BryanLJames

Hello everyone! Long time listener first time caller.

I should start by explaining what happened, and see if maybe I got a bad diagnosis.

I was 4k since my last oil change. Started getting the low pressure light only when braking/downshifting and thought crap I must be a little low. Planned on taking my 08 tC in that weekend to get an oil change. Merging onto the Interstate I revved harder than I probably should have with a intermittent low pressure light, causing something to go wrong.

Symptoms: very loud rattling sound in the engine block somewhere in time with the RPM. Stopping at a stop sign with clutch in causes engine to stall.

Diagnoses: "Your engine was 4 qt low, and is shot. You'll need to replace it" then was quoted $6k installed.

Im very frustrated in that, sure maybe I should have checked the oil when I started seeing the light, but 4 qt low I would expect the pressure light to come on and stay on. Oh well lessons learned.

I only owe about $1700 on the vehicle, and this is the ONLY major problem I have had with it. It has 105k miles on it. I absolutely have loved driving this car but it all comes down to one question:

Is it worth it to replace a blown engine?

I absolutely am not dumb enough to pay $6k when I am finding used ones around 80k miles for $2k, but ultimately, I don't know if I will have more costly problems down the road after swapping out an engine.

Thanks in advance!

criminaltc

Sounds like a good diagnosis to me. If there is even a little only in the pan, the oil pump has something to pump causing a oil pressure. When revved higher with low oil, the pump will start pumping air causing no pressure a dry crank causing those bearings to seize which causes your rods to bend or break instantly which causes all that noise. Cars usually shut off on their own when this happens which is why yours did. Your bottom end is no longer good, and your head is probably damaged as well. If a piston didn't smash a valve, that's good, but you will still have plenty of bearing material and shards in your head that worked their way into the cam and cam rides which causes that whole mold to be junk as well. A new motor is very much needed. Easiest way for you a stand alone person to check is just take the oil pan off and you'll be able to see right away what you all did. If you have questions on what is what or how something should look, take pictures and post in here and i'll help you out. 6K for a motor installed is not bad, especially when you don't have the tools, plus if something goes wrong with the install or something, they are liable, so that's always nice. Let us know what you do and I'm really sorry this happened man, it's a never good feeling.

BryanLJames

Thank you for the quick reply. I will definitely check the pan.

I have a garage with all the tools needed for a swap and really anything on the vehicle, low rates too!

I will likely change the engine myself if that is the only way to fix this issue.

I would be more upset about this if I didn't have the means for another vehicle, but we just purchased a new 2013 Ford Edge so I have the ability to play around with this and either break it more, fix it and/or sell it. But she's my baby, I don't wanna sell her. I wanna give her a turbo and make her purrrrrrr :D

criminaltc

Haha. I hear you. That's good that you don't have to completely rely on having this vehicle working. I don't think there will be any other way to fix this really. I'm sure one or more of your cylinder walls are gouged, if not punctured, leading to your block being a paperweight. So that takes out the ability of rebuilding it. I'd get a scrapper for 2K like you were saying. Let us know the progress like I was saying, and let us know what your crank/rod situation looks like. Also, if you have a full shop then I'm sure you have a chamber scope. Remove the plugs and take a look down in there and see if you have a valve/piston issues or gouged walls.

Tshock

iTrader: (2)

Tell us a little about the engines 105k miles. Had you noticed any symptoms or signs or burning oil before this catastrophe? Did you always have it changed by someone else? What oil have you been using?

This is more for my knowledge since im at 95k no problems. I drive it like I stole it but I keep up with the dipstick and havent noticed significant oil loss between changes

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

BryanLJames

I guess I could give more information now that I think about it. It is probably related.

I was deployed to Afghanistan for most of this year, and the tC sat for the entire time, because my dad can't follow simple instructions to drive it a couple times a week.

As for how I drive it, I don't red line often but I definitely get my monies worth from each gear.

Symptoms leading up to blowout: Day one from return I noticed a faint rattling when trying to accelerate in 5th gear (my wife, not me :D). a day or two prior to the incident, I noticed what sounded like valves clicking faintly, yet louder than usual in time with the RPM. In hindsight that was probably evidence that my oil was low.

criminaltc

This thread isn't going to help you, nor any of the information you were looking for. He admittedly told us that he was getting the low oil pressure indicator yet continued to drive it. If you keep oil in it, you will be fine, and if you see this light, shut it down right away.

BryanLJames

I more than concur with this. Even a quick flash of the low pressure light should be cause for alarm.

criminaltc

She's very lucky that this didn't happen to her while she was driving. That rattle was your crank not playing nice with your bearings. Very scary. Also, that tech said you were 4 quarts down. Do you have a hole in the pan or anywhere else because you might have just lost it then, not necessarily burned it beforehand. But also when it went, did you get smoke because that will burn it up too showing a low reading. What I'm trying to say is that it probably wasn't 4 quarts down when it blew, it just was 4 quarts down after you blew.

BryanLJames

There was no smoke, and you're probably right about it leaking then. It has been garage parked since returning from deployment, and there are no oil stains on the floor. I am very grateful it did not blow when she drove. She is new to handling a manual. I have not inspected the oil pan or inside the piston chambers but I was planning to hopefully today.

Tshock

iTrader: (2)

Its actually been very enlightening but good looking out for me, dad!

Is it typical for the scions to consume that much oil?
Maybe it wasnt properly changed before you deployed.

criminaltc

Oh boy! She would have been scarred for life for sure! I'm glad too. That's never a good feeling and I know you'd hate for her to have to deal with that, while trying to master manual!

That's all I'm here for, son.

I hope your aren't asking if 4 quarts of oil consumption is normal, because that is all that goes in these things, leaving your motor dry, so that wouldn't make too much sense, but many people have talked about Scion's mass oil consumption. There's a giant thread about it, but it's hit or miss. In general, I think most people experience a quarter or half quart of burning every 5,000 miles, but I don't know. I don't never had any issues.

Tshock

iTrader: (2)

No not 4 quarts, but there has to be a level of oil consumption to raise a concern. Are there any ties between oil selection and consumption on higher mileage engines?


To the OP, ive been in your shoes with a different car. I ended up swapping a jdm longblock and decided to add some bolt ons in the process. It was a learning curve and it ended up costing as much as the acura was worth. If you follow your plan it will be $4k by the time its paid off and driveable. The real question is, how bad do you want to keep the car? I love mine but I would never spend money to hotrod it.