Advice required: Spun out rod bearings.

[nasrath007]

So I bought a 2013 FRS only 48hrs ago from a forum member here, and unfortunately to my bad luck, in my 24 hrs of ownership (and driving the car back 900 miles from Detroit to Boston), the connecting rod bearings spun out on me. I feel that it is partially my fault as I may have gotten carried away with the "enthusiastic" driving in the back roads once I got back home.

Long story short, after a lot of grieving over the car I just bought (with 128k miles on it), I figured that it may be utterly pointless to replace the Short Block (as my mechanic suggested) with an OEM one for 2-3k. Instead I was thinking about going for forged internal parts in order to better reinforce the engine's reliability, and leave room for future forced induction should I choose to go down that route.

So I need some advice from all of the owners who have possibly experienced similar problems as mine. The car is bone stock with 0 mods. I would like to keep the car as reliable as possible, as being on a grad student's budget with a hobby car is quite difficult. Any advice regarding a rebuild is much appreciated.

P.S- This is my first tuner car, I have little to no experience on engine rebuilds. If any member can suggest a good shop that rebuilds engines in Massachusetts or around the New England area, I'd greatly appreciate it.

[CSG Mike]

Keeping RPMs high? SOunds like you may have thinned out your oil from not having an oil cooler.

Just replace it with a used stock engine.

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by nasrath007

So I bought a 2013 FRS only 48hrs ago from a forum member here, and unfortunately to my bad luck, in my 24 hrs of ownership (and driving the car back 900 miles from Detroit to Boston), the connecting rod bearings spun out on me. I feel that it is partially my fault as I may have gotten carried away with the "enthusiastic" driving in the back roads once I got back home.

Long story short, after a lot of grieving over the car I just bought (with 128k miles on it), I figured that it may be utterly pointless to replace the Short Block (as my mechanic suggested) with an OEM one for 2-3k. Instead I was thinking about going for forged internal parts in order to better reinforce the engine's reliability, and leave room for future forced induction should I choose to go down that route.

So I need some advice from all of the owners who have possibly experienced similar problems as mine. The car is bone stock with 0 mods. I would like to keep the car as reliable as possible, as being on a grad student's budget with a hobby car is quite difficult. Any advice regarding a rebuild is much appreciated.

P.S- This is my first tuner car, I have little to no experience on engine rebuilds. If any member can suggest a good shop that rebuilds engines in Massachusetts or around the New England area, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Well, that's too bad .......

I agree with @CSG Mike and your mechanic ........ just replace the engine with a stock engine.

Once you get out of grad school and get good job, you will have the time and money to play with modifying engines.


humfrz

[nasrath007]

Originally Posted by CSG Mike

Keeping RPMs high? SOunds like you may have thinned out your oil from not having an oil cooler.

Just replace it with a used stock engine.

I didn't think I'd need a cooler tbh since I'm not running any forced inductions. But I'll make note of that. Any particular coolers I should be considering?

[nasrath007]

Originally Posted by humfrz

Well, that's too bad .......

I agree with @CSG Mike and your mechanic ........ just replace the engine with a stock engine.

Once you get out of grad school and get good job, you will have the time and money to play with modifying engines.


humfrz

I suppose I'll go that route if the stock engine + labor do not exceed the costs of just rebuilding the current motor (short block) with forged internals. I just honestly have no idea what the going rate would be for labor to install an oem engine on this car.

[Kodename47]

If it's spun the bearing with no other significant damage then why not buy a replacement block/engine and then keep the damaged one so that you can rebuild it at a later date when funds/requirements arise.

[nasrath007]

Originally Posted by Kodename47

If it's spun the bearing with no other significant damage then why not buy a replacement block/engine and then keep the damaged one so that you can rebuild it at a later date when funds/requirements arise.

That is actually a good idea for the time being. My only fear is of a spun rod again on the stock motor after replacement. Reason being, I read of spun out bearings all over the forums, due some apparent design flaw in the 2013-2015 models where the engine suffers oil starvation when pushed a little hard. I just dont wanna put a stock one back on, only to have the same thing happen again.

[wbradley]

Oil starvation within 48 hours of purchasing vehicle?

Did you even check the oil before driving 900 miles?

The Scions were spec'd to use 0W20 from the factory. It's evident an oil cooler is safer for repeated track use particularly if using forced induction.

There might have been something clogging an oil passage or the car ran dry/massively overheating the oil for extended duration. And if there are other reported cases of bearing failure they certainly are infrequent. Not a failure point of frequent occurrence at all except perhaps when people modify stock engines to 500 HP and then the failure is actually the rod itself bending, not the rod bearing.

Replace, but forged internals are required for ~300 WHP or greater, otherwise unnecessary unless your wallet had the need to trim down.

[D_Thissen]

That's some really bad luck. Did you happen to check the oil level before you drove it home? I agree with the others, just replace the stock motor with a used one and keep the blown one in case you want to rebuild it in the future.

[Irace86.2.0]

A used, stock engine may be more expensive in parts than a rebuild but probably not labor. Changing the motor may be the way to go.

As for your spun bearing, that could be bad luck, low oil, bad oil, old oil, who knows. Unless you money shifted, I can’t imagine you pushed the car harder on the streets than people do on the track who also have bone stock cars and who don’t experience problems.

[chaoskaze]

I guess it is 128k miles

but during my 60k mile of ownership I beat my car near redline for longer then 30mins on cali mt passes.................>___>

When oil does thin out the engine sounds different, I always used good oil, sustina or motul & change them out every 6k miles & have magnetic drain plug or magnetic oil filter so i guess that helped a bit. It could be many reasons why it happened.


I would say just replace the engine with a newer one...lol 2017 ones if you are feeling lucky instead of getting into forged internal now. 2017+ engines has more special treatment, or just get a 2015+ engine if budge is in your mind.

[Yoshoobaroo]

Originally Posted by chaoskaze

I guess it is 128k miles

but during my 60k mile of ownership I beat my car near redline for longer then 30mins on cali mt passes.................>___>

When oil does thin out the engine sounds different, I always used good oil, sustina or motul & change them out every 6k miles & have magnetic drain plug or magnetic oil filter so i guess that helped a bit. It could be many reasons why it happened.


I would say just replace the engine with a newer one...lol 2017 ones if you are feeling lucky instead of getting into forged internal now. 2017+ engines has more special treatment, or just get a 2015+ engine if budge is in your mind.

The 2017 engine is not a straight swap, lots of things need to be swapped over from the old engine (crank angle hardware, one fuel rail, and more I can't remember). A 2015-2016 motor is a better bet since it got some updates but it swaps easily with just a few connectors that need to be transfered over.

[Spuds]

Originally Posted by CSG Mike

Keeping RPMs high? SOunds like you may have thinned out your oil from not having an oil cooler.

Just replace it with a used stock engine.

In your opinion, at what oil temperatures do you need an oil cooler to keep the oil from getting too thin assuming 0w20?

[Yoshoobaroo]

Originally Posted by Spuds

In your opinion, at what oil temperatures do you need an oil cooler to keep the oil from getting too thin assuming 0w20?

Depends on the oil. Some 0-20 oils are good til only 220F, others only to 260, a few go higher than that.