The PCV fails and fills the intake with oil. Last one I did, I removed about a 1/2 quart of oil from the intake manifold. This can lead to hydro locking the engine; piston trys to compress air fuel mixture but compresses fluid. The fluid doesn't compress and causes bottom end problems.

I'm surprised they were driving the vehicle at all with it smoking. I'm sure the spark plugs were covered in oil.

Did you happen to check the oil level when you dropped the vehicle for repairs?

 

Well they fixed the smoking issue with the new PCV valve and were just test driving it to make sure all was OK. Said they noticed a ticking and then it all let go shortly after. I didn't get a chance to check the oil level. However, with the new PCV I also had them change the oil, so the oil level should have been good for the test drive. Maybe they didn't clean out the oil from the intake?

Other scenario is that the damage was already done. I did drive it for about 15 minutes with it smoking heavily. In that scenario, it was likely the pooled oil in the intake spilling in and getting burned right? Considering I burned at most a gallon of gasoline in that time, could I really have burned enough oil to cause damage?

 

Sounds like the oil in the intake caused the rod to fail.

Was your engine making noise before the PCV fail? The strange part is the engine ran before you took it in the shop and now the engine is damaged. Did you drive into the shop or tow it in?

Burned a gallon of gas. You mean you drove for a while the exhaust smoking?

 

Yes, exhaust started smoking and figured I wasn't far from the mechanic, so just drove it straight there very gently. About 5 miles at most.

The engine wasn't making any significant noises. Had a little bit of a tick noticeable when driving next to a wall with the windows down, but attributed this to exhaust manifold at the time. The same shop even took a look and tightened the bolts, but said it was fine.

Only other thing that was strange was a bit of a vibration at 1100rpm. In hindsight, both of these could have been something, but just odd that it's been fine for the better part of a year or 6000 miles. Perhaps the PCV was just the last straw.

I agree it is strange that it was running when I dropped it off and now it needs a new engine.

 

New engine with 49K miles ordered from Roverland Parts. Fingers crossed that all goes smoothly.

Shop said they had changed the oil and cleaned out the intake before it died, so I'm going to chalk this up to previous owner neglect where the stress of the PCV going and the engine ingesting oil probably was just the last straw. The guy at Roverland also said he has seen these engines throw a rod, and I found a few other examples that sound like the same problem:

Engine Failure, Blown Connecting Rod 2007 HSE
https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rov...engine.195555/

Don't have my manual handy, does the LR3 have a low oil level warning light or only a low oil pressure warning light?

 

Well shucks... reading this thread Im gonna throw on a new PCV tonight.

 

I just ordered 3!

 

tiny rattle from the one that was in. Maybe a year and a half old, several oil changes and maybe 20k later.

 

Does a rattle indicate it is bad?

When it goes bad, the intake vacuum is enough to suck oil from the pan?

There's no low oil level warning light, just a low pressure warning light, correct?

 

Couldn't tell you. Just saying both parts I bought from dealer, new one didn't rattle, old one rattled just a tiny bit.

Never got a warning light of any sort for this, just preventative after hearing the horror stories