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[JamesV6CDX]

Well the 2.0 16v is apart.

Symptoms were loss of oil, some mixing of coolant in oil, pressuring, and a intermittent misfire.



Made the 120 odd mile trip home in it, but to my horror when I got home the lifters sounded like they were going to come through the engine, it was VERY tappy. Checked oil - oh hell - nothing on the stick. It took 4litres to bring it back up.

Fired her up again after adding this and the lifters instantly shut up and all was smooth again. I'm not sure how many miles I did on the motorway with it this low on oil - any chance I did any bottom end damage?


Anyway, I stripped it down yesterday, and it was in a very bad way and had some signs of bad workmanship / lack of servicing.

1) Breathers, the big metal breather pipe is solid with crud top to bottom, I suspect it's never been off in 132000 miles. The breather from the inlet manifold to the cam cover was also solid all the way back to the manifold with crud, will need replacing.

2) Safety clip was not on the accelerator cable.

3) Cam cover bolts were WAY overtightened. I needed a breaker bar to get them off! This, combined with the breathers blocked, will account for the fact that the plug wells were full of oil!

4) General state of the cams, and head. Thankfully there's no excess wear visible, BUT it was filthy in there.

5) Valve timing was a tooth advanced and the belt was dangerously slack. Tensioner/idlers and waterpump feel fine though, quite new, so probably poorly fitted.

6) Not sure how, but when I went to remove the exhaust, discovered that oil is leaking out of the HG down the NS of the block (or at least it seems that way).

Stripdown went ok, I only broke one bolt off in the exhaust manifold to downpipe, and this is now drilled and re-tapped. I've also started cleaning the head up, ready for a skim, and rebuild/valve lap before the car goes together.

Pics:

A nice oily engine





A close up of the camcover:



Will it ever run again?



State of the head after removal:



Me thinks it may have been a bit hot in these chambers?



Finally - the head gasket, looking sorry for itself...

[JamesV6CDX]

Ah yes, and when it's done, I need to look at the ATF level.

It's slipping like beggary at high revs.

HOPEFULLY its just low fluid, like everything else - but I suspect I may be looking for an AR25  

[Debs.]

  Gosh!....'No-Fear' James, indeed!

You deserve some good luck with that project having taken a gamble and with the hair-raising/greying journey home.....`will be watching your progress with great interest.  

[Entwood]

Looks like it's going well .. so far ..  

IMHO - if there was no "low oil pressure" warning on the drive home (and assuming the warning is serviceable ...) then the bottom end probably had enough lubrication to avoid any damage.

4 litres sounds an awful lot.. the haynes book of lies  implies it holds 4.5 litres total !!! ... I suppose that means you had 1/2 litre doing the work !!! The good side to that is that I'll bet you checked the oil before you left .. so you were only running on bare minimums for a relatively short while ...  

[JamesV6CDX]

Looks like it's going well .. so far ..  

IMHO - if there was no "low oil pressure" warning on the drive home (and assuming the warning is serviceable ...) then the bottom end probably had enough lubrication to avoid any damage.

4 litres sounds an awful lot.. the haynes book of lies  implies it holds 4.5 litres total !!! ... I suppose that means you had 1/2 litre doing the work !!! The good side to that is that I'll bet you checked the oil before you left .. so you were only running on bare minimums for a relatively short while ...  

Correct, I did check the oil before I left!

I didn't get any oil light on the dash, (although the MID may have given me an indication   ) - I rekon there was probably JUST enough pressure to keep the bottom end happy - which is my only concern! Top end stuff I can sort.

As an aside, although the book states 4.5 litres, I always seem to get a whole 5l can in one, incl the filter.



 

[JamesV6CDX]

Mr DTM, (seeing as you asked for the pic - others are welcome to comment!)

as per the other thread, what do you think to the HG and the oil down the block?

I'd also really appreciate if you could comment on the low oil on the way home

[Kevin Wood]

Looks like the pressure feed to the head is on the inlet side so odd that oil's been leaking on the exhaust side. However, given the condition of the breathers there could have been plenty of pressure in the crankcase.

I can see some fire rings on that gasket too.

There's so much oil around it's difficult to see what's happened.

The oil loss is worrying. With that little oil you were almost certainly getting interruptions to the oil supply which is probably why the lifters filled with air. All you can do is hope the bottom end survived. Did you drive it under load after correcting the level to see if there were any signs of knocking?

Where the hell did 4 litres of oil go in a 100 mile drive? Bet no-one was tailgating you!

Edited to add: What sort of state are the bores in?

Kevin

[JamesV6CDX]

Bet no-one was tailgating you!

 

Hehe, they couldn't keep up with me!

I didn't drive afterwards, I want the engine repaired before it goes any further!

I suspect I've got away by the skin of my teeth...

Strangely - there is no blue smoke at all from the exhaust !

[tunnie]

do you plan to get the head skimmed?

[JamesV6CDX]

I can see some fire rings on that gasket too.

 

On a closer look, I can too - but it still doesn't look in a good way!

[JamesV6CDX]

do you plan to get the head skimmed?

Dunno - open to suggestions!

Is there a way I can check it's flat? (straight edge and feeler blade?)

Or just skim to be sure?

[tunnie]

do you plan to get the head skimmed?

Dunno - open to suggestions!

Is there a way I can check it's flat? (straight edge and feeler blade?)

Or just skim to be sure?

When i did father tunnies 2.2, i was ordered to by Mr DTM!

However on the project car... if i is HG dunno if it worth doing  :-/

Think i paid £40 odd for it be skimmed  :-/

[JamesV6CDX]

do you plan to get the head skimmed?

Dunno - open to suggestions!

Is there a way I can check it's flat? (straight edge and feeler blade?)

Or just skim to be sure?

When i did father tunnies 2.2, i was ordered to by Mr DTM!

However on the project car... if i is HG dunno if it worth doing  :-/

Think i paid £40 odd for it be skimmed  :-/

Yep, £30 for a skim here - cheap enough. Don't want to mess up compression if unnecessary though.

I personally suspect it's had a small coolant leak, and ran on neat water for ages, hence the HG fail.

[Kevin Wood]

Is there a sign of a HG failure (can't see on the pictures)?

If the gasket has just gone porous and leaked water and oil, I'd say it will be OK without a skim. It's just if it has been allowed to overheat and warp....  :-/

Get someone to check it for flatness if in doubt.

A light skim shouldn't affect the compression greatly. A good refurbishers will know what they can safely skim it down to, and will only take off as much material as they need to to get a flat face. A little more compression is not an issue for LPG anyway.

Kevin

[Martin_1962]

do you plan to get the head skimmed?

Dunno - open to suggestions!

Is there a way I can check it's flat? (straight edge and feeler blade?)

Or just skim to be sure?

When i did father tunnies 2.2, i was ordered to by Mr DTM!

However on the project car... if i is HG dunno if it worth doing  :-/

Think i paid £40 odd for it be skimmed  :-/

Yep, £30 for a skim here - cheap enough. Don't want to mess up compression if unnecessary though.

I personally suspect it's had a small coolant leak, and ran on neat water for ages, hence the HG fail.

LPG conversion - compression - skim it!