[toymechanic]

The complete history of how I got here is in a previous post. I'm sufficiently embarrassed and humbled. So let's cut to the chase...
Following a refresh of the inlet housing gasket and replacement the thermostat housing, I started the engine after full reassembly - ran great (as well as it can run until normal idle is restored). I then slightly rev'd the engine and "NACK-NACK, NACKITTY, NACKITTY, NACKITTY, NACK, NACK...Aaaahhhhh" - I nearly vomited in the driveway.
It has only run a few minutes like this and has otherwise been sitting.
I posted my dilemma back then (about 2 months ago) and got some well wishes and also a bit of discussion about whether it was worth it to tear it down etc. Thank you all again for the support. At first I thought the issue was in the intake (more like I hoped...). But all I found was 1-2 tiny bits of metal laying at the edge of one intake valve.
So it's looking it's in 1 or more cylinders. It could possibly be just one.

So I'm in the process of trying to sell the car, and then it occurs to me:

• Through the spark plug hole, I can inspect and possibly remove foreign material from the cylinders using a video borescope. They are now small cheap, LED-lighted and high resolution.
• A longshot yes. But the value of finding out what the heck ended up in my engine after all the precautions? That alone just might be worth $40 and 3 hours.
• I've got a tubing set attachment to my shop vac. My hope is that's enough - see the shards with the scope, suck them out blindly, confirm they are gone with the scope. Might take hours but damn - I'm actually excited!

So - anybody ever tried this? Am I nuts?!

Toymechanic

 

[sixto]

I think you’ll find more than shards if the engine’s making noise.

Are you averse to pulling the heads if there’s debris? The short block might still be good.

Sixto
‘04 LE FWD 198K miles

 

[BillG]

I don't have good hope that you'll succeed. You're going to have scoring and bits of dissimilar metals on the cylinder walls and probably chips in the edges of the rings and you'll be lucky if you ever have compression again. Then again, if you were in a 2nd or 3rd world country, that engine would run for another 30 years. The thing is, for a few hours of your time, you can try something that probably won't work, have it not work, then sell the van for a couple hundred bucks as scrap. OR you can just sell it for a couple hundred bucks as scrap. OR you can get a used engine and in a long weekend, pull the old one out and drop a new one in and drive the van for another 10-15 years.

 

[Roader]

Do it. See what's going on. That alone might would be worth $40 and 3 hours. You may get lucky and fix it with one cheap head from a scrapyard. Lots more labor, yeah, but it's doable.

2004 Sienna LE Overhaul

Hello Folks, Wanted to express thanks to the forum and members. Had recently performed quite a few repairs to my 2004 Sienna and got a lot of tips, torque values, etc from the forum, so thanks to all the contributing members. For those interested, here is the back story: Purchased a 2004...

www.siennachat.com

HEAD
PRICE $59.99
CORE $9.99
ENV FEE $7.00

 

[toymechanic]

Hello again - back after a long break - I bought another Sienna (2007 XLE) which also bought me time to muster the energy to tackle this engine surgery.
I opted to try it. I just couldn't resist.
To summarize - my 2004 3.3L digested a foreign object after a coolant leak repair to the inlet housing cover.
I've now got access to the cylinders (removed the plenum, condensers and spark plugs).

I could use some friendly advice on how to manually turn the engine to optimally position each cylinder (I need each at BDC in order inspect with my inexpensive borescope).
I did spent some time searching but I'm just not finding that particular topic.
#5 is the cylinder of interest which is at TDC at the moment. It had a bent spark plug (intact but no gap).
The rest of plugs appear undamaged. And the rest of the cylinders look pretty clean at first glance.

