Went and pooched it again...

[Derek]

TS, what oil were you running? Unless you run the engine low on oil, a quality oil should prevent rod bearings from getting chewed up.

He mentioned earlier that he has been using Mobil1 since he purchased it so I doubt it was an oil quality issue unless there was previous damage done from a result of the dealer oil changes.

 

[GrampsT4R]

Who cares what quality oil he was running or how much was in there. Who are you going to get to pay for it? The lube shop that changed the oil? Toyota? It's a bummer that the engine broke but it's no ones fault but your own. If it died on the freeway at 60 mph and toasted a bearing you're still SOL.

 

[progress4m]

...
I don't redline, ever. It does horrid things..

I maybe misreading your post, but it sounds like you do not completely trust the engine in your 4Runner…and you do realize that ECU will not allow you run the engine past the redline mark..
So even if OP ran it close to the red line for 5-10 minutes it should not resulted in the catastrophic failure…
There are many possibilities why it did happened… here are some main once that comes to my mind: the engine was not well designed, not correctly assembled, not properly maintained or simply wore-out (because it was poorly maintained or not well designed)..
So “running close to red line” may contributed to one the above, but should not be seeing as a root cause of the failure…
Well designed and maintained engine will run close to red line with no issues. I do not do it just for fun in my 4Runner, but I do it occasionally when I needed it and I have complete trust in it; I would not have the 4Runner if I would be afraid to push it hard…

To op: sorry to hear about your engine failure… I would look into swapping used one in instead of repairing the old one .. best of luck man!

 

[DiskDoctr]

I've seen a few V8's on eBay for a decent price recently, you may want to check it out for V6's

 

[NorthernRyan]

dam that sucks
i guess you wont be doing donuts anymore in a vehicle meant for off roading and towing

Plus your "cool story bro" comment, you're being a ... not helpful, so if you don't have anything to contribute, don't.
And, because I don't intend to pay Toyota in Fort Mac 9k doesn't mean I'm defaulting to the even worse decision of buying a new 4runner. Probably going to learn how to do an engine swap...

I think this boils down to a situation where you have a younger driver (not sure, but sounds late teens/early 20's) who is on their first or second car and probably drove it very hard, clearly was negligent with it at times in terms of treatment. This negligence could well have applied to maintenance as well. So, it is very easy to see how an engine that was driven hard, perhaps not given the proper maintenance it needed, would blow a bearing when pushed hard.

Red line is called red line [...blah blah blah].

I never even said redlining and doubt our auto tanny + ECU even really lets us "redline" it. Donuts on a lake where it's melting on top requires a hamster for an engine to get the wheels spinning.
The engine failed when going up a grade of around 5% which took about 1.5 minutes. The revs stayed high (mostly around 4k) as it was very muddy and I had to keep tire spin going. This is moderate offroading that 20+ work (Ford) trucks had done before me that day getting to pipeline construction.

So thanks for making a bunch of assumptions unnecessarily to call it user error, very useful discussion. If you had read my previous posts you would see the fact I have driven it for its last 30k km out of 150k km. I do oil changes with Mobile 1 synthetic every 6000 km which is easy when you only put 10k a year on it as I don't drive it to work. So maybe it wasn't treated the best before I had it but was family driven dealership maintained before, figured it was my best bet for a used one.
I'm a 26 year old engineer but thanks. I bought this vehicle to have fun and go offroading/camping with it, not to take the kids to soccer practice. If going offroad maybe 20 times in 3 years is "negligent" then I guess I should have bought a jeep. As the jeep guys I know beat the shit out of their rigs on trips I turn down because of that, and never have bloody engine problems. I hope all the other people on this forum don't put suspension lifts and lockers to go to the grocery store...
Most of your other posts were reasonably respectful DC Runner so take my rant with a, I'm still a bit upset about my 4runner, grain of salt. Even when the rear diff failed when pulling a buddy out I didn't really get upset about it. I was in swamp, so how the wheels didn't spin and diff failed I have no idea but I know what I was doing caused it and that's fine, upgrade opportunity.

Anybody else click on this thread cause they didn't know wtf pooched meant...? Sorry to hear about the engine, just had a similar event with my 3rd gen last summer, minus the doughnut part. Good luck to yah, live and learn!

Haha, my bad. The Newfies (from Newfoundland) use it all the time as in "you went and pooched 'er didn't ya b'y".

I'm going to start a new thread to talk engine options and put all the information I know about my situation and put down some of what I've read. Someone will probably need it in the future. Hope to get some of your guys inputs on it.

 

[BCfish]

Amazing how many people jump all over someone on this site nowadays when some asks for info or help. The OPs don't need someone shaking their finger in their face vehicles break down even the most well maintained vehicle can breakdown.. Give the guy a break it's easy to be an armchair QB when your at you keyboard.:behindsofa:

 

[ebg18t]

From what I have read from others make sure if you get a used motor make sure it is identical to your current one. There are Subtle differences between the years which has caused others massive frustration.

If I was in your shoes I would rebuild it with oem parts and call it a day. It won't be cheap but should be good for a long time if done properly.