I have seen those filter caps so tight that I had to use a 24" breaker bar to loosen them and the cap wrench can slip on the plastic caps. Those filter caps only need to be snug but some people over-tighten everything. I think someone gave up and chopped the oil filter cap to pieces with a hammer and screwdriver.
Iāve seen them ridiculously tight too but I canāt see the proper cap wrench slipping off of the vertical ribs on the cap. Even if the cap were to be completely rounded it would take a hack of idiotic proportions to do that damage.
Just when you think youāve seen it allā¦
You just reminded me of something funny
Several years ago, one of my colleagues was doing a fluid and filter service on a 4L80E transmission. This particular pan happened to have the factory drain plug. It was the drain plug that required you to use a torx socket, maybe T50 or T55 . . . ?
Anyways, the guy did not clean out the dirt from the drain plug first, in order for the socket to get a good bite. He simply inserted the socket, it didnāt go in very far, and proceeded to round the drain plug out, internally
Instead of just removing the entire pan, and dealing with the plug later, he was that much more determined to remove the drain plug
He asked for help from a guy who was a known thief, hack, and pretty lazy, come to think of it
This second guy used an air hammer with the pointy bit, in an attempt to loosen the drain plug
He didnāt loosen the drain plug
Instead, the bit slipped, and he poked a hole in the pan
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lol ā¦ , good story 
Whatās the torque spec? 300 ft-lbās?
Itās not that type of filter. The filter is encased in an aluminum housing that never gets replaced. You only replace the filter element inside. And to loosen the housing thereās you use a cap type filter wrench and attach it to a socket wrench which will give you all the leverage you need.
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Depending on year, vehicle, and/or engine it could be either plastic or aluminum. My 2013 Camry V6 has the aluminum one but my moms 2012 and 2017 Camry 4cyl. have the plastic one.
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Those donāt look too bad but pictures are hard to tell. If it was mine, Iād use a piece of PVC pipe to fabricate a cylinder to match the sealing surface dimensions. Then spray adhesive an emery cloth disc to the end and spin it with a drill to sand the gouges away. Depending on where the o-ring sits and how wide it gets on compression, would help understand which gouges are really an issue and how deep/wide they need to be to be concerning. Iād want to remove the burrs at a minimum so the ring doesnāt get damaged. Call me an optimist but fixed much worse before. Iād do everything I could to avoid swapping out an entire lower blockā¦
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Pretend you never learned anything about working on cars. Also, pretend youāre really dumb. Now that youāre in the proper frame of mind to imagine yourself as the average Jiffy Lube employee, I bet you can figure out how it happened. 
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How difficult and time-consuming is it to access and remove the damaged part?
If that $58.53 kit jt sanders mentioned above has the needed parts, it sure looks like a good deal to me.
Look up to Nevadaās post, itās a feature cast and machined into the blockā¦not a replaceable part by itself.
I see now. Thanks for clarifying that.
Hi everyone. Thanks for the insight. Aftwr having my normal mechanic (who was on vacation and I didnāt want to wait forā¦will never do that again) and a couple of his colleagues look it over, the best guess is that the tech broke the cap and then used an air chisel or something similar to get the cap out. Weāre guessing this since the cap that was āonā it when it was towed was brand new.
Since this was its first oil change, I canāt prove they did it, so I have no way to hold them accountable. My mechanic is taking pity on me and getting me a deal on a new engine since the damaged piece is part of the block, and heās doing everything for costā¦
very expensive lesson
As far as I can tell itās not part of the block, but part of the crankcase assembly. I think you can buy thatā¦although expensive and labor intensive to replace.
A fairly common engine - possibly obtain all or bottom from auto recycler.
@TwinTurbo idea about sandpaper and PVC pipe would be the way I would goā¦
itās not that big of the problem to warrant much bigger work of engine or lower assembly swap
I agree,
and I would absolutely try a fix first- before swapping an engine out.
@Shaybee: You canāt make it any worse, can you? If you screw it up more- youāre in the same boat you are in now: purchasing a new engine or lower assembly.
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