the oil pan, buy some plastigage and the bearings, and put everything together and viola, running truck! Or maybe the bearings spun in the races, so it would need either new rods or to get the races machined out to some oversize. I just kinda figure that if I can get it going for less that around 6 or 700 bucks and 40 hours of hard labor, I would have a heck of a deal. Any thoughts??

Thanks!!

[Matt93SE]

Unfortunately you won't know until you get in there, but *generally* when an engine dies of oil starvation, it kills bearings, pistons, cams, crank, everything.

If that's what happened, disassembling the engine and replacing the pistons, rings, honging/boring the cylinders, turning the crank and refitting for new bearings is going to be required. You're looking at 6-700 in labor alone for the machine work and another 2-3-4--5-6-700 in parts to replace if you have to buy more than rings and bearings and gaskets.


Also, in the Maxima and 240SX engines, the cams don't have bearings and ride directly on the aluminum cam towers machined into the head. When engines die of oil starvation, it's normal for those to get galled up as the steel is riding directly on aluminum- the aluminum will always lose. It is possible to bore those out and install bearings, but generally it's easier to just throw them away.


Given those numbers, you're looking at minumum $1500 to rebuild an engine that's siezed from oil starvation. My recommendation is to go junkyard shopping and find an engine at a u-pull-it yard for a few hundred bucks and swap the engine.

Soooo, getting it up and running for a fair price only depends on how bad the damage is and how much you can buy it for in the first place.

................. If it were a car I'd be putting my wife and child in, I'd throw that engine away and swap in another one. Either that or rebuild the dead one and drive it for 2-3 months yourself to make sure it's reliable enough before handing over the keys. I'd hate for you to get "the call" a week after you finish rebuilding it and she's on the side of the highway in heavy traffic with the kiddo screaming in the back.

[96gxe5spd]

Yeah, that's kinda my thinking... I will be sure and track down an engine before I start tearing into it. If I get that far. And I'd be sure to drive it for a few weeks before handing it over to my wife, in fact it may be a few months until I feel that everything is worn in just right (my wife may struggle with the whole "take it easy for a while" thing).

I figure I ought to be able to drain the oil and run it through a screen to catch any metal particles coming out. I figure that steel shavings are fine, but aluminum spells bad news. Then I'd drop the oil pan and pull the rod caps off. From there, I should be able to inspect the rod bearings and journals and also be able to either see or feel the cylinder bores. Also with the rod caps off and the rods pushed out of the way, I should be able to at least try and turn the crank. If I can get it to turn smoothly, that ought to mean that the main bearing and the cam are OK.

I'd probably do all this where it sits now before I make any kind of commitment. I'd obviously pick up a service manual too. Would anyone suggest anything else to check that's pretty quick, that I should look at on my first visit?

[96gxe5spd]

OK, I just got word that the engine never actually siezed up. The daughter just saw the oil pressure light, stopped the engine, got out and saw the oil pouring out and called the tow truck. The oil was pouring out where the oil filter was installed wrong. They parked it without ever trying to get it going again.

So this may mean I should hook up an oil pressure guage, top off the oil, and fire her up. If the oil pressure doesn't come up then I'll know there is something seriously wrong. But a lot easier than dropping the oil pan, and probably would not damage anything that isn't already destroyed. I need to get a look at this thing.

[Spartuss]

Nothing may have actually happened to it if the engine was shut off in time. Do an oil change, put fresh fuel in and start it up.

[96gxe5spd]

Originally Posted by Spartuss

Nothing may have actually happened to it if the engine was shut off in time. Do an oil change, put fresh fuel in and start it up.

Of course, if I do that it may not be a steal! Maybe I'll drop the oil pan to look like I'm worried about it--LOL!!

Naw, these blue book pretty low (not nissan build quality, apparently), I'm thinking once I get it running I'll make an offer for 7 or 800 off the KBB price, so I'm covered if I need to sink a little money into it.

I will be checking the oil pressure carefully and really listening for any noise. I may also check the plugs for evidence of any blowby or other oil damage. Is there anything else I should check if it runs?

[Spartuss]

If you do end up buying it, use Auto-RX in your engine. It will clean everything out, clean the seals and is safer than an engine flush as it slowly dissolves sludge.