My first truck - 2005 Tundra DC SR5

Hi everyone,

I purchased my first truck back in August. It’s a 2005 Tundra sr5 double cab 430,000kms

I have been looking for a double cab tundra for quite some time. Everything that came up for sale was selling really quickly as they are very popular here in BC..

I happen to drive by someone’s house who had this truck parked in their backyard. The next day I did the same and the day after that and it was still there and hadn’t moved. I decided to go knock on the door and ask him if he wanted to sell. There were some communication issues due to language differences, but what I gathered was that the serpentine belt had come off and he hadn’t been able to start the truck since.

My first thought was that it was a timing belt issue, so I pulled back the cover, but the timing belt looked to be in good condition. I asked him if he would sell it to me and he agreed. I got it for $1000 cad. For that price I just I was assuming the engine was shot. Turns out the engine is seized. (At least I can’t crank it over by hand)

There's lots of ideas here. I think I want to find a new engine to swap into it. What should I be trouble shooting on the current one? The engine oil smelt really bad when I drained it. I cut the filter open and put a magnet in the oil and didn't pick up any shavings. I also removed a couple sparks plugs but still couldn't get it to turn. Guess I break it down? or maybe its more valuable as it is to someone if I'm going to swap an engine in anyways?

 

Nice find for BC. I can’t give you advice on the seized engine but at least change the lower ball joints with OEM when you’re ready to make it road worthy. Looks like one of them might be leaking grease under the protective cover.

 

That paint is clean!

 

267k miles. If you are handy enough to do the engine swap that was one HELL of a steal! Good for you
Flush the brakes too... whoa

 

I'd definitely do some diag on the engine you do have before fully committing to a swap. Pull all the plugs and look down in the cylinders for any signs of issues, maybe pull off every cover around the timing belt that you can get to and see if you see anything out of place. Do some looming to make sure it isn't something stupid. You still got a great deal regardless.

 

Do some engine diag. But before you do anything, do this:

Get a small bottle of Marvel Mystery Oil ("MMO").
Put a teaspoon of oil into each cylinder (will allow you to check plugs while at it).
Let it sit for a few days and work its way in.
Take the battery to local auto parts store; have it tested, replace if needed.

Rodents nesting under the intake manifold is a common problem, and they like to chew through the starter wiring, which will prevent the truck from turning over. I hope that's not why you're thinking it's seized. Did you try manually turning over, and if so, did you rotate the HB/crank pulley clockwise or counterclockwise?

Once the MMO has had a couple of days to settle in, try turning over again. I've had MMO unfreeze a number of engines on recovered vehicles that sat for over a decade, and it's something I've always put in the cylinders of engines I know will sit for a while.

This thread may be helpful to you: https://www.tundras.com/threads/so-you-wanna-buy-just-bought-a-1st-gen-tundra-eh.115928/

(No, your frame is not too rusty, but needs some TLC before it's too far gone)

 

I pulled the plugs today and noticed this in one of the cylinders.... Thoughts?

I feel like a got a little movement out of the crank this time so I will be lettingsome marvel mystery soak in and try agin in a few days..

 

Don't waste anymore products on trying to get the motor running.... unless I'm mistaken that looks like a chunk off the side of your piston! Regardless, it's smoked.

 

I can't tell if it's a chip of metal sitting on top of the piston, or if it's maybe where the tip of the plug made contact and chipped off a chunk of carbon from the top of the piston. It appears the piston is at the top of the cylinder in the photo which gives weird perspective, but maybe I'm wrong.

 

PS - I'm also wondering .... if the reason the belt looks good is because the PO snapped the TB, and had it replaced, but it wouldn't turn over, so they gave up on it.

Anyway, for 1k CAD, knowing you can get a decent used engine that's a direct bolt-in for that much or less, you still got a great deal. You could probably pay someone to intall a decent used sub-200km engine into the truck and still be out the door under 3.5k CAD.

 

For sure, that’s definitely my next plan.

I’m finding it surprising difficult to find an engine up here though..

 

I'm just looking at the radius of that chunk and it looks too big for a valve... and it's got some hight perpendicular to the radius too.
Either way... RIP little buddy

 

I don't think it's a chunk, though.

It looks like what we're actually seeing is a piston head that has 1mm of carboncake on top, and a small bit of the carbon is chipped away, exposing the shiny metal top of the piston. Maybe my eyes are bad, but the only "chunk" I see is the chunk of carbon that's missing, and some shiny metal sitting below. Maybe I'm reading the shadows wrong on the pic?

 

Here's the same pic at 3x digital zoom. It looks like to me, the shadow is on the ledge of the carbon buildup, and not being cast from a chunk down onto the carbon cake.

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Yeah, Def some unwanted activity in there though... carnage!

 

If this was a pushrod engine with two valves per cylinder i could kinda believe that is an intake valve kissing the piston. Coming down from right to left, the mark could almost appear as if a valve slapped the piston. But since this is a 4valve engine.... this doesnt add up real easily. Another picture would be nice to try to compare against maybe from a different angle or what-not.

 

Little bit of an update. So I’m about to start an engine swap on this truck after letting that marvel mystery oil sit in the cylinder for a couple months. I can actually turn the crank backwards and slightly forwards!

My guess is it’s still shot. I’ll probably pull it and then tear it down and see what really went wrong. The new engine should have just under 250,000 km on it.