looks like its time to step her up to the fat body!!!! My wife loves hers man...i wish you luck with this mess that you have on your hands!!

 

lol, she'd faint if I brought her a 4th gen home! Maybe one day though

 

Will clean that too.

Oh yeah, forgot about those.

 

Ok, thus far, the Motor, 4Runner and all new parts for the motor (T-belt, Water Pump, yada, yada, yada) have all been delivered to the shop as of 10am this morning. The shop was in the middle of installing a Jasper motor (per customer's request) last Thursday. They were closed Friday and still working on the J motor as of today. However, mine's next in line.

This shop has come highly recommended by not only many friends of mine, but even the place I purchased the motor from. Plus this shop is only 5 miles from my house, which is nice.

So far I'm in it $1600 for both the motor and all needed parts.

 

Are you going to keep the original for the autopsy?

 

Once the new motor is installed, same shop is going to tear into the stock motor to see what happened at no addt'l charge.

 

"Comments about the insurance taking care of it are pretty funny!! I love it when people suggest insurance fraud. I personally love catching people doing it ""
Yeah we wouldn't want to screw the insurance company that is their job !
You pay and you pay then you need to put in a claim and then your rates go up aftermarket this bondo that...technically the insured are paying and have paid for it many times over the insurance company is not losing a dime...I have a hard time with insurance companies ;-)

 

If there is any insurance fraud going on its what they have done to the Gulf Coast after this last storm. IKE caused over $50K worth of damage to my house and the insurance company offered $20K and said they are being very generous. Just like most of my neighbors I had to stick a lawyer on the insurance company so yea I agree with you about having a VERY hard time with insurance companies.

 

Update:

Shop pulled the stock motor out on Tuesday; Tore the replacement motor completely down on Wednesday; Installed all the new parts and seals on the motor and thoroughly cleaned it up inside and out; Finished installing yesterday. Shop owner (same guy how did the entire motor swap) drove it around all morning and said it purrs like a kitten and the AC is blowing snowballs .

Said if I have the slightest problem, all work is guaranteed and the motor comes w/ a 6 mon warranty. Will pick up the 4Runner this afternoon. I can't wait!


They did look for the reason the old motor threw a rod, but could not reach a final verdict. Said that when they tore the stock motor down, there was so much catastrophic damage internally (probably b/c the vehicle was driven a 1/3 of a mile after having thrown the rod) that there was no conclusive evidence to the root of the problem. They seemed to think it was something that had just been building up over time and finally failed. Even said mine is the third 3.4L motor this year that they've had to replace due to a thrown rod. Yikes...

 

I see motors all the time here in denver for less than 5 Franklins.

 

That's great. People treat used 3.4Ls like gold bullion over here.

Anyway, picked up the 4Runner last night and it runs oh so smooth. Gave it a bath and detailed the interior. Wife was so glad to have it back.

Lets just hope this motor will stand the test of time...

 

Third one this year??!! What did he say were the causes for the other ones?

 

One was over reved...16yr old kid was racing it. The 2nd one was oil starved...old lady never changed her oil in the 4yrs she owned it.

 

Ok. So the others were 100% owners' faults.

 

0_0

It's a good thing i'm gonna have my oil changed and filter replaced next weekend. Having read about this very, VERY unfortunate event makes me want to baby mine even more. Luckily for my T4R I keep up on maintenance and never drive it hard.

Anyway, Rock Slide, hope everything works out alright for your 4runner!

 

I remember seeing this a month or two ago. Glad to hear she's getting back to normal Bill. Now the question, would you still be posting those cute little emoticons if it were YOUR 3.4? haha

 

I know you're not implying we didn't keep up the maintenance, but we did and you saw what happened. That's what's so weird about this happening to her 4Runner. Typically, these vehicles should last a really long time.

I have always been good about getting the oil in my own 4Runner (and past vehicles) analyzed thru Blackstone Labs, but failed to ever do so in my wife's 4Runner. Granted, had they found the problem earlier on, I don't know what, if anything, I could have done to prevent it. Nonetheless, I would liked to known if signs of possible engine failure would have shown up in their tests. Oh well, I'll definitely be getting the oil in this motor tested!


Thanks, so far the 4Runner is a pleasure to drive. Can't even tell a motor was swapped in.


Thanks Weston.

And the cute emoticons...of course ! If my own engine failed, what better way to display my feelings then with such emoticons as this: . And this: . Thought you might like those

BTW, if you ever get tired of those tail light guards, send them my way.

 

I saw a similar 4runner at my local dealer with a thrown rod. I just happen to be there talking to Jasond and he shows me a 4runner up on his rack with a hole in the side of the block. IIRC it was just a few 1000 miles out of warranty but they were going to try and get Toyota to cover it.

 

Believe it or not my old cherry '99 threw a rod about 4 months after I sold it to Anthony (ADH8796).
132k on it when it happened - oil was changed every 3k since I bought it with 85k on it.

I was in it when it happened - over revved I think.

Glad you got it all sorted out and you have a new one in there, the odds of this one failing are slim to none.

Fink

 

I don't know, scary though huh?
I was literally on complete shock when it happened to the old Runner.

I have to admit, I was relieved it was not me that had to pay for the fix.
Still felt like somebody just ran over my kid though.

Fink