Engine banging violently.

[docklad]

Feel like giving up being an owner. Seriously loud banging after a loud pop. Have spent more time under than in her. 19d watercooled high-top conversion. Bought her last year for a snip, running fine until water ran out and blew hg. Fixed and ran again for good 6months, apart from the odd water leak, oil drip and puff of smoke. Used most weekends and treasured by us all. Starts and starts banging too. More white smoke than ever seen and juddering too. Sounds like and feels like time to get rid and replace it with similar. Shame really coz it's only ten years old and just done 55000miles. Haven't posted for long time but been watching and enjoying. Been on the downloads threads/pages and it's the same engine as in the pics. Don't know codes or engine numbers. Summer's on the way and would like to have a fixed or replacement engine running by junes. Have a few mates who are experts with general engines but feel the need for VW input just to be on safe side.

[clartsonly]

if you have a load of white smoke your head gasket is still knackered? that be steam...

[andisnewsyncro]

Sounds like it did more damage than you first thought when it ran out of water. Also you mention the odd water leak which means the system hasn't been running at pressure, so it's not been doing its job properly. It's either time for a full strip down and rebuild - see exactly what's going on in there etc, or a replacement / recon imho, sorry

[docklad]

Cheers guys. Maybe I should have been more clear. After she ran dry, ergo blew the hg, I replaced it with a few hoses and she's ran fine since. The water leak is a very small one from the oil cooler pipe. It's a little bit lose so I just use rubber gasket or liquid metal. Both work.

I've just tried the injectors to see if they were the cause but didn't want to take them off coz fuel started to spit everywhere. Friend says pistons, another says it's ran dry of oil and another says it's a trapped piece of metal somewhere. I'm not entirely a novice when it comes to engines but this is doing my head in.