Argh argh my engine blew tonight argh

Not what I wished this evening.

finished replacing all the horrifically perished rubber hoses on the turbo system and tested it. much improved, faster, stronger, more powerful - woohoo! running 1.1 bar might I add, not too much. jumped in and off down to a mate's on a 30 mile drive.

Note: history here, for a little while if run very fast for a little length of time after stopping it will sometimes blow thru the rad cap, presume either the cap isn't good enough pressure or there's a prob with the car itself. Read on for thoughts on the second option...

Got prolly 15 miles out (some of which was at 140 as a quick push to see what it perfomred like) but the majority to this opoint was at 100 ish. noticed the temp rising, looked high anyway, and thought I'd keep slow and watch it. it went up to red, then back down , and I came off the m25 to head towards merstham. upon doing this and having no more airflow, it LEAPED to max heat and then 30 seconds later exploded through my bonnet vents onto my screen.

I was not ecstatic.

the temp then dropped to normal and I coasted the rest of the way as it seemed ok... it was therefore to my shock that I got to horley and pulled off a roundabout (slowly) and heard a gurgling and felt about 1/2 the power :s and then as I slowed at my friend's house the car just stalled, gurgling not good.

I pushed it to park, popped the bonnet, lots of smoke appearing to rise from the block! (think this was cos hot water had pissed at bottom and ti rose).

it doesn't like starting easily now, got AA home but every time I put water in, it pisses some (not all) out fot eh bottom of the car.

PLEASE someone tell me this isn't a death blow... perhaps it's just a hose set that couldnt' take the pressure, all the hoses seem bloody old (hence my replacing them) but it doesn't like running with no water. it runs smoothly for a minute if I fill it again but the water drops v quickly.

I found that the coolant tank in front of the rad was empty - could it have needed this and made the rad system work overtime and explode?

the water pisses from mid engone looks like - doesn't seem to be the rad.

Help! anyone got any ideas? I need it running asap, it's car of honour at a wedding for said friend!

Chris

please please tell me you did not put cold water in a hot engine ?

Sounds a bit like when my radiator developed a cracked header tank. But I didn't continue driving when it over heated so there wasn't any further damage. Hopefully it'll be something (relatively) cheap to fix like that. As Mig says, if you've put cold water in a boiling engine you might have done further damage to the head and or block.

Good luck mate.

Sorry to hear this Chris, I know youve been having niggly problems with boost. As Jake said, rad is the obvious, I'll ring you when I get in the office in the morning.

From the moment you saw the coolant temp rising, you should suspect that something's not right and stop driving around.

Once it went up to red and you got coolant on the windscreen, hell, it's no surprise the expansion tank was empty. Why did you keep on driving? I don't get this....

At the very least I'd do a compression test now and hope for the best.

As soon as coolant was on your screen, you didn't think to stop and check it out?

You may well of done some serious damage now driving 10-15 miles on an engine with an obvious water leak/problem. Best you get a compression check as said already and hope you haven't seriously fcuked your 2JZ......

What type of hoses did you replace to? A lot of Silicon hoses, made by no-name companies are not made properly and therefore are not pressure resistant, the likes of Samco, SFS, etc. make proper strength silicon hoses.

Ebay is a raft of cheap silicon hoses,only really suitable for replacing vacuum hoses, and perhaps the header tank overfill hose. Certainly not a lot of pressure (remember as heat goes up, so does pressure)

I hope you get sorted, or you might have to get an engine of Jurgen!

Best wishes..

erm... Jurgen has a couple of cheap engines for sale!

Ditto what Mig said... did you put warm or cold water in?

From the moment you saw the coolant temp rising, you should suspect that something's not right and stop driving around.

Once it went up to red and you got coolant on the windscreen, hell, it's no surprise the expansion tank was empty. Why did you keep on driving? I don't get this....

 

At the very least I'd do a compression test now and hope for the best.

Hehe thanks for the replies...

I AM aware of the bad idea behind cold water in hot metal... warmed the water as much as poss before putting in but i think it's moot anyway as it pissed a lot back out! my friend went to refill it tho and I HOPE he put warm in as well. i was looking under the car at the time as it pissed so I have no idea. I'll assume he was sensible.

I'm HOPING it's nothing serious. The reason I kept on was that the car has sprayed a bit from the rad cap before and been ok, and I thought it was the same again - this time I was moving so it hit the screen, plus I was in the middle of nowhere and a majority of the rest of the journey was coasting out of gear down hills. I should have looked but I was already 2 hours late and combined with it having done it b4, and the temp returned to normal on the dash, I wondered if it was a bubble of air or something.

luckily I have a garage literally next door and they said it was all possibly down to a thermostat issue and first thing is to get a new one, then they'll look at the leak and then run a compression check on the block.

as to hoses, the hose that was used all the way through the turbo assembly was fuel line, so I replaced like for like (just for now, planning to upgrade later to proper lines), which I was comfortable with as it says it will withstand up to 9 bar and I doubt the air pressure will get there...!