 

[paul r]

Disconnect the battery , remove the right front wheel and the cover next to the 22mm crank shaft bolt. Use whatever tools are necessary to rotate the crank clockwise. Removing all spark plugs will make rotation of the crank easier. Make sure to cover all spark plugs holes. If you have a piece of clean wooden rod , maybe 16 inches length and small in diameter , chopstick size ? insert into the plug hole .The stick will sit on top of piston then as the engine is rotated the movement can be seen to determine the position of the piston. I think it would be best to have a helper. Make sure the van is suppoted safely. Maybe someone else can chime in with another suggestion but this is what I would do.

 

[toymechanic]

Hey - thank you!
I was hoping it was this simple.
I've done this before with small block chevy's (a long, long time ago).
Was just looking for things to avoid & ways to make easy.
Good tip about the chopstick.

 

[toymechanic]

UPDATE: See images.
Cylinder #6 - possibly salvageable - a single free floating object - anyone recognize what it could be?

Cylinder 5 looks like it has metal melted on to the pistons and creeping in between the piston and cylinder wall. The other 4 look "okay" by comparison - no debris to speak of etc..

Like I previously posted - I took so many precautions to prevent this from happening and I'm still scratching my head. Whatever it was, was thin enough to get by the valve, don't know if it is iron based. Looks like low melting point. Also ended up in more than one cylinder - maybe broke up in the intake while passing through to cylinder #5.

Open season on comments - just I'm doing this mostly for fun. I don't expect to resurrect this engine. But if I can get it to the point where it will simply run without shit banging around in it, that would be cool and will make it a driver vs. tow truck trip.

 

[BillG]

To me, that looks like a lost cause. The blob in #6 looks like it might be fused to the cylinder wall. Even if it was free-floating, you'd still have to get it out of there. If it happened to be smaller than the sparkplug hole, you might be able to fish it out if you had something like a surgical robot (side note, I'd worked on the controls of a surgical robot and got to play around with it) which could reach in, bend over to it and pull it back out. Alternately, you could pull the head off and take it out that way, and then replace the head gasket to reinstall it. However, you'd still have #5 to deal with. To me, #5 looks like either piston damage. If you somehow managed to get the metal debris out of that cylinder, you'd still have to pull the bottom end. For the effort you would have to go through to get it to be a "driver," you can just drop in a junkyard engine. Find a low-mileage 3.3L engine (from a totaled car, not an overheat!), give it a quick overhaul (new plugs, rear coils, timing belt, etc.) while it's out of the car, pull the old engine out and drop the new one in. It would probably be 8-10 hours of work and then you'd have a van which will probably run for another decade, without issue.

What Cars Use the Toyota 3MZ-FE?

• 2004-2007 Toyota Highlander
• 2004-2008 Toyota Camry Solara
• 2003-2006 Toyota Camry SE V6
• 2005-2010 Toyota Highlander Hybrid
• 2004-2006 Toyota Sienna
• 2004-2006 Lexus RX 330
• 2005-2009 Lexus RX 400h
• 2004-2006 Lexus ES 330
• 2006-2014 Mitsuoka Orochi

 

[sixto]

#5 looks like a chunk of piston is missing.

Sixto
‘04 LE FWD 201K miles

 

[toymechanic]

Interesting...thank you for the comments.

First - I agree it's a lost cause. Just going make the best of it. I already replaced this Sienna with a 2007 XLE that I really like & it's been well maintained. Someone else will get the chance with the engine. I got multiple offers from $500 - $800 when I ran a craigslist ad a month or so back. So I know it won't end up in junkyard.

Regarding the #6, If it were a chunk of piston, where would be it missing from exactly ? The top of the piston looks wholly intact. The piston is about 9 cm across for scale. All of the debris will fit through the hole.

Regarding #5 - the metal isn't fused to the wall. It moves with the piston. But it does appear that parts are fused to the piston. That's going to be tough to break those free with the head still on it.

I used to market endoscopic surgical equipment. I've got a couple of laparoscopic graspers, and I bought an inexpensive flexible magnet tool. Plus I've got a tubing attachment for my shop vac. Looks like I can get all of these in one-at-a-time in addition to the camera/light.