Had a great weekend, broke the engine in last autocross run and could only manage a 20 drag pass. Slowest of the scoring passes. We pulled out a great score in concourse and pulled off the high school team win! We are all very excited and they are already talking about next year.
CONGRATULATIONS !
It was Awesome to spend some quality time with you guys this weekend. All your hard work and perseverance paid off. Hurray!
https://www.mh-aerotools.de/airfoils/javafoil.htm
For your aspiring wing creators.
Also, I hope that water pump we broke is an easy fix! Thanks again for the ride and shop hangout.
OK so for everyone that said the 1 MZ engine has a known oiling problem and our issues at the challenge was oil related, you were correct. We had baffles the oil pan and overfilled the pan but that proved to not be enough. I thought for sure that the amount of metal in the oil pan meant we had dropped a valve and destroyed a piston. In addition the engine did not sound like a rod knock as it was not consistent like a normal rod bearing failure. I guess that was because we had two rod bearing failures right next to each other, both of the bearings for the center cylinders were completely gone (we did abuse it a bunch)
So the search for a replacement engine is on and some kind of accusump system will be included with the upgrades for next year.
In reply to Fladiver64 :
You had baffles in the pan AND overfilled it and still ran dry? Wtf. Wonder where the design flaw lies. Maybe the oil pickup rides too high up in the pan?
Number1Gaza said:In reply to Fladiver64 :
You had baffles in the pan AND overfilled it and still ran dry? Wtf. Wonder where the design flaw lies. Maybe the oil pickup rides too high up in the pan?
I agree. Wow. I wonder if there isn't enough drainback area in the head and extended high rpm use fills the heads and leaves the pan empty...
In reply to Robbie :
That's a good thought. Makes more sense than an oil pickup issue. Maybe a larger capacity oil pan could fix that, although likely it would have to be custom fabricated.
Enlarging the drainback holes could also be considered.
Or running a thinner oil.
I wonder if sludge blocked the passages in this engines prior life?
Well, interestingly, this article makes it look like Toyota did just that around 2001... (enlarged the oil drains)
https://www.autosafety.org/toyota-broadens-sludge-repair-program/
from the article "First, the automaker said it has made a running production change to its widely used 3.0-liter V-6 engine that will improve circulation by enabling oil to drain faster into the sump – an apparent acknowledgement that engine design has been at least part of the problem. "
In reply to Robbie :
Very interesting. Enlarging the returns in the heads could be an option, but I would think the returns in the block are the same size as well? So you'd prolly have to enlarge both. And machine the head gaskets.
or just buy a post-2001 engine
Robbie said:Number1Gaza said:In reply to Fladiver64 :
You had baffles in the pan AND overfilled it and still ran dry? Wtf. Wonder where the design flaw lies. Maybe the oil pickup rides too high up in the pan?
I agree. Wow. I wonder if there isn't enough drain back area in the head and extended high rpm use fills the heads and leaves the pan empty...
I agree this could be an issue, in looking at the heads, on the left bank lower head, the only oil drain back is at the far left side of head and oil has to travel all the way through the valve springs to get there. On the top head there are tow additional drain back but they have tube that makes the oil have to be at valve cover level before it can drain back.
Are these heads designed to run with the oil level in the head at the valve cover gasket level? That seams like there would be 3 quarts of oil n the heads so there would be next to nothing in the pan, even over filled.
My assumption is that since there are no push rods or rockers, the cam lobes are lubricated with oil by flooding hte head wit oil and splash lubrication. That would mean you can reduce the oil level in the head by much or we will create cam oil problems.
I am open to ideas anyone has. I have two, first would be on the upper head to cut the oil drain back tubes in the middle down to about valve spring height +..250 it looks that would cut about .50 off the tube so that much less oil in the head. The second would be to create a second drain back hose from the lower cylinder head in the lower right hand corner about where the cam sensor is. This would be an external hose set at about valve spring height and return to the pan, kind of like a turbo oil drain back.
Number1Gaza said:In reply to Robbie :
Very interesting. Enlarging the returns in the heads could be an option, but I would think the returns in the block are the same size as well? So you'd prolly have to enlarge both. And machine the head gaskets.
or just buy a post-2001 engine
There is an issue with getting a post 2001 engine, they are all VVT and would require a new wiring harness, ECU, key and immobilizer circuit. This would mean we would have to find a cheap donor car and harvest all of the parts and I am not sure we can do that with the budget and recoup we have left. I am not sure I want to go through the rewire a new harness at this point either. I think if I was to take that on I would go 2 gr and pick up another 85 to 100 horsepower, but this becomes a real budget challenge given where we are.
When you took the valve cover off at the challenge, was there oil in the head up to the gasket line? That should tell you a lot about where the oil level should be with engine running. Remember the shape of the v and the heads sit at an angle.
I really doubt any oil is supposed to "stay" in the head. Maybe?
Though I am not expert
In reply to Robbie :
No they looked empty. I am thinking that it takes too long to drainback when running, but once it sits for a couple of minites it drains back to pan.
So we have not updated this thread in a long time.
We got another salvage motor from a 2000 Camry and swapped it with the one we blew up at the challenge. Car is back running and sort of driving.
New additions is we made a new exhaust out of 2.25" tubing and a cross flow muffler, more of a street car sound now. Got the guys back together today and they have decoded to just get the car back running the best we can and take it to the challenge, just to have fun driving it.
So today was supposed to be get it driving again day, we had a leaking rear caliper, fixed, brakes bleed, Check we have brakes. We had an interference problem with the radiator hose and the shifter linkage, reroute Zip tie, done.
Start car, fuel leak, stop car. Take out center console, and be thankful we added an access plate to ge tto the fuel pump from the top. Turned out to be a line that was loose, simple fix.
Kurt takes car out with Zack, about a five min ride, come back and says the car is squirrely and he lost second gear! I really don't want to to a transmission swap. First address the squirrel problem, idiot behind the wrench problem, bolts not tightened on struts. Reset camber and TIGHTEN THE BOLTS this time.
This time I took car out for a drive, started in second gear and car drove away, so trans works. Got out on street, 1 -2 gear shift, no second gear. Shift to neutral and the hard over left and down get second. Bring car back and inspection reveals shifter cable broken. That is better than a new transmission. Shifter cables ordered and we will schedule another work day when they come in.
Excited to see this again!
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