There have been niggle s with this car since I bought it, it had stuff upgraded and "tuned" by tuning japanese, and since then I have been told that's not necessarily a good thing as they may have fucked it. if nothing else when hybrids were installed they should have changed all the damn hoses.

cross fingers for my my friends, I am not looking forward to another engine!

Good luck Chris, let me know if I can help.

Thank Terry, roy has recommended you many times

I need to win the lottery and give you the car and say just do EVERYTHING possible

you can rebuild it! Make it faster, stronger, better!

Yeah all possible mate;)

If it becomes an issue we can get a cheap recovery to Watford and give her a thorough going over mate. PM me if you need help or advice.

Gawd, I hate to say it but driving the car after it's spat it's coolant out was not a good thing to do, that was an AA moment

I think you are going to have to approach this from a "I've broken the engine completely" and accept any result that isn't as bad as that as a bonus.

The constant fast leak of water might be a blown off rad hose, but it might be a blown core plug due to the overheating as well. You've almost certainly warped the cylinder head, possibly beyond recovery, as it's an ally head on a cast block - different thermal expansion rates. I've not heard much about the effects of dramatic overheating, I assume it can damage the pistons, cylinder linings, and probably the block?

Bad luck mate :thumbdown

-Ian

Hopefully its nothing too expensive Chris. Brings back horrors of the ex wife driving my 300 to Sainsbury's one morning. She arrived back home, with no water in the cooling system the bottom rad hose ripped off by the car park ramp thingy! You could smell the burning, hear the cracking and she says "what? is it a bit hot!" FFS

Amazingly the heads and block were fine!!

Gawd, I hate to say it but driving the car after it's spat it's coolant out was not a good thing to do, that was an AA moment

 

I think you are going to have to approach this from a "I've broken the engine completely" and accept any result that isn't as bad as that as a bonus.

 

The constant fast leak of water might be a blown off rad hose, but it might be a blown core plug due to the overheating as well. You've almost certainly warped the cylinder head, possibly beyond recovery, as it's an ally head on a cast block - different thermal expansion rates. I've not heard much about the effects of dramatic overheating, I assume it can damage the pistons, cylinder linings, and probably the block?

 

Bad luck mate :thumbdown

 

-Ian

Ah. A Hari Kiri moment then.

(cries) well, I'll expect nothing - perhaps I'll be ok, but we'll see. first thing is to get the thermo in and the compression checked, if that turns up ok how do I tell about the others?

And how much is a new engine? Not to mention the money to fix all this, I can't afford it at the moment

And how much is a new engine?

...you don't want to know.

Sorry mate, I'm gutted for you but I couldn't see any point in sugar coating it

Phoenix in Watford are good chaps, they won't mess you about.

-Ian

Amazingly the heads and block were fine!!

Hers, or the car's?

Lol

Sorry mate, I'm gutted for you but I couldn't see any point in sugar coating it

 

Phoenix in Watford are good chaps, they won't mess you about.

 

-Ian

No problem, I'm too healthy to have much sugar in my diet

I guess we'll see, I just got a thermo and the guys next door will run a pressure check. if that stands up and the leak is easily fixed, we can look at what caused it - they think it was a faulty thermo to begin with that could be at fault. sounds fair, it could be the original looking at some of the engine parts... wouldn't surprise me!

If I have to buy a new engine I'd be tempted to grab a UK/US spec one. bigger injectors to start with unless there's some kinda funniness about fitting one, can't see how there would be...

could be diffrences in wiring/ecu bla bla bla.... but i'm no expert lol

Right, I bit the bullet and had a look. The radiator has a large hole in it - at a guess the underlying problem with pressure and the rad cap letting pressure out was prolly down to some kinda blockage?

either way the rad is dead and I need a new one by saturday as it's the only chance I'll get to play with it properly.

Anyone got any ideas/prices? :s

Do you love me.......................we have a new fluidyne sitting here.........

If I have to buy a new engine I'd be tempted to grab a UK/US spec one. bigger injectors to start with unless there's some kinda funniness about fitting one, can't see how there would be...

You'd get bigger injectors but you would need to trim them back somehow - fitting a UK spec ECU would be a debatable step as you'd then need the MAF sensor and who knows what else. Plus you still need a resistor pack for the injectors as the J-spec hasn't got one. You'd get slightly sharper camshafts though, bonus

-Ian