Smoke after hill climb (3rd gen taco), then blown engine.

[DaveInDenver]

Not that this happening is remotely okay on a Tacoma that doesn't sound like it was doing anything it wasn't clearly designed and marketed to do, this kinda worries me honestly.

Agree that it's marketed but I don't know if that only implies what it's designed for. I don't know that either way. This much is true, there's not a worldwide population of trucks beating them up on unimproved roads to know how steep you can go and for how long. All engines have an orientation where the oil pools away from the pickup eventually, even with baffles.

thing in and of itself doesn't mean the 2GR is a flawed design. I wonder if the 2GR-FE pan is the same as the 2GR-FKS just for peace of mind.

I didn't say it was flawed, but there are always limitations.

 

[Mundo4x4Casa]

When Toyota actually gets around to a rebuild, they will determine what actually happened to your engine. The clues will be there. If it hydrolocked, the clues are there. If oil starved, it will be obvious. I've seen complete roll overs where the engine kept going but oil was leaked into the cylinders causing massive amounts of smoke while burning off, but the (usually) domestic V-8's kept going with no long term detrimental effect. Could be the length of the climb and maybe minutes of high angle bled the sump down to a condition that it could not keep up with the oil flow. Up hill climbing is built in to most off-road rigs with a larger, deeper oil pan at the rear. I had my CJ-8 nearly vertical for many minutes winching waterfalls and obstacles at the Hammers, but all the oil flow was drained back to the lower sump. One time, after slow rolling on my side did I see white smoke coming from the tailpipe, a sure sign of oil intrusion. On a 1989, I-6-cylinder Toyota Cressida we one owned, the engine had a miss that could not be found even after getting very close to a buy back the magic number of weeks in the shop. The car had about 20K miles on it by that time and the pesky miss. After many attempts, including replacing the complete primary electrical system looms, Toyota finally pulled the head and found that the head had a crack in the water jacket spraying coolant right onto the one spark plug and causing the occasional miss. Just a fluke. They replaced the head and we unloaded the car. The tech told me that they had expended over $10K in repair tickets trying to run down the problem. jefe

 

[Buliwyf]

Is the pickup at the front of the pan? Aaaargh, I have to crawl under my own truck again, but I think my sump is rear.

 

[DaveInDenver]

Good question @Buliwyf.

On the 2GR-FE it looks to be towards the front of the sump, which is at the rear of the engine (flywheel to the left in the diagram).

I can't say for certain that the oil pan and pickup they use for the Tacoma 2GR-FKS application is the same, though.

In the forward profile you can see the tilt that requires the track pan. If you make right turns the oil is pushed away from the pickup.




On the older 1GR-FE it's in back, at the bottom of the sump (flywheel to the right in the diagram).



It's details like this that matter. Being a car engine it's possible (if the pan is the same, which I admit I do not know) no one ever really considered it. The 1GR has only ever been used in trucks and lots of them.

 

[Buliwyf]

Shape has a ton to do with it as well. A really deep, narrow sump is fine up front. If the Taco sump is similar to this Superquadros, having it at the front is fine. You'd have to be almost upside down to not have oil in this sump. Being that just half a quart puts the sump way under the oil level.

 

[jasmtis]

Good question @Buliwyf.

On the 2GR-FE it looks to be towards the front of the sump, which is at the rear of the engine (flywheel to the left in the diagram).

I can't say for certain that the oil pan and pickup they use for the Tacoma 2GR-FKS application is the same, though.

In the forward profile you can see the tilt that requires the track pan. If you make right turns the oil is pushed away from the pickup.

View attachment 475864


On the older 1GR-FE it's in back, at the bottom of the sump (flywheel to the right in the diagram).

View attachment 475863

It's details like this that matter. Being a car engine it's possible (if the pan is the same, which I admit I do not know) no one ever really considered it. The 1GR has only ever been used in trucks and lots of them.

If you look at OP's photo he would've been at both a steep angle up and to the left(which is effectively similar to accelerating out of a hard right hand corner). Less forces because (did some digging because I'm mildly paranoid now) it sounds like people on the Lotus forums say you need to be exceeding a g cornering regularly before you need to worry about an aftermarket oil pan(that would be literally on our side) but you spend a lot more time in that position so maybe? I'll just stick to my Rover for now for my off roading needs, much more reliable . That 20w50 isn't going to do any sloshing around(I know that's not how this works)