Seized Engine, Great.

[Oberon 0]

Basically the car came to a crunching stop whilst driving slowly down the road.

 

Engine would'nt turn at all, dad towed me home.

 

Got the cam belt and rocker covers off nothing suspect could be seen.

 

The engine will turn with a long bar on the crank pulley but not very far (maybe 1/4 of a turn) then the same back again.

 

Found this in the sump, pics are off a mobile but I hope someone can recognise what it is. It is sheared in half whatever it

 

is.

 

http://i792.photobucket.com/albums/yy201/Nadsak/piece1.jpg

http://i792.photobucket.com/albums/yy201/Nadsak/piece2.jpg

http://i792.photobucket.com/albums/yy201/Nadsak/piece3.jpg

 

Z9 is printed on the side where the tapered spout comes out.

 

I am pretty sure whatever it is there is another piece of it jammed somewhere highly undesirable !

 

Any help much appreciated.

[Cameron 16]

Would be better if your pics weren't so damn blurry!

[Oberon 0]

Sorry about the picture quality, they were the best after f'ing around with the flash on, flash off, torch, etc, etc.

 

Will try and get 'old of a camera as the phone is crap.

 

Forgot to say the car is a diesel (stdt).

 

- If its any help the spout part is tapered with a hole in the end

 

- on the main there is like a small ball bearing in the top (spout end).

 

- the main part ( opp spout end ) is sheared, also tubular.

 

- coin in pic is a 1p.

 

Apologies for the highly technical engineering terminology.

 

Cheers.

Edited September 11, 2009 by Oberon

[jimistdt 1]

Wow! Can't make it out either, you'll have to post some more pics - have you managed to find anymore remnants in the engine yet?

 

Keep us posted matey.

[yorkshirekowboy 19 1 Cars]

its either a foreign object or the oil spray bit of the engine?

[Oberon 0]

No more remnants yet, mainly as i've been busy. Oil spray part did cross my mind, but I've never seen one before.

 

Gonna investigate further tomorrow. I'll try get some better pics up, hope someone will be able to point us in the right

 

direction.

 

Typical though new mot, car running well than.. crunch.

 

Cheers.

[Oberon 0]

Nice one Bear grylls, on closer inspection oil spray jet it is. Managed to remove the rest of it and the two parts fit well so

 

I'm happy there are no other bits of this anywhere. I think it made contact with the piston (closest to flywheel)

 

as there is a small nick it.

 

The main question I think now is why there was any contact at all.

 

When turning the engine via crank pulley, piston 1 gets to top and will go no further other than to come back the other

 

way, again stopping at the same point.

 

I think I need another engine. Anyone got a low mileage 1.9 Dturbo engine laying around ?

[yorkshirekowboy 19 1 Cars]

Nice one Bear grylls,

 

 

glad you found the culprit, should be a easy fix, but maybe if you can source anthoer engine, might be worth while doing that while you have the other in bits. good luck

[Oberon 0]

I think its more symptom than culprit, engine still don't wanna turn. I'm thinking the crankshaft itslef is buggered due to

 

previous problems / cures. Namely wrong crankshaft pulley (heavier 2.1 td) fitted to match beefy 90A alternator.

 

Thinking seriously about a petrol motor as I drove my dads 1.4 polo the other day, smooth as hell and no tractor like

 

theme tune. Handles like a tank though.

[jimistdt 1]

I think its more symptom than culprit, engine still don't wanna turn. I'm thinking the crankshaft itslef is buggered due to

 

previous problems / cures. Namely wrong crankshaft pulley (heavier 2.1 td) fitted to match beefy 90A alternator.

 

Thinking seriously about a petrol motor as I drove my dads 1.4 polo the other day, smooth as hell and no tractor like

 

theme tune. Handles like a tank though.

 

Do you think it might be related to the rattle you experienced a couple of months back? Was there any oil in the sump when you removed it? Not starved or owt?

[Oberon 0]

Yeah thats right jimi i think it is linked somehow, that rattle turned out to be the crankshaft pulley knankered so I changed it for the correct one for that alternator but it is alot heavier.

 

The oil was about 2 months old and level was fine. One thing I did notice though is when I changed the oil it got black very quick, like matter of days which was strange.

 

I'm gonna try and look at the condition of the main bearings and big end ones that I can get to, see if theres any clues there.

 

I'm wondering if that oil jet snapping would be enough to starve that piston of oil totally. I was'nt going over 30-35 at the time and between the major crunch and stopping the car I can't have covered more than 30-40 metres.

 

This may be a good excuse to upgrade to the 1.9td, if it was'nt gonna be a major ball ache I'd go for a petrol motor.

 

Using public transport this week will be enough motivavation to get something sorted soon though.

 

How's your parrafin burner running Jimi ?

Edited September 13, 2009 by Oberon

[Anthony 1,003]

The oil was about 2 months old and level was fine. One thing I did notice though is when I changed the oil it got black very quick, like matter of days which was strange.

That's quite normal for a diesel - I wouldn't worry too much about it.

 

What I would say is that if the piston has hit the oil spray bar, then that engine has some pretty fundemental issues - bent conrod possibly (making the piston sit lower in the bore) from hitting something in the combustion chamber? I'd be tempted to remove the camshaft to ensure all the valves are closed, and then see if the engine will turn over - for it to turn about a third to half a turn sounds like the cam timing is a mile out or it has dropped a valve or something. I know that the TD engines with the boost turned up are notorious for dropping the precombustion chamber out of the head - maybe that's happened on yours, as that would certainly stop the engine from turning over if it's stuck in the chamber?

[Oberon 0]

Fundamental issues alright, something is definatly well amiss.

 

As a novice its hard to make head or tale of it to be honest. I'd be totally lost if not for the old man (retired french car hating mechanic) but he is slghtly senile and wants me to scrap the car.

 

The engine was running really nicely and the boost is standard as far as I know, if anything needs a hose or two replacing.

 

With the rocker cover of the lifters feel free ie none are jammed or suspect, i'll try to see if I can get the timing holes lined up.

 

If it comes to having to take the head/engine apart it will be new to me so hopefully I will learn something.

 

Just majorly pissed though at the thought of it, every time something goes amiss with the car I think about the honda civic i looked at before buying this skip.

 

Cheers