Engine Problems... Toyota says its Blown :( Options

[94celigts]

Hey guys i have a 5sfe with 250000km on it. I did an oil change not long ago last week actually and everything went fine untill yesterday... My oil light started coming off and on again, so i checked the dipstick was a tiny bit low so i topped it up. Now my oil light is on constintly and my engine is making a terrible knocking sound like a diesel but only under 1500rmp anything above it runs fine no chug or anything. I was told at toyota that my engine is blown or about to blow and more then likely it is the rod bearings that are out.. but they only said this without checking into anything deeply. They quoted me 2300$ for a 91 5sfe installed and everything. My question is, is it hard to determine what the problem actually is? because if it was something cheap internally in my engine that did not do much damage then could i not just take apart my engine and figure it out? I wouldnt want to pay for a new engine and find out that it was a 100$-500$ repair. Let me know your thoughts or what i might be able to do to figure this out... i really love this car and i do not want to part with it yet.

Thanks for your help.

[lagos]

The engine oil light doesn't mean low oil, it means low oil pressure and if it was on and you have knock now, then you definitely spun at least one rod bearing. Check out to see what your oil pressure is. The metal used in those rod bearings is a softer metal which pastes up and goes to the bottom of the oil pan, do an oil change and see if you can see a silvery swirl in the oil, believe me it stands out. You might have also scored the cylinder walls if a piston or piston(s) got stuck and roughed around, most of the time they just get stuck up there and you should be ok without any cylinder wall scoring. Also your crank probably got scored and will need to be turned. Sorry dude.

x2.