Broken Engine???!!!!

[KittyCamper84]

It all went wrong today with our 1.9 DG! Wife was driving home from work, got to a junction and when puling away there was no power. She pressed the clutch and the engine seemed to rev up on its own and then drop back to no power again. She struggled to a layby and stopped. There was oil leaking badly and a trail of oil back along her route. She probably traveled half a mile with it leaking. Once stopped about 2 litres leaked onto the floor. Oil seems to be all over the top of the engine and down the nearside. Now it turns over twice and wont do anymore. I suspect it may have partially seized?! The only other option is that it sucked up a load of oil through the breather and now wont turn over because its full of oil?



Any ideas??

Thanks in advance!!

[croc]

Hello
Sorry to hear your plight.
Some preliminary comments-

it sucked up a load of oil through the breather

... It wouldn't do this unless there was some other underlying fault although this may cause the power issue.
Engine, ie one cylinder, has hydraulic lock due to oil in combustion chamber.
The only external sources of oil are oil are pressure senders failed, oil filter seal failed - these might explain oil on road but not over top of engine.
Valve pushrod tubes damaged by debris on road ( unlikely to not be noticeable) ; again not oil on top of engine.
Some serious internal engine breakage which has caused damage (sorry - worst case and would be noticed by bad noise at the time of failure).
Does

Now it turns over twice and wont do anymore

... mean two turns or 2 compressions (2 cylinders = 1 turn)??

A test-
Remove all 4 spark plugs, turn engine over on the starter, if oil this will be obvious coming out of 1 (or more) spark plug holes.

There should be many more helpful replies from others here so good luck and success!
jon

[KittyCamper84]

Well...... after a bit of fiddleing i have found that its not seized. Took out the plugs and it spun over fine. Popped the plugs back in and she fired up!!!

Only problem now is that ther is still a substantional oil leak and she does rattle lots!!!!! Are the oil pressure sensors usually faulty (by that i mean leaking), or is the rear oil seal more likely??

[kevtherev]

Clean up the engine with gunk or a steam cleaner.
Fill it up with oil and let it run

You'll see the leaks more clearly
We couldn't possibly guess where it's coming out

[croc]

Note what kev has said, we can only guess at possibilities without seeing.
Well done, that's some progress!
Oil pressure sensors can fail catastrophically but it is rare.
Change oil and fill to proper level with 15w/40 or 20w/50 mineral petrol engine oil. Gentle with the drain plug!
Change oil filter and fit a Mann brand if you can get one (GSF?).
Does the oil pressure light go out with engine running now??

[KittyCamper84]

The oil pressure light didn't come on at all!

[Ralf85]

Back to basics. Where is it leaking from? I ask because I had a sudden oil leak on my previous van and it was a rocker box cover seal that just failed. They do this sometimes. If it is, replace the seal (cost 68p from Brickwerks) and the problem should be solved.

Patrick

[ghost123uk]

Did the oil light work normally before this happened ?

and she does rattle lots

That is a bit worrying, though it could be the hydraulic tappets are not getting any oil pressure.
In fact there may be no oil pressure at all so I would be very cautious of running the engine until that has been checked, hence my asking about the oil pressure light.

Also odd that after removing and replacing the plugs it now spins over fine - was there any sign of wet oil on any of the plugs ?

[KittyCamper84]

It rattles because of the tappets, also the reason it wouldn't turn over was because the tappets werent opeing the valves so more than one compression for the starter to over come in one go. After spinning it without plugs it must have built up just enough to get it to start. Had another look today, the oil is coming out at the bottom between the gearbox and engine and out of the two holes through to the flywheel on the top of the engine. Points towards the crank seal failed!! Not sure why it would suddenly just go though!

[kevtherev]

Hydraulic tappets will open valves whether there is oil in them or not.

[KittyCamper84]

yeah but not always enough?!

[kevtherev]

They wouldn't stop an engine turning over
The lifter only compresses 2.5 mm if the preload is 1.5mm

[KittyCamper84]

taking the engine out today, oil seal on its way! Hopefully i can get it ready for Brighton Breeze!!!!!

[KittyCamper84]

Got the engine out today and found the problem. Turns out the plug in the main oil gallery had come out meaning most of the oil was being pumped straight into the bellhousing!!!! I think we have been very lucky it didn't do more damage!!!

[croc]

mmm - had wondered though not aware of that particular plug