Lessons Learned Rebuilding 5.0 V8 2012 LR4 Engine

[ryanjl]

The previous owner had run the engine to the point that it was so hot that the oil filter cartridge melted down into the block and all the rest of the cartridge (fibers and melted plastic) was pumped throughout the engine. Everything was clogged.

Holy cow.

 

[LR4Slavo]

Red Top Engine...thanks so much for sharing your story and the experience! Your story actually helped me feel better about what I did that made me feel pretty foolish. My experience is similar to yours but with different components and my own set of dumb mistakes that have made this quite challenging.

Bought 2012 LR4 from an auction...barely ran...knew the problems with the motors but had never seen the problem I uncovered. The previous owner had run the engine to the point that it was so hot that the oil filter cartridge melted down into the block and all the rest of the cartridge (fibers and melted plastic) was pumped throughout the engine. Everything was clogged. You very accurately state that so many of the oil passages on this motor are small...

Fast forward...had the block milled (sleeves had sunk from the heat) and had the heads milled to their limit. Huge mistake I made was that I decided to just "clean" (put that in quotes on purpose) the oil cooler. So, if you are in this process...whatever you do...just buy an oil cooler. Don't cheap out like I did and try to clean it. I replaced the timing chains and tensioners etc. Truck ran like a champ for a 500 mile trip...and suddenly I heard a rod knocking. Broke engine down and oil pickup was completely covered up with particles to where it could barely pick up oil. The only thing that I can figure out is that bringing the engine up to operating temps had dislodged all the oil filter pieces that I "missed" when "cleaning" the oil cooler. Again, best thing is to just buy a new one.

I was able to get the crank turned, but the heads could not be brought back and the block was questionable whether it had more oil filter particles in it...so I opted for a used block. Thankfully, block I found had not overheated so didn't have to be milled...the machine shop just deglazed the cylinders. Had to get two heads and both heads had several burnt exhaust valves. Machine shop magicians scavenged exhaust valves from the old heads at the machine shop and I got away for under $1k.

In the process of re-assembly now. Was looking something up when your post popped up. Thanks for sharing your experience! I too hope that someone that's thinking about fudging on an oil cooler like I did won't. It cost me a lot of time and sweat trying to save that little bit of $ on the oil cooler!

Hopefully this time a get a little more fun out of this than 500 miles. My 2001 Disco II is actually more reliable than this, but I've done some serious mods to that as well and that's another long story.

Thanks again Red Top!

Damn man! That's quite the ordeal, great to hear you were able to turn the situation around.

Also, great tip on the oil cooler!