My engine has failed :(

Muncher · 7 Nov 2009 at 15:12

Had a trackday at Bedford GT today which ended after about 2 hours

My mate was driving it, said it felt a bit down on power, then he heard a noise which he said sounded like big ends or little ends. Backed right off and stopped as soon as we could. As we stopped the car just died.Also black flagged by a marshall who must have heard something wrong.

Not started it up again, oil level is normal, no big holes or signs of lost oil. When I first got out of the car I did smell oil though.

It's such a pain as I had paid tuition from a racing driver all day and the car was absolutely phenominal with the new Cornering Force setup, completely altered my perceptions of what the car is capable of.

Muncher · 7 Nov 2009 at 15:23

jellybeard999 said:
The VX220 ?

Yep.

Trifid - stage 2 at the moment, the new engine is under construction still but won't be ready in time for this.

Muncher · 7 Nov 2009 at 15:40

hominid said:
First thoughts to me would be an oil starvation issue, especially on trackdays with some nice long corners to make all the oil stay to one side of the sump for a prolonged period of time, starving the oil pump. Did you have a baffled sump on it or do they come with one from the factory?

Sorry to hear it, was/is a very nice machine.

It's a possibility I guess. The sump isn't really baffled.

Muncher · 7 Nov 2009 at 16:36

On the plus side the car was blisteringly quick, we were passing everything out there, the only thing I can't remember passing was a 997 GT3.

Muncher · 7 Nov 2009 at 17:11

Thomas. PLease. said:
probably could get 1.1-1.2 g of lateral grip, depending on tyres and conditions I would have thought.

I haven't got the latest data with me but pre-suspension work it was pulling over 1G lateral, at a guess it may even be pulling 1.2G now, it's phenominal.

Muncher · 8 Nov 2009 at 16:09

OK, some more info, not sure if it's good or bad :/

- Slight oil leak from around the crank pulley, not much came out at all but it's visible.
- The crank will not turn by hand, certainly not without the use of a long bar or anything, it's stuck solid.
- On draining the oil there are next to no bits of metal in it. A very powerful magnet found a bit about the size of a grain of sand but that's it.
- Maybe it's because the engine is cold but not a lot of oil is coming out of it. However about 15 mins after the breakdown the dipstick was showing it as full.

Sounds like the bottom end has seized to me due to lack of lubrication?

Muncher · 8 Nov 2009 at 17:30

I've had a long chat with stumpy (some of you may remember him) who is a tech at Ford. He thinks it may be the big end bearings and I may have caught it early enough that the bearings just need to be replaced, with any luck.

The sump is going to come off tomorrow to inspect the bearings, the crank and to check whether there is any scoring of the piston bores to suggest ring failure (that may have caused the crank seal to fail)

Also going to check the cam bearing caps to see whether there