2010 Toyota 4runner 5th Gen Hydrolocked engine swap - Barracks Trail Utah
We journeyed down the Barracks Trail in Southern Utah just outside Zions national park. We love taking our off road vehicles down this trail because of its beauty and unique nature. With about a dozen river crossings and its lush desert oasis, theres plenty of features to keep things interesting and original.
This particular day, we ventured out with Two Toyota 4runners, One Jeep Gladiator, and One Ford Raptor. My 4runner broke a passenger side ball joint only about 3 miles into the trail and we were forced to leave her behind temporarily. I loaded into our friend's Raptor and we proceeded down the historic Barracks Trail. After a few stops for technical play and lunch, all vehicles began racing up river. My buddy Dave ventured a little too deep into the river and sucked up an engine full of river water through his intake. We immediately pulled the spark plugs to try and blow out the water, but it was too late. Yes, we hydrolocked and seized his 4.0 V6 engine. The damage was done and recovery was imminent.
Once we got his 5th gen 2010 Toyota 4Runner to an open garage, we began the disassembly of the engine bay and engine to attempt to diagnose the damage. We discovered a rod shaped rectangle blown through the driver side of the engine. Ultimately, the driver rear cylinder tried to compress the river water and snapped the piston rod. The broken piston rod spun wildly through the engine punching a hole through the engine block and finally wedging itself under the piston on the opposing side of the V6 engine. The opposing cylinder was on its way down as the broken piston rod was on its way up. This lodged the broken rod under the piston and our engine was completely immobile. Because we could not freely rotate the crankshaft, we could not disconnect the engine from the transmission. Not wanting to remove the transmission from the vehicle, we opted to partially disassemble the engine and attempt to dislodge the broken piston rod from its wedged position. Once the rod was cleared, we removed the old engine and installed an 85k mile used engine and re-assembled the entire vehicle with a successful re-start!
The old engine had just over 205k miles. Impressively, as we disassembled the entire engine, we discovered there was very little wear on ALL internal parts. Amazingly enough, had this engine not been sunk, I believe it could have run another 200k miles if maintained properly. It’s no wonder Toyota has used this 4.0 V6 engine for so many years. It is overly engineered with roller bearings on the cams and strict tolerances.
30 сен 2024
