To rebuild or replace,that is the question

The snow is off of it now, time to make my tundra road worthy again.
It's a 2012 cm 5.7sc 4x4
My question is, should I replace the engine with a used one from the salvage yard or spend the money for parts and shop time to get mine rebuild?
It still starts and runs but burns oil bad. I'm assuming that it has a bad piston or stuck rings.
It has no knocking or ticking sounds, just a bad miss and smoke from oil consumption.

Can anyone chime in if they have had their 5.7 rebuilt and give me a ballpark figure on what you paid for parts/labor to get it back on the road?

 

https://www.buyusedengine.com/used_...size=5.7L&usedengine=usedengine&search=Search

 

Thank you. I found a couple of used ones locally around the same price range and mileage as those,and was thinking about going that route.
I don't think I could have mine rebuild for anywhere close to the price of a used engine.
I was worried about putting my sc on a higher mileage engine but I read through sc threads and looks like a lot of people have had good luck with doing that

 

A compression test is your best indicator of true engine health. Minimum cylinder pressure for 3UR-FE should exceed 145 psi. If your cylinder pressures are less than 145 psi, or more than 15 psi difference between highest and lowest cylinders, your engine is worn out.

Rebuilding is typically the most expensive option because of the labor and machine work that may be needed. After having one rebuild done (not 5.7L, 22RE), I would opt for a complete Toyota reman engine before doing a rebuild. A used engine is probably the most economical choice for a nine year old truck you plan to keep for reliable transportation.

 

Thank you,I appreciate the information.
I'll pop out the plugs and run a compression test, and see what they are running.
I have read that a engine from toyota is waayyy expensive, like 18k and up.
But, I haven't called local toyota to find out yet if that's true

 

I'm very curious to hear what your issue ends up being. In the supercharged world, folks have had a ton of issue with #5 going out (getting too hot, ring ends butting and then causing the crown of the piston to break off). A new short block isn't the worst, but of course you need to make sure your engine builder is very competent. The other alternative would be to reach out to someone like Prospeed to discuss your options.

 

Yeah I'm curious to see what happened myself. I haven't ran a compression check or leak down test yet. I did pull the dtc's when it broke and #5 was the one that was throwing the misfire code. With excessive blow-by and massive amounts of oil burning I'm sure it need something serious.

 

Do debug the actual problem! A stuck PCV valve could cause similar problems and that's a $10 part!

 

You think? I've worked on a lot of different vehicles over the years and I've never seen a pcv make one burn oil like mine.

 

If it's stuck open, you'll burn plenty of oil!

Even if it's something like a valve stem seal that's failed, you're likely still better off with a repair.

 

Thank you, I really appreciate your input!
Yesterday I unhooked the vacuum hose from the pcv valve and plugged the hose. (Leaving the pcv to vent freely)
Then I took the vent hose that runs from the valve cover to the intake air tube off and started it the engine.
The pcv was puking oil smoke along with the valve cover vent hose and both tailpipes.
....But anything is possible and I'm not going to doubt any knowledge that comes from anyone on tundras.com! So tomorrow I'll go grab myself a pcv valve
(probably $20 up here!lol) and give it a try!

 

Yikes, I'd move on to the compression test then.

 

Yup,I agree

 

Do you have any other performance mods on the engine past just the supercharger? Did this start occurring after a specific incident i.e. a WOT pull or something? Or was it just when you started it after the winter it had this issue..?

 

My tundra has been down for over a year now. I bought the tundra used with 40k miles, No mods to speak of, everything was dealer installed according to the build sheet.
The truck broke on my wife, she went to the airport about 120 miles away to pick someone up from a redeye flight. She texted me around 3am, said she was idling at the airport waiting for the flight to arrive and the cel came on.
I ask her about gauge readings and there was no overheating, oil pressure was normal, all was good except for the cel being on. (No smoking at this point)So I told her to just drive it home.
Next morning I plugged in my obd2 and pulled the codes. Random cylinder misfire.
I checked coolant-good
I checked oil- NOT GOOD! Nothing on the stick. Took 6qts to fill. I knew it was done for before I even started it.
Complete smoke show as soon as I fired it up!
I got discussed and parked it where it sets now. And didn't touch it until I joined tundras.com a few weeks ago.
I would have thought that a bad ass truck like the tundras would have a low oil warning light. Because the oil pressure gauge was reading normal.
My wife does have a heavy right foot, so unfortunately I cannot confirm or deny that it might be a serious case of stop light drag racing that killed my tundra.

 

Thanks for the context, and sorry to hear that this is what you're going through.

Most of the time I've heard of these failures of cylinder #5, the misfire code gets thrown at idle (I've read something about the ECU ignoring/not setting misfires when at RPM). Either way, not something fun to be dealing with. Have you reached out to Prospeed or any other vendor for a quote on a built motor for a supercharged application? To be honest, if I blow my engine that is likely the route I will go. Personally, after dealing with something like that, I would not want to risk it on an unknown engine, and would rather pick up an engine that is built to see boost. The whole piston ring butting and exploding the crown has me worried every time I floor my truck.

To be honest, it sounds like the motor was already cooked at the airport, and the 120 mile trip home is most likely where it managed to burn that 6 qts of oil. As far as I'm aware, these engines have a low oil pressure light, but no actual oil level warning indicator, so if the pickup is low enough for it to still be able to suck in oil, it will still show pressure and not throw a light.

Out of curiosity, how many miles were on the truck?

 

I can't remember the exact milage but I know it's well under 100k, I'll post exact miles when I get over where the truck sets, later today.
It's all good tho, it gave me the excuse to purchase a truck I've wanted for a while,I bought a RCSB!

But it's time to get the cm going again so It doesn't set broken for another year.
That way if I wanted, I could sell it for a reasonable price. I wouldn't get much for it the way it sets


* A few more than I remembered but still under a 100k

 

Oof, that's a really rough set of circumstances. These engines take a crap ton of oil, though I don't know how much might have still been in the engine if you couldn't see any on the dipstick. Are there even any used 5.7 engines available in AK? Based on your story I would toss the block in the woods somewhere.

 

I put 6qts in to full, so that means it had about a qt left in the engine.
Yes, there's a few used engines at the local salvage yard. Ranging from 80-140k miles. $4k-$6k price range
$750 core charge, I'll keep my old engine