I think my coupe is dead...

[danf]

I might've spun a bearing. Doh.

RIP 4/4/2017.

[twotone_ra64]

RIP.

A moment of silence for our fallen brother.

[danf]

I was on the freeway and it lost oil. Last Thursday when I put gas in it the dipstick showed maybe 1/8" from full. I noticed very low engine oil pressure when pulling into my driveway. (I do check the gauges quite frequently.)

I got home and checked the oil - there was none on the dipstick. At freeway speeds. 

I added some and the noise stopped, but I think the damage has been done. I'll try starting it tomorrow and we'll see what it sounds like.

The weird thing is... I don't have any oil spots on my driveway and the car wasn't smoking. There's no oil spot at work either. Where'd the oil go? Unless it barfed it all out on the freeway. I added oil and it didn't leak out that I can see, so I'm kind of confused.

The thing that really sucks is I have no money to insure my truck.   

If it doesn't make any noise tomorrow (50/50 chance?) I'll drive it to work.

[swan song]

Ok, moment of silence over. Now let's talk motor swaps!

[Sigma Projects]

if it was just a slight damage there's a good chance that the crankshaft didn't get messed up and just change out the plane bearings. A similar issue happened on my friends car where there was a layer of sludge on the bottom of the pan from the previous owner and I guess it just got loose and like one big sheet plugged up the pick up. He ended up just changing the bearings to the next size up per what toyota has and used a plastigauge to check tolerances.

[sirdan]

When i spun my bearing I just went with a new crank off ebay for 250 bucks it came with bearings too. quick dingle hone and i had a rebuilt engine basically. I think the entire rebuild i only had 400 bucks into it total   

[danf]

Well, there was a screeching noise when I started the engine this morning. Sounded like a loose belt but way, way worse.

I did check the belts yesterday and didn't find a really loose one, so... I also checked the idler pulley.

I'm honestly not sure what I'm going to do with the car at the moment. I doubt I'll do an engine swap.

Edit: I placed my mechanic stethoscope on the block and it was LOUD.

I think I'll retension both belts for shits and giggles but finding a bone dry oil dipstick doesn't bode well.

[swan song]

Meh. It's a 22re, you've got another 100,000 miles left. 

[danf]

The original miles on the car: 163,000 km / 101,875 miles. Doh!

[corax]

I think I'll retension both belts for shits and giggles but finding a bone dry oil dipstick doesn't bode well.

One step better, take the belts OFF and see if it makes that noise - don't drive it like that or let it idle for more than a couple minutes because the water pump won't be doing anything

a dry oil dipstick just means you were a minimum of 1.5 qts low, could have still had 2-3 qts in there (though I'm sure you know how low it was after you added oil)

[danf]

Yeah, I plan to investigate more thoroughly later. It could be a bad belt, but I got to thinking. The AC doesn't work on the car, and the belt and its idler is there.

I did look with a flashlight and the front main seal is leaking BADLY. Like, from the pulley down it's all shiny.

It may not be as bad as I thought, but I think I'm going to have to pull the engine and check at least. The front and rear main seals (well, probably all of the gaskets actually) on this engine probably leak. When I have the oil pan off I can check for metal bits. It needs a timing chain upgrade anyway, may as well yank it, check the crankshaft, pull the head, redo the valve stem seals, and upgrade to a dual row timing kit if everything checks out.

I put two quarts in and it showed on the dipstick. I don't know that it was completely bone dry, but it was probably three quarts down. That's still not great...

I'm past the part now where I'm like "OMG! My engine is fooked!" and now thinking a bit more rationally. I've insured my truck for now. This weekend I'll take the plenum off my GT-S and order the seals I need to fix the leaky fuel rail so at least one of my DD cars will be running. 

[danf]

It was actually nice out today!

So I took the old AC crap off and the other belts... started it and it squeals. It's a lot quieter now but it's still there.

Pretty sure the bearing spun. I don't think I'll have the time and money to fix that this summer.

I also think I found the source of the oil leak, the bottom front of the engine around the crank pulley is wet and it look like it splattered all over the place.

Hopefully I can start it a couple more times to move it around the driveway.

[Coop301]

probably #2 rod.

[danf]

I don't think it's quite spun yet, but there's a squeal/squeak from the block somewhere.

I still dunno what to do. I don't think I'll be able to fix it this year if I decide to go that route.

[danf]

Update:

It's not dead (yet) Jim.

I couldn't remember if I actually removed the belts to test the squeal, so I did that today. I don't hear any noise (knock, chirp or otherwise from the block with my mechanics stethoscope now. I only ran the engine 20-30 seconds or so and the oil pressure did come up.

Pretty sure I lost it through the front main seal. The skid plated is caked in goop, there's oil all the way from the oil pump housing up to the valve cover and down below coating the oil pan, subframe and transmission.

I hereby upgrade the coupe to "fixable".

I'm still going to yank the engine, redo all the oil seals, and upgrade the timing chain to the dual row set.

I also discovered I'm losing brake fluid... and one of my brakes was seized, did a 4' burnout trying to move my car forward a bit. I jacked up the car and the rear was OK (I thought the parking brake was sticking...) and found the front wheels stiff to turn. I guess the rust on the rotors caused them to get stuck... haven't moved the car since I parked it. 

I figure I only had one quart of oil left in there. It took over 2 quarts to get it to show on the dipstick, and another 1.5 to get it to the full mark.   

And holy shit is the axle rusty, way worse than I remembered. I think I might have to take the axle off at some point and try to clean it up.