My engine needs to be rebuilt! Was this due to the valve spring recall?
05-11-13, 06:11 PM
#1
My engine needs to be rebuilt! Was this due to the valve spring recall?
Long story short, I was merging on the highway and I accelerated to 5K RPM in 2nd gear. As soon as I went into 3rd, I heard a loud knock and my exhaust became quiet, the engine made knocking sounds, misfiring, and began smoking. I checked it out and this is what I see. There's a huge crack on the passenger side on the engine below the valve cover gasket and the engine block is sheered off. I want to suspect it was the faulty valve springs but I didn't get the recall sent to me. Otherwise, I really cannot figure out how this happened. Any thoughts?
05-11-13, 07:40 PM
#2
Driver School Candidate
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Long story short, I was merging on the highway and I accelerated to 5K RPM in 2nd gear. As soon as I went into 3rd, I heard a loud knock and my exhaust became quiet, the engine made knocking sounds, misfiring, and began smoking. I checked it out and this is what I see. There's a huge crack on the passenger side on the engine below the valve cover gasket and the engine block is sheered off. I want to suspect it was the faulty valve springs but I didn't get the recall sent to me. Otherwise, I really cannot figure out how this happened. Any thoughts?
Last edited by jleeIS; 05-12-13 at 10:28 AM.
05-12-13, 11:37 AM
#5
Yeah man, its hard to tell where the damage is from that pic. But are you saying the block is damaged or the head? How many miles on your 350? Any warranty left? The motor has a 6yr/70k miles factory powertrain warranty. First thing though...remove the SRI for the factory intake so you don't have any dealer issues with it.
05-17-13, 06:44 AM
#6
Here's the work they done since yesterday but today, the cams and everything are out. They are waiting to see if Lexus will "good will" it cause I'm at 70,400 miles. Literally this sucks. Either they approve it, send out a local tech to check it out to approve it or not, or they just deny it. So far, it's $5K in parts needed and $4K in labor if it gets done. What happened was basically from what I can see and what the tech knows, my rocker arm snapped off, got loose in the engine and it got jammed between the side of the engine and a cam lobe and the lobe just pushed broken rocker arm out the side of the engine.
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05-17-13, 09:15 AM
#10
Lexus Test Driver
this is a perfect opportunity to drop in the 4.3 3UZ-FE. I have verified that all the motor mounts match to the IS350 motor. as well as the transmission mounts. Supposedly you can just drop it in with the 3uz ecu and all systems will work together as if it came that way.
If my motor ever goes, I'm definitely going this route.
If my motor ever goes, I'm definitely going this route.
05-17-13, 09:32 AM
#11
Pole Position
agreed with replacing the engine in lieu of paying 9k to rebuild the existing one. while that price isn't unheard of, in your situation it might be better to just replace the engine.
best of luck!
best of luck!
05-17-13, 12:13 PM
#12
So the damage is only to the head, or do they believe valves touches pistons because of the damage? Seeing that we have a high-compression interference motor, I'm confident they probably did to some extent.
Sorry for your loss bro; hope Lexus owns up to getting it 100% covered under the powertrain warranty.
Sorry for your loss bro; hope Lexus owns up to getting it 100% covered under the powertrain warranty.
