Just Stopped!?!

[Guest Mr Pid]

and another,

[Guest Mr Pid]

dunno if anyone can shed any light on this little gem-

 

as i was packing up last night i had a quick look down the plug holes, as you do, and noticed that piston 2 and 3 were about level near the bottom of the bore, no. 1 was sort of half way but no. 4 was slap bang at the top!

 

are we talking bent/broken con rods/big ends?

 

after this development i gave a sheepish grin and carried on stripping my other engine.

 

 

[Guest owenpilson]

looks like a broken big end to me......

 

if a conrod had snapped you would still be able to get the engine to turn about 90 degrees

 

owen

[Mat-Moo]

Take the engine out, no point in messing about now, your going to need to take the head and sump off to see what happened. Guess would be that a con rod bolts snapped/sheared, if you have any luck at all then new bolts may sort it all out, but it depends how much damage has been done internally. Also worth getting strenghtened bolts for these rather then the standard.

[Guest Mr Pid]

Well just one word springs to mind at the moment.

 

Begins with "s" ends in "t" and has an "h" and an "i" in between.

 

Ill start taking her to bits then!

[ibrooks]

Interesting to see the same vellum chamber and airflow meter as my boggers injection setup. Do you know what has been done to the injection system to allow it to work outside the "normal" operating ranges or is it flexible enough to sort itself out? I ask because I've fitted a 2.1 with a lumpy cam to my donor and I'm not sure whether I'll be limited power-wise by the standard injection. I'll find out when I get long enough at home to visit the rolling road but it would be nice to be forewarned.

 

Iain

[Guest Mr Pid]

Well the whole engine was set up and tuned at turbo technics when it was built, and came with a "race spec" ECU, which i am told is set up for serious horsepower.

 

The air flow meter on there at the mo is bog stadard but i do have the original/ modified one which had all the adaptation for a K&N filter, the vellum chamber is standard to though the injectors have been uprated, these are easily changed though and are colour coded for the horsepower required. Although i did have fun trying to stop it overfuelling on the standard ECU.

 

I am currently running a standard ECU until i have it all SVA'd and on the road then i can start messing around until i end up killing myself.

 

My advice would be to get a decent mobile tuner out and have the car pretty much set up at home while you still have the freedom to play around a bit.

 

Good luck

[Guest Mr Pid]

Well further developments tonight are as follows:

 

coolant drained along with oil, and all turbo and water hoses disconnected, then proceeded to remove all the sump bolts to get an initial view of the impending internal nightmare.

 

however noticed when underneath car the the bottom of the nice, formerly flat, rs2000 sump is now slightly domed and has a little crack on the flat surface.

 

time to pack up and consume lots of alchohol to try and forget about the grief that is about to unfold.

[Guest Mr Pid]

Well first job to do was to remove the sump to see what i was up against, and like some of you suggested i was greeted with a con rod bolt sitting there with all the thread stripped and fellow nut!

 

I now knew things were bad so i began stripping of engine removal,

[Guest Mr Pid]

so engine removal was duly under way!

 

this was helped by my apprentice kit car assistant (my mad siamese cat) who is shown below giving lots of help with "left a bit, now right a bit"

[Guest Mr Pid]

once she was out, i stripped it down to just the block and turned it over-

 

now to say that it was f*ck*d was a slight understatement.

 

the other conrod bolt had sheared and the lower end was twisted up into the bore jammed inside the piston against the crank.

 

the crank had sent the other half of the conrod into the side of the block, twisting it as it went and impacting on the auxillary shaft that drives the dizzy, on further inspection this had actually bent with such force that the outer pulley on the auxillary shaft was so bent and twisted that it made contact with the surface of the block.

 

not only this, but the oil pump had a massive split right through it so i doubt if there was ever any substantial oil pressure at all, i figure this was a result of some other impact before i owned the engine, as i had to get the sump repaired bacause of impact damage just at the point that sits in front of the oil pump.

 

The cam lube rail was pretty much buggered as well the only thing holding it place was the notch that feeds the oil, oll the other mountings had sheared.

 

ive attached a pic of the crank with the sheared conrod for your amusal?!?

 

i guess the moral of the storey is never trust anything unless your 100% sure of it. I dont what caused this all, my dad reckons the conrod bolts were over tightened by the monkeys who built the engine, but then it would have blown up anyway because of the lack of oil. I'm just glad it seized on my driveway and not doing a tonne down the motorway cos then i wouldnt be here!

