This relates to Prado & Hilux with the 1kd-ftv diesel.
The engine has been around since 2000 & there are 3 variants.
In Aus, it came out in the Hilux in 2005 & Prado in 2006.
PROBLEM NUMBER 1.
The engine that was fitted to prados & hiluxes from the above dates, copper seats were used at the bottom of the injector, it's job is to seal the combustion chamber at the base of the injector. It has been proven thousands of times over these seats are not doing the job.
In the above picture is what they look like.
The injector should be clean & free of debris.
You can see the seat/seal/sheet whatever you like to call it has let go.
Most of the time if they are still sealed, it's only just.
In the pic:
The top one, see the burn mark? It's leaking & has blown the oring & oil is leaking down also.
The middle one, just holding on.
The lower, seat leaking, oring in tact. These are the hardest to remove, dry baked.
Why does this matter?
Compression gasses are going into the engine oil area.
It bakes & carbonises the engine oil.
It slowly blocks the oil pickup. You can google for some nice pics of this.
The engine is starved of oil.
Next thing you know, your bottom end bearings are melted.
Other damage is done. You need a new motor.
Im not 100% sure what date the newer (grey look) coated seats were introduced, however I think it was all sorted by 01/2008.
Here's a set I recently removed from a 2007 120 series, seats still sealing well.
150k & I have seen them over 200k, pretty much looking like that.
Anytime I see copper seats they are usually leaking.
A few more dodgy copper ones for you to analyse.
If you have an early vehicle in those manufacture dates & would like to avoid this, have your injectors seats changed & oil pick up cleaned if there was blow-by.
The injector ports must be super clean
All vehicles:
When you change your oil or have you oil changed check or ask them to look & check the oil pickup, as this is the tell tail sign of the leak at those seats.
In this pic, the oil pickup is pretty well blocked. 2 injectors had the leak/blow by.
Yes somebody sold their problem, but lucky the new owner was smart enough to get it check immediately.
This is what the blocked oil pick ups look like with the sump off.
Too late for this one:
How do I avoid this problem?
Don't loose sleep over it:
If your vehicle is 2005-06-07-08 get the injectors out & replace those seats.
I'd suggest you might just throw a fresh set of injectors at it as they are no less than 6-7 years old.
Then:
Change your oil & check the oil pick up every 5000klms.
Because the vehicles recycling system the oil does get contaminated fast, you not have to do the oil every 5k, however it will look after your engine better in the long term.
It also gives you more opportunity to check that oil pickup.
Early stages
Clean
