Well this is a weird one I could use some advice on. Had the truck in my local shop who I trust very much, they were to replace the valve cover gaskets because I have had some oil leaking near the cam plug on the driver side for several months. Not enough oil to drop the oil level though, and my oil was always changed every 3,000.

They drive the car into the bay, say it runs fine. They do the job, everything goes OK. Then they start it up after it is all buttoned up and the guy says he puts it into P and gives it a little gas and hears this huge loud noise and he shuts it down. Turns out the engine thru a rod, there are holes in both sides of the block and a dent in the oil pan. Ouch.

This is a one family car, always maintained, mostly commuter miles, no towing. I'm not sure how to handle this with the shop. Could they have caused this problem? Are they responsible to put a new engine in? Or was this just a case of bad luck and it would of happened to me on my way to work today anyway?

Other recent work I had done to it: new battery and pulled out starter to inspect/replace solenoid contacts.

Is there anything the shop could of done to cause this? I think even if they dropped a wrench in the intake it would not just drop in the cylinder block. They hadn't dropped the pan yet so I haven't got to see the debris field yet.

Any advice on what I should ask and look for. I want to handle this with the shop as fairly as possible as I like them and their work and don't want to screw them over, but also don't want to get screwed over.

Thanks.

Where is the vehicle now? What did the shop say to you about the job/damage? :(

It's possible that a bolt could've fallen into the intake manifold. If they loosened up the intake manifold bolts (not required when changing out the valve cover gaskets), they could've leaked coolant into the cylinders and that would've caused some serious damage. I would have the cylinders bore scoped out to see what the internal damage is.

Options are good to git a replacement engine fer cheap. Snap some piccies of the damage and post it up... ;)

The truck is still at the shop and they gave me a loaner. The owner is working with his insurance company to see if it is covered. He hasn't claimed responsibility but is leading me to believe he is going to take care of it. We will see. He has his eye on a 30K mile engine but his estimate is $3,600 for parts and labor to put it in.

The coolant in the cylinder theory is the one I'm thinking it is now. I thought when you replaced the valve cover gaskets you had to remove the intake manifold, or is that just the intake plenum? If they removed the manifold without draining the radiator then coolant could of gotten into a cylinder and caused hydrolock. I have asked about scoping the cylinders but he wants to wait on the insurance answer first before touching the thing. Hopefully I'll have an answer and the truck back before too long.

The mechanic had found a used engine with 30K miles on it, but then the yard sold that whole truck. So now he is getting an engine from a rolled 96 T100 with 119K miles on it. The problem is, we do not know if they did the timing belt at 110K like they should have. Hopefully he/we can inspect to see if it has a timing belt job, otherwise we'll be dumping a lot of money in it. Looks like the mechanic's insurance will pay for the whole ordeal, unless I want o have the timing belt replaced before they put it back in the truck.

Here's a thread over at Yotatech that shows piccies of the job...
5vzfe leaky valve covers fixed (56k beware) - YotaTech Forums (http://www.yotatech.com/f2/5vzfe-leaky-valve-covers-fixed-56k-beware-149594/)

Unless they pulled the fuel rail...the scenario of pulling the intake manifold and leaking coolant wouldn't be viable. They said they started it up and it failed at that point? Something had to have gotten into the intake system at some point to cause that much damage.

Since the "new" engine will be out of the truck, I would just go ahead and do the timing belt/water pump/front seals/idler rollers/valve cover gaskets. If you still trust this shop...I would still be cautious about making sure yer not gonna git screwed over fer their mistakes. If you have to git things in writing... ;)

Well just to follow up, the shop's insurance paid for a replacement engine, they put in one with 119K from a rolled T100. They covered all of that and I paid for new timing belt/water pump/idler rollers/valve cover gaskets/spark plugs/tstat etc. I wanted them to put new cam/crank shaft seals but they inspected and said they were fine. Truck runs strong now but a rattle noise from bottom rear of the engine, only under load not at idle or in neutral. They are going to check it out tomorrow. I never did find out what the cause of the other engine failing was.