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Re: Cracked Head - HELP
Posted: 11 May 2014, 07:28
by ghost123uk
Sorry to hear of your woes.
Whilst yyou have it in bits, do check all the thin coolant pipes for blockages, including all aspects of the "bleed ring" pipework that runs around the top lip of the engine bay, and ALL associated pipes coming from it. Your symptoms might point to a coolant blockage. It was the cause of my engine dying (8 years ago) with the same symptoms you describe. I know of a few others on here who have had issues with the thin pipes being blocked.
Here is one example =
Re: Cracked Head - HELP
Posted: 11 May 2014, 08:00
by itchyfeet
dvenables wrote:hi
well my technical term of let go is as follows..
i was driving down the road doing about 50 when i had a sudden loss of power and with this came a slight lerch. i took my foot off the accelerator and then put it back on and noticed a nice cloud of smoke bellowing out of the exhaust. i pulled over and opened the engine bay. the water was kettling and there was steam everywhere. i turned off and let the engine cool down. when i filled up the water and started it again there was steam/smoke coming out of the left exhaust.. i have a twin empi on the back. it sounded fine hence i thought it was the head that had gone. but i am not sure as when i was stripping it i found oil had been thrown up into the air filter and carb.
i have taken off both heads. the pistons look black but are fine. the heads were black and oily so my best guess is the rings have gone. once cleaned to a degree the one head looks fine and the other is cracked.
http://s1156.photobucket.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
i am not sure what the img link is doing but it wont load anything but
hopefully you can see the pictures with the link i added.
thanks
Dudley
Steam of of the exhaust could be the crack in the head, take the valves out to be sure how far back the crak goes, the cracks too big anyway to put that back really even if thats not thd fault
other possibility is the head seals went and tge crack wasnt the cause
the oil being everywhere , dunno have to think about that
Re: Cracked Head - HELP
Posted: 11 May 2014, 08:09
by ghost123uk
itchyfeet wrote:the oil being everywhere , dunno have to think about that
Not saying it is the case of course, just that it might be = My blocked pipe caused a total lack of coolant flow around the l/h head. This caused that head & cylinders to overheat to the point it partially seized.
dvenables wrote:I had a sudden loss of power and with this came a slight lurch
Sounds very familiar
On stripping mine down, the rearmost l/h piston & cylinder had "picked up" quite badly and was causing smoke and excess crankcase pressure = oil leaks.
Re: Cracked Head - HELP
Posted: 11 May 2014, 10:10
by dvenables
morning
my only worry about that is the big ends going once i had done the heads. But you know you are right. I seem to be making hard work for myself... especially as im doing this in the street.. (my neighbours love me)
Re: Cracked Head - HELP
Posted: 11 May 2014, 10:17
by dvenables
good idea... i'll check all the pipework as i had no leaks with the van.. so there was no issues with me loosing coolant or oil.
when i stopped i had no idea why as i had no warning. my temp gauge was fine and i have an override switch for the fan which was on at the time... so i should have had ample cooling.
i was going to flush the entire system anyway as a block was one of my thoughts.
Re: Cracked Head - HELP
Posted: 11 May 2014, 10:25
by ghost123uk
Aye, it just those very thin pipes around the rim of the engine bay, and the ones around the stat housing + the rubber one that comes from the rear of the left hand head.
Big ends are very rarely an issue with the 1.9 version of this engine.
Re: Cracked Head - HELP
Posted: 11 May 2014, 14:46
by what2do
I've seen worse cracks welded and then ground, not by me as I didn't have a Tig at the time. Worth sending your pics to a couple fabricators in the area, you'll need to disassemble the valves first in order to see the extent of the crack.
Re: Cracked Head - HELP
Posted: 11 May 2014, 16:45
by itchyfeet
what2d wrote:I've seen worse cracks welded and then ground, not by me as I didn't have a Tig at the time. Worth sending your pics to a couple fabricators in the area, you'll need to disassemble the valves first in order to see the extent of the crack.
Possibly but will it last, id be believing marco mansi who made this comment about my cracked head in a post on the yard, as i said earlier take the valves out and see if it runs behind the valve seat.
http://www.brick-yard.co.uk/forum/rusty ... ack#623963" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
marco the t.s.e wrote: If you can see the crack behind the valve seat then it's a bin job for surel
Re: Cracked Head - HELP
Posted: 11 May 2014, 19:43
by 123-jn
both my heads were cracked similar to that when I rebuilt the engine having just had to change a head after only 2000 miles I'd say dont put it back on the on that came off again had cracked in another place but the crack between the valves was so much worse in such a short time.