oldusedone

I can't thank everyone who has tossed an idea into the pool enough. Still looking them over trying to comprehend all the in's and out's given. One mechanic in the area says he will change out the engine for the price of the engine and $550, seems too good to be true...or not, I don't know? What follows is a joke having no direct relationship to my current dilemma.

Reminds me of Family Guy episode about religions.
Brian the dog says:
Buddhism is an Asian religion that also has a significant following of annoying white people.
But they also don't believe in demonstrating emotions either way, so they're the worst people to buy birthday gifts for.

Cutaway to orange robed Buddhist monk talking to two other white people at the monk's birthday party when one says:
I know you've been having trouble getting around, so I bought you a new Lexus.

the other one then says:

And I got you this tie clip.
the monk says:
Thank you both.
These are equal to me.

guy who gave the key to the Lexus grabs it back and says:
Screw you! You don't even own a tie!

What does this have to do with my problem, nothing but it's funny (at least watching it is) and does have the word Lexus in it and this car was a birthday gift of sorts, and now has turned into the mother of all birthdays.

oldusedone

I am unfamiliar with the leakdown test but the dealers report came back as follows:

"error codes p0300 and p0304, performed cylinder leak down, leaking out the exhaust. Engine has several oil leaks and also has oil in the intake air duct."

Does this tell me anything about the engine that would help with the decision to repair or not to repair? If I do replace the engine, I wonder if I get an autopsy done on the old one and find out what the heck went wrong with it?

Paul

fastnoypi

Those are misfire codes from what i've come up with, they could be caused by several reasons such as coil packs going bad, bad plugs on those cylinders, or detonation on those cylinders.
The description of "leaking out the exhaust" is vague..it could be normal of air creeping past the exhaust valves. Worse case scenario causing air to escape would be a cracked/burnt exhaust valve. The tech should have been specific about percent leakdown in comparison to others.

"Engine has several oil leaks and also has oil in the intake air duct" This is indicative of a high pressure situation, most likely caused by sludge buildup in the valve covers.

per my original recommendation in post #7, IMO it would be cost prohibitive to repair the engine if you were to bring it to a shop. You said it went down by 3 quarts...total capacity is 5 quarts.
The probability is high that a cylinder starved itself of oil and scored the cylinder. Even if it was not the case and you only had a bad valve, it may take $3k+ to remove/recondition/replace the affected cylinder head.

oldusedone

fastnoypi,

So during a leakdown test there is an easy way to get a percentage of leakage that could have been given to me on that report? It would not involve some additional process that would have cost more? I will call the dealer to see if the tech might remember such a reading if this part of the test. Seems with Yelp and all, they may be interested in getting great reviews not just good ones.
Let's say the cylinder was not scored, would replacing the valve cover, as some talk about doing be enough to bandage the problem or would that be cost prohibitive also? And one more thing, do you think one bad cylinder can drink oil like I'm seeing now (quart per ten miles or so) or would that require a combination of other faults to use that much oil? Thanks in advance.

Paul

fastnoypi

Paul, the exact percentages would be hard to report. All the leakdown gauges that i've seen show acceptable to bad ranges on a color scale.
here is a youtube vid that shows a typical leakdown tester. One gauge shows the air pressure going into the cylinder from the air compressor..the other gauge shows the leakdown percentage scale.

If the cylinder was not scored, replacing the the valve cover would only fix the pcv breathing problem. It is a cheap fix to one issue.

However, it would not fix the low compression problem, which would point out to a broken exhaust valve. Head work would be cost prohibitive, unless you are doing the head removal and installation yourself. The resurfacing the head, inspection, replacement of exhaust valves/guides would typically be in the ball park of less than $500. The labor cost is the part that will eat you up in the engine removal to get to the affected head..

A bad cylinder very well drink oil but IMO a quart per 10 miles seems excessive in the case of bad rings, at least with what i've seen. Any oil going past the compression rings will go out the exhaust side of the head.

It is often by deduction and inference that you can tell if the problem is in the valves or cylinder because of the labor costs to get to the suspected areas.

One other idea i can offer to determine if there is a piston ring failure and scoring is if the technician can use a borescope through the spark plug hole and inspect your #4 cylinder. To inspect the exhaust valves directly, a tech will need to drop the exhaust manifold and use a borescope to check the exhaust valves.

oldusedone

Indeed, the deductions and inferences available to the educated person are the assumptions and fallacies of uneducated one, in this case, me. Although the guidance provide by you and others here has given me a tremendous amount to ponder and act on.

My inexperience buying used cars has backed me into the spot I'm in now. Any advice about what questions I need to ask the mechanic selected to do the engine replacement or how to go about buying a used engine? If anyone can refer me to someone in Omaha who might be willing and able to do this job I'd love to hear about it. Again, many thanks to those willing to provide assistance and insight here.

Paul

salimshah

Like every thing else in life it will be risk/cost and trust.
Mechanic's buy-in is a must as his labor will weigh in if the purchased engine has issues.

Salim

oldusedone

Replaced the engine with a recycled one and the low oil pressure light works on the replacement one. At least we now know the bulb works.

Hope it lasts for longer than the old one did for me. About 4 weeks before self destruction. 2K for engine and about 1K to get installed with new timing belt and water pump. A few other odds and ends but at least it works for now.

matts6887

Well; it sounds like ya got things sorted for now. It does suck that ya had to replace the entire engine like ya did. But hopefully this replacement one will last ya a lot lot longer than the one that was in there before.