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Author Topic: Major engine death  (Read 5048 times)

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Liam

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Major engine death
« on: 03 July 2010, 18:44:14 »
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Meggy has committed suicide - why would she do this?? :'( :'( :'(

Was cruising down to London when the wife noticed a funny sound (she's pretty good at noticing odd sounds/smells/sights before major failures :)). Open the windows and wow! Nasty scraping metal sound totally rev related so definately the engine, but still running fine. Parked asap figuring bearing of some auxiliary belt item self destructing. Just decided to keep it running to have a little look/listen to identify the cause. Noise was deafening but couldn't see anything amiss. As soon as it occured to me 'oh sh*t it could be the cambelt tensioner - switch off NOW' the noise got briefly worse and the engine stopped :'( >:(.

Had to be the cambelt I thought - it's just gone over 40,000 and was top of list of things to do, but given that vaux thought they could get away with 80,000 for a while I didn't think I was sailing that close to the wind, but was cursing my stupidity all the same. Got recovered home and started to survey the damage.

First thing I noticed was that the belt was intact but fairly slack around the cam pulleys and a nice covering of fine metal shavings everywhere which wasn't quite what I was expecting...



Belt tensioners and idlers all seem fine - not loose at all. Then I notice this...



Yup - those pulley are touching!! :o That's the source of the shavings...



So what in the name of greek bu**ery can cause that to happen??!!  The camshaft must literally have eaten it's bearings and moved over 5mm or so! How could that possibly happen?? Never run it low on oil, though that bank does have a bit of a gasket leak which was also on the list of things to do. Never seen anything like it in my life - anyone else??

Totally gutted - love the car and just treated it to new lemforder wishbones and new rear springs :'( >:(. 98 Elite and only done 125,000. Weighing up my options now - repair, engine swap, break, or sell/scrap in one piece. Couple of years ago I'd have jumped straight into the repair, but freshly married and renovating a house I have very little spare time right now. What does anyone else think - worth the work, or maybe the Omega dream is over :) :'(

Oh well - just wanted to share the misery. Sympathy and e-pats on back please! Maybe there'll be a project or breaker for sale on here soon (though I probably dont have enough posts for that do I - sigh).

Liam
« Last Edit: 03 July 2010, 18:47:36 by Liam »
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Mr Skrunts

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Re: Major engine death
« Reply #1 on: 03 July 2010, 18:54:01 »
Bugga, you have my sympathy regards this one.

Seems like something a tad serious has happened here. (Never seen a result like that before.)
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Abiton

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Re: Major engine death
« Reply #2 on: 03 July 2010, 18:57:20 »
  :o
Busted camshaft?
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Andy B

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Re: Major engine death
« Reply #3 on: 03 July 2010, 18:58:03 »
Quote
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

 ......
So what in the name of greek bu**ery can cause that to happen??!!  The camshaft must literally have eaten it's bearings and moved over 5mm or so! How could that possibly happen??  ...... Never seen anything like it in my life - anyone else??
 ......

It's not a common fault, but I'd say you've answered your own question. Rocker/cam cover off that side at least so you can have a proper look. It could be oil starvation for some reason on that bank.

A N Other engine could be an answer or you might get away with just that cylinder head, but you'd need to be sure of the reason for its self destruction.  :-/  :-/
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Omegatoy

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Re: Major engine death
« Reply #4 on: 03 July 2010, 18:58:05 »
wouldnt it just maybe a loose pulley? commiserations though!!!
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Elite Pete

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Re: Major engine death
« Reply #5 on: 03 July 2010, 18:59:53 »
Strewth :o :'(
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Liam

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Re: Major engine death
« Reply #6 on: 03 July 2010, 19:03:58 »
Quote
  :o
Busted camshaft?

Have yet to take the cover off for a look. But it was running fine all the time those pulleys were grinding each other, so I can't see the shaft can be broken. Will be interesting to find ou what on earth's happenned.

Holy poo Mr Skruntie - do you really drive a turbo LS7 meggy?? :o :o Where do I see pics? LS series really belongs in a meggy and it's a project I'd love to do. Maybe now's the time :) (except for the fact that it definately isn't :()
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mrjimbo

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Re: Major engine death
« Reply #7 on: 03 July 2010, 19:17:54 »
Quick way to find out whether the cam has bust or eaten it's bearings is to remove the belt from the two cam wheels that are touching and give them a good old tug to see  a, if the cam/cam wheel will move in and out of the head,   b, whether the cam/cams will move left to right

In and out would suggest a broken cam, left to right worn bearing/head damage  :y
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Lizzie_Zoom

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Re: Major engine death
« Reply #8 on: 03 July 2010, 19:29:29 »
That's very nasty!! :o :o :o :o

I would certainly take the cam covers off and see what there is now - or not - in place!! ;) ;)
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Jimbob

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Re: Major engine death
« Reply #9 on: 03 July 2010, 20:00:58 »
Ouch!
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Liam

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Re: Major engine death
« Reply #10 on: 03 July 2010, 20:04:31 »
Thanks for the sympathy folks:). I'll be having a look tomorrow. I expect the shaft has eaten its bearings rather than snapped. Woo.

So - what's an engine swap like on a meggy then? Thought I'd swapped my last engine, but maybe not. Undoing the gearbox strikes me as possibly the least favourite bit. How much can you pick up an X30XE for. Seen a few 25s on ebay, but no 30s. Would a 20 go straight in - might save some money on petrol? Suppose i could fit the heads on my 30 and fit the 30 camshafts (assuming I have 4 fully functional ones). Would that actually work?

Noooooooo - stopit! No time. If I break it, is any of it actually worth owt? Got xenons, bose, the cream/brown interior that seems rare as hens teeth. And someone will get a bargain with some lemforder wishbones with less than 100 miles on them  :'(. New rear springs too. Hmmmm decisions decisions...
« Last Edit: 03 July 2010, 20:06:01 by Liam »
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Elite Pete

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Re: Major engine death
« Reply #11 on: 03 July 2010, 20:13:57 »
Just replace the heads ;)
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Andy B

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Re: Major engine death
« Reply #12 on: 03 July 2010, 20:19:55 »
Quote
Just replace the heads ;)

Assuming there's an oil flow to them both. It could have been lack of or reduced oil flow that's caused this.
Years ago a mate had a V6 Granada. One side sounded like a bag of spanners, when the rocker cover was removed it was as dry as a witch's *** in there.  :-?
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CaptainZok

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Re: Major engine death
« Reply #13 on: 03 July 2010, 20:21:35 »
Think I'd have to pull it to bits out of curiosity if nothing else.
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Martin_1962

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Re: Major engine death
« Reply #14 on: 03 July 2010, 21:08:21 »
Head swap - weekend job
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