 

Dunno what to do now tho i have a few options as i see it:

 

1) Get the engine repaired and rebuilt (big expense)

2)Do as i said earlier and change it for a standard Inj eng and see how it copes (cheap and easy)

3) rebuild the engine but use something a bit more substantial like a cosy 4x4 block.

4)or anything else that anyone would suggest????????????? (please dont be shy)

[Guest Mr Pid]

Just another thought, if i did go to the bother of rebuilding the dead one, are the oil pumps all the same? i have a 2.0 carb engine and the only real noticable difference is the size of the pick up tube intake, can i swap these over?

 

Also what about the crank- does it have the same tolerances as the injection one- my one is a bit scaped so instead of having it polished i could just get this other one balanced.

 

Hopefully i want to get a decent engine out of the two i have without having to buy a third

 

Stu

[ibrooks]

Stu,

I would suggest visiting the previous owner maybe with a heavy object about his head. Or just shake him warmly by the neck coz it looks like it was in a thump and he knew it had taken damage and palmed it of on a poor unsuspecting hoodie.

 

Seriously though if you get a spare injection engine then you shouldn't have an enormous bill to get the thing running again.

 

Was there damage to the piston in the cylinder that had the problem? if so you need a piston or a set (alright these could be pricey if they are special for the turbo application).

 

The block from your injection engine is suitable (it should be a 205 which is capable of coping with fairly mental power and it will easily overbore to 2.1).

 

The crank will probably be the same and is OK for lots of power if you dowel it to the flywheel (they tend to snap the bolts on high torque motors if not).

 

The auxiliary shafts should be the same so you have a spare in the injection (or carb) lump. The oil pump will probably work but I would suggest a high capacity (maybe high pressure as well) one to ensure the turbo has enough of the slippery stuff (£60ish from memory).

 

Now you're looking at con-rods - well the injection ones are supposed to be OK for 7500rpm but not sure about the extra loads the turbo generates but you should have 3 good ones so can you get a single one to match as a replacement for your broken one? Oh and you'll be wanting new heavy duty bolts as well ;>

 

Is the cam and valve gear OK? a new spray-bar is only a few quid so the head should be relatively easy re-use if they are.

 

Barring the piston/s and con-rod/s you shouldn't be looking at more than a hundred quid for the injection block to be bored and the work to be done on the crank. Maybe £200 including the oil pump, shells, gaskets and various bolts. Alright it's annoying to have to pay when it wasn't expected but what price having that sort of engine?

 

Start looking for pistons and rods first as they will be the most difficult/expensive stuff to find so they may end up being the death of the project rather than anything else.

 

Good luck

 

Iain

[Guest Mr Pid]

Thanks Ian,nice tohear some words of encouragement,

 

Luckily there was not damage to the piston or the bore inside the block, the bottom journal got jammed inside the rim of the piston so the block should be fairly intact.

 

Definately be changing the oil pump, prob go for high spec one like you said save any future probsregarding oil feed.

 

shame about the crank though got a sratch bout half a mm deep, but the next one will definately be dowelled to the flywheel as you said (did have a brand knew AP racing clutch on the end of it though).

 

Im not lookin forward to trying to source the con rods, i'll definately be going for stonger bolts, as matt suggested earlier. If i could weld them together for piece of mind i would! I dont know if they are different but i suspect they probably are as they look nice and new like the pistons. I know the cosworth ones are 1.5mm shoter than the standard ones dunno if this becuase of the low compression needed?(was thinking of getting an old cosworth 4x4 block as they are tough as old boots, but exensive)

 

the head is fine (bout the only thing that is) i replacedthe spray bar of my spare engine, at least it wont be making a god awful racket anymore.

 

I paid just under a grand for the engine and was seriously considering having a little "meeting" with the guy who sold it to me, but thaks to a rational girlfriend who advised against it i will just have to bite the bullet and get the work done, at least i know it will be done properly. The specialist that overhauled the engine last time said the could probably sort it but they will have to look at it first not lookin forward to the bill though especially being so close to the SVA.

 

If anyone finds any spare conrods for a 2.1 pinto turbo in their garage please give us a shout!

 

Thanks for the input,looks like im in for some sleepless nights (that is when the girlfriend doesnt stay over as well).

 

Stu

[Guest Mr Pid]

Any one know where i can get a high pressure oil pump from and some decent conrods, cant seem to locate any decent tuning places, just crappy boy racer gimp stuff.

 

Cheers Stu