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[Teebee]

So, the week before last I pass my MOT, last week I go to devon for a week, today I return home on a tow truck

This is very much self inflicted but I started to lose water, 5-6 litres over 25 miles, called the recovery and it turns out they sold me the cheapskate cover with only 25 miles free. They then proceeded to quote me 600 quid to get back!! As that's more than the car is worth I got 15 litres of water and started to top up every 20 miles, I made it to 60 miles out and a £120 recovery bill.

At that point I couldn't find a stop and climbing a hill I had a cloud of smoke and steam come out the back. Made it into a layby but as I stopped it just died, opened the bonnet to find it had 0 water and was engulfed in smoke/steam, any water that was added just poured out the back. While waiting for the flatbed it cooled down so I tried spinning it over, it turns but now makes no attempt to fire, it also sounds like it's turning fast.

Previously I assumed I was leaking from the oil cooler/bridge but now i'm wondering if I have taken out the head gaskets and I assume warped the heads.

What do you reckon and what should I check tomorrow?

[tidla]

as said...

[Knight3179]

i'd check where its gushing water from,have the head pressure tested before ripping it to bits,check for water in oil etc.as its gushing from it may not contaminate the oil,you'll have done some damage but may not be end of the story,though it might well be,if its coming out that fast its barely doing a circuit, did it boil?as in gauge go to red at any point?

[Teebee]

I would assume it boiled although one of the things that threw me is the gauge never went over 100, I think 95 was the highest I saw.

[Gaffers]

As said you will need to find the leak and then pressure test the heads.  You can get a kit from any motor factors which will do the job nicely

[TheBoy]

'pouring out the back' - do you mean dripping off bellhousing, and running on the road out the back, rather than out of the exhaust?

If there was no water in the system, the temp gauages may read incorrectly.


If its at home, strip out inlets, see if leak is obvious, if its a cheap resolution, repair that, then see what happens.  Obviously, if you have a compression gauge, test the compression.


If you have mullered the heads, likes of Darth Loo-knee always has spare ones, if you fancy that sort of challenge...

[unclelicklug]

I'd have thought (tho' speaking from ignorance as far as the V6 engines go..) you might do better to change the engine out if you can find a known good one, either way you are in for a fair bit of work but I would struggle to feel confident of making a good rebuild of your engine if you've run it dry....

Obviously take a little time to investigate first but I would not be sinking money into the engine you have.

And sorry to seem negative, it's not the intention, just the options I'd be looking at.

[Teebee]

With the engine off I could fill it up and it would run straight through off the bellhousing until I put the expansion cap back on. When I spotted it I was hoping it was HBV but all that area was dry, in hindsight looking at a diagram I think it is probably the steel pipe that is fed by the expansion tank that bolts into the rear of the block (don't know the name of it).

After a night's sleep (i'd been on the road 12hrs by the time I got home) i'm thinking i'll scrap it. My Elite is parked behind it suffering from a leak in the same area, knackered ABS ECU, possibly knackered CAT and needing a cam belt change/service. If the known good ECU and CAT will fit it's the better investment in time/money as although the estate is a nice lugger and looks half decent outside the interior is wrecked from the previous owner and it has 60k more miles on it.

So, will a facelift estate cat fit a mini f/l saloon? I'm assuming the ECU will be fine as they are both 2.5 autos?

First time i've ever scrapped a car with 50 weeks MOT on it 

[unclelicklug]

Ouch...but decision made, can't help you with the ECU etc swap - might be an idea to start a new topic??

[Elite Pete]

With the engine off I could fill it up and it would run straight through off the bellhousing until I put the expansion cap back on. When I spotted it I was hoping it was HBV but all that area was dry, in hindsight looking at a diagram I think it is probably the steel pipe that is fed by the expansion tank that bolts into the rear of the block (don't know the name of it).

After a night's sleep (i'd been on the road 12hrs by the time I got home) i'm thinking i'll scrap it. My Elite is parked behind it suffering from a leak in the same area, knackered ABS ECU, possibly knackered CAT and needing a cam belt change/service. If the known good ECU and CAT will fit it's the better investment in time/money as although the estate is a nice lugger and looks half decent outside the interior is wrecked from the previous owner and it has 60k more miles on it.

So, will a facelift estate cat fit a mini f/l saloon? I'm assuming the ECU will be fine as they are both 2.5 autos?

First time i've ever scrapped a car with 50 weeks MOT on it 

I would check the rubber hoses at the rear of the engine just above the metal pipe you were describing

[albitz]

Check hoses/hbv/transfer pipe/ helter skelter pipe etc - all the parts of the cooling system at the rear of the engine. If you find where its leaking from fix it and then drive the car around ( not too far from home at first) It may be ok, they are quite robust engines. Worst case scenario is probably head gaskets. Heads warping is pretty uncommon afaik.

[Teebee]

The leak was gravity based and near immediate on fill up, I thought the hoses were above that height but I will check.

Out of curiosity after my previous post I popped outside and had a look (really couldn't be bothered earlier). I now have mayo in the filler cap that wasn't there last week, when I spin the engine I hear a new squeak from somewhere, but more notable it isn't even attempting to fire. I guess it's not impossible that with the amount of steam it blew out it has cooked something electrical. Whatever happens I will strip it apart to find out what failed, even if only out of curiosity.

[TheBoy]

So, will a facelift estate cat fit a mini f/l saloon? I'm assuming the ECU will be fine as they are both 2.5 autos?

If they are the same engine, the cats are the same.

ECU, well, yes, err, thats a bit more complex.....

Pre DBW V6s have 2 different ECUs - Motronic 2.8.1 and 2.8.3. I believe this needs to stay the same.  However there is a further complication...

...the ECU immobiliser will only allow the car to start if it receives a coded message from the immobiliser ECU, which in turn only sends that coded message if it sees a valid transponder.  This means, without reporgramming equipment, the Engine ECU, Immobiliser ECU and key transponders have to stay together as a set.

[TheBoy]

The leak was gravity based and near immediate on fill up, I thought the hoses were above that height but I will check.

Out of curiosity after my previous post I popped outside and had a look (really couldn't be bothered earlier). I now have mayo in the filler cap that wasn't there last week, when I spin the engine I hear a new squeak from somewhere, but more notable it isn't even attempting to fire. I guess it's not impossible that with the amount of steam it blew out it has cooked something electrical. Whatever happens I will strip it apart to find out what failed, even if only out of curiosity.

Coolant bridge to HBV hose is a common one to let go.  If the coolant servicing has been historically poor, I've seen oil cooler plates corrode badly, which normally leads to a massive leak.

[aaronjb]

ECU, well, yes, err, thats a bit more complex.....

Pre DBW V6s have 2 different ECUs - Motronic 2.8.1 and 2.8.3. I believe this needs to stay the same.  However there is a further complication...

I think, based on the OPs posts, that he was actually talking about the ABS ECU, rather than the engine ECU .. I'm basing that on this snippet though - there's always the chance I'm wrong :

After a night's sleep (i'd been on the road 12hrs by the time I got home) i'm thinking i'll scrap it. My Elite is parked behind it suffering from a leak in the same area, knackered ABS ECU, possibly knackered CAT and needing a cam belt change/service. If the known good ECU and CAT will fit