Topline Engine & Repair of New England, North Dakota, owned by Brian and Kim Herold, just completed a repair on my 1992 Toyota Landcruiser. For diagnostics, a new distributor, rotor, and cap, the charges were $1,130.

As you will see and hear in the video below, I could not believe that they handed-over my vehicle to me like this. It sounded like it had something major, seriously wrong with it when I turned the key. The engine would soon stall on its own at idle, and was very unsteady idling. Even when revving the engine at much higher rpms, the engine would stall when shifting the automatic transmission into Drive or Reverse. The engine sounded horrible.

A month earlier, I had towed this vehicle in to Topline Engine & Repair because it would not start. Prior to this, prior to it not starting, during more than three years of driving this vehicle, it had always started, run, and drove normally. I drove it home one day, parked it, turned it off, and the following morning it would not start. It would not start, but the engine cranked normally, with completely normal engine timing and engine compression sounds.

As it is now, this vehicle can’t be driven. The engine will rev up to a maximum of about 3,500-4,000 rpm while in Park or Neutral, but it doesn’t have enough engine power to shift the automatic transmission into Drive or Reverse without stalling multiple times. Driving down the road, it stalls, and has difficulty re-starting.

One likely possibility, that would explain why a completely normal driving and running engine would suddenly change into a horribly running engine across ALL cylinders, AND lose most of its horsepower across ALL cylinders, would be if the timing-chain jumped one or more gear-teeth. Another possibility of why ALL cylinders would misfire and ALL cylinders would lose horsepower, would be a faulty “ignitor” and/or “ignitor control module”.

I have never had a mechanic try to return a vehicle to me like this. After paying $1,130 for diagnostic and repairs, what would you do?

Update 12/24/2024

Yesterday, 12/23/24 I was served some legal documents from attorney Jennifer Grosz, accusing me of Defamation. I have not made any UNTRUE STATEMENTS OF FACT. This caused me to look further into this matter, to do more research about the people involved, what kinds of things have happened in the past. I needed more information. Have there been disputes, court cases, and litigation in the past? Here are some additional STATEMENTS OF FACT that I discovered:

North Dakota Case Number 45-95-K-00800

North Dakota Case Number 21-11-C-00020

North Dakota Case Number 21-2012-CV-00005

North Dakota Case Number 21-2012-SC-00005

North Dakota Case Number 21-2019-SC-00011

North Dakota Case Number 21-2021-CV-00032

If clicking on the above referenced internet hyper-links does not work, you can enter in the Case Number on the North Dakota Court Repository Website and do a Case Number Search. The first case is searched in the Criminal category, the other five cases are searched in the Civil category, select Stark County https://publicsearch.ndcourts.gov/default.aspx

Update 3/18/25

At the end of of October 2024, I towed this 1992 Toyota Landcruiser to a very busy automobile repair business. I asked this repair business to remove the Landcruiser timing chain cover to see if the timing chain had jumped one or more gear teeth on the crankshaft or camshaft. They did what I asked and found that there was nothing wrong with the timing chain, timing gears, or timing chain tensioners.

Next, this auto repair business removed the engine valve cover, and found that there was nothing wrong with the valves, valve stems, valve rockers, or valve springs.

Next, this auto repair business was compression testing each of the engine cylinders, and they found that Cylinders 5-6 were leaking through the head gasket into each other, and Cylinders 1-2 were leaking through the head gasket into each other.

This engine malfunction condition was much worse than one or two “dead cylinders” that might result from a couple of stuck valves. Cylinders 5-6 and Cylinders 1-2 leaking into each other through the head gasket was interfering with every compression stroke, power stroke, exhaust stroke, and intake stroke on these four cylinders. In other words, Cylinder 3 and Cylinder 4 were the only two correctly functioning cylinders, resulting in a TOTAL of about 52 engine horsepower, instead of 155 engine horsepower.

This auto repair business removed the engine head, had the engine head machined, replaced the head gasket, and now this 1992 Toyota Landcruiser is running correctly: