2.1 engine running on refurb carb (gone bang :-(

[hightop ratty]

Hi Guys
Driving up the motortway - circa 65 - 70 all loaded up ready for vanfest (thanks for waves from other T25's on the M4 hard shoulder by Pencoed, South Wales, tea time on last Thursday).

Basically, no warning had a huge white smoke screen coming from rear of van (through the air vents & everything) - I thought the van was completely on fire & it was all over !

Luckily - it looks like just the engine - appears all the oil dropped onto exhaust (assuming through a bust pushrod seal - its been dripping for years & was going to be done this winter - honest - see my posts earlier in the year) - didn't seem to lose any water which must be a good thing.
I put out the couple of flames on top of the exhaust very quickly with my toddlers squash bottle - he wasn't happy ! (after getting the Mrs & toddler out of the van).

Somebody had already phoned the fire brigade (they still took about 10 mins to arrive) - I've got a great new pressurised fire pipe thing that melts at a certain temperature & extinghishes the fire by changing the molecular structure, & doesn't harm anything in the engine (only needs cable ties to attach) from Busfest - I will post their details as the kit is brilliant (& they have a great small hand held one as well - which I will be buying as on checking my own dry powder extinguisher (it came with the van 10 years ago !) it has no pressure & nothing more than an ornament !

Now, cut to the chase - what should I do ?
I'd like to keep my engine if I can (but I do need to have better warning guages connected to know what is really going on under the bonnet - water guage has always been dodgy).

I would consider other options - ie (drop a s/h engine in) - but sourcing a good un could be hard.
Recon - but heard some horror stories
Another option - scooby / GTi (probably not at this stage - as I would be getting someone else to do the work).
put a diesel in - economy would be nice (currently get 18 - 20 mpg) - but it feels wrong (& i've just put new petrol tank / back to front s/steel pipes etc & look after my van as best I can)

Has anyone had a similar experience with it just dumpng its guts (oil) - pulled over straight away & engine off.

Also what guages etc should I fit (easily) to hopefully prevent a future problem ?

I have done a few up the motorway runs recently (falmouth / Birmingham etc) at about 65 -70 mph (& was running with semi synth oil - as put in by my old skool garage (I checked twice with them after), who also run older vehicles incl vw's without issues - I trust them so wont be going down a "you owe me a rebuild route", although I have told them what's happened - they don't really do strip downs any more, so would prefer a 2nd hand engine swap if I get them to do it.

[itchyfeet]

find out what happened, if it was just a pushrod seal fail it should be fine, I lost all my oil once.

[hightop ratty]

If its saveable (fairly easily & not too expensive) i'm going to be one happy bunny - somebody said this on facebook as well

without a strip down of the engine, how will I know if its worse ?, I presume the garage will fix the pushrod (& cast their eye over the rest), fill her up (i'd prefer with good old mineral oil this time) & see how it goes.
Have to be honest - apart from a quick look underneath on the side of the motorway last week, & on Fri morning (to see if its dropping loads on the floor to impress the neighbours, as we live on a shared drive & the recovery could only get it dropped outside my neighbours on the road, as it's a really tight turn).
Sorry for the dull questions (its just that i'l have to get it recovered to the garage for them to look at it, and when it's there, if its totalled they will need me to get a s/h engine in quickly, or i'l have to recover it back to the house).

I was expecting water everywhere as well (might have helped with the small fire !) - like the the time it happened on a Sat afternoon in the middle lane of a 3 lane road in Swansea - that time it was the drive shaft cutting through a rubber pipe water pipe (now have s/steel).

[kevtherev]

If you can't do anything for yourself then at least supply all the parts for them to fit

New telescopic pushrod tube and seals from Brickwerks, quality parts.
..and have a wet gauge compression test.
bring the results here

Whatever gauge you would have fitted would not have prevented or warned of that.

[hightop ratty]

Thanks Kev

Yes, I always give the garage everything (& a bit more) than they need (I do my research as best I can before hand - sometimes have to tell them what each part is - did when they did the petrol tank / pipes & stainless water pipes recently, as quite a few small washers, clips & pipes) - & always buy from Brickwerks for the quality of parts & service (went over to say high & thanks at Busfest, & had a pint with them

I don't do the mechanics myself as I can bodge / break anything (without even trying !) - so best to leave it to people who enjoy (or are paid to do it - i'l stick to accountancy & tax which comes easy to me) - & my round-tuit tool is also broke

[hightop ratty]

I thought you were going to tell me off "Kev" for not dropping the semi synth oil & putting in mineral (which you did advise me a few weeks ago that my engine wouldn't like the semi synth - I did double check with my old skool garage who assured it would be fine - there has been a bit more oil dripping on the drive than with the mineral).

I have been oofing it a bit more recently on the motorway (circa 65 -70) than previously would (used to use more A roads - but took longer) trying to get to shows.

[hightop ratty]

Can't believe its been 5 months since the RAC dropped my van back home (still haven't crawled under there for a proper look - hopefully will get chance on the weekend).

Looks like i'm gonna prob go down the route of new telescopic pushrod tube - refill with mineral oil this time (not semi synth - which I think over cleaned the seal (which has leaked for years - leaked more when semi synth in there for a few weeks) causing the inevitable), & cross fingers all is well

[crazyhorse]

good luck with it.

Keep us posted

[hightop ratty]

Well I finally plucked up the courage to have a proper nose around the engine bay yesterday (can't believe 8 months have slipped by since the "bang").

Looks like my worst fears have been confirmed - I had totally wrongly diagnosed the issue - must have been wearing blinkers when I had the 1st cursory look a few months ago (thinking the engine oil had come out of the bottom of the engine via the push rod tubes) !!! - it had come out of the top !

Hiding behind the inlet manifold (on the gearbox side), nicely masked by the carb is a nice hole in the engine casing - & there's bits of engine which have exited & sitting on the engine casing - I will add photos when I work out how to add one !

So looks like I need a new engine after all
Looking for a 2.1 or 1.9 petrol (as a month before the "big bang") I had new petrol tank & all new fuel pipes etc / back to front stainless water pipes (& I have had the carb reconditioned / have a stainless steel exhaust etc a few years back etc etc), so the quickest & easiest way to get back on the road will be swapping "like for like" & putting the "good" bits on from my van.

[itchyfeet]

Didn't notice the big ends rattling then

[hightop ratty]

Unbelievably no - she was running lovely before that - hadn't long had her serviced either (which was when the old skool garage put in the semi synthetic oil - which I did question a few times with them, but they assured me it was ok - not sure if this contributed or not ?!?!) - had done a few motorway runs covering a few hundred miles (S W ales to Birmingham / S Wales to VW Jamboree in Cornwall etc with no issues at all).

When I pulled up on the motorway I did hear a clackety noise (but I was more concerned with getting onto the hard shoulder & getting us (wife & 2 yr old) out safely at the time due to the amount of white smoke pouring out through the rear vents) - but nothing particularly unusually noisy for a T25 engine (probably dampened by the amount of camping stuff above the engine deck as we were on the way to Busfest) - it used to sound a lot worse before I fitted the stainless exhaust a few years ago - I thought we had a puncture at 1st (before I saw the smoke) & was catching something underneath.

Maybe time to keep to 60mph in future (rather than nearer 70mph fully loaded

Looks like where con rod attaches to crankshaft has shattered & come through the block (as there's 2 bolt bits & some straightened metal that was sitting on the engine block) - looks like I may have a new coffee table soon that used to power my van :-/

[bigbadbob76]

Commiserations Hightop.
When the big end bearings fail they sieze and as they can no longer turn, the con rod punches it's way out through the block.
For piece of mind you really want a rebuilt engine in there.
you do see crankcase halves come up for sale sometimes so you could get your engine re-built, I'm not sure how available conrods are though.
Everythings fixable, it's just a matter of what you can get for your budget.
Good luck whatever you decide to go for.

[itchyfeet]

Probably stretch big end bolt snapped if you didn't hear it
they are not reusable but some people do
Early non stretch bolts are reusable
Some of the WBX experts think.the stretch bolts are weak and won't use them.in favour of non stretch.

Semi synth unlikely to be responsible.

You can't just swap half a crankcase they are machined as a pair

[hightop ratty]

Thanks guys for the info / advice

From what i've recovered from the outside of the engine - the stretch bolts seem intact (but slightly bent) - with bits of con rod still attached either side, so looks like the big ends just went - & the rest is history (will update when she's been stripped).

Hoping to get an engine rebuilt early July with a guy recommended down West Wales

[itchyfeet]

Hoping to get an engine rebuilt early July with a guy recommended down West Wales

Rumour has it VEGE engines were built but somebody in that neck of the woods and some of those seem to have been less than great, any info on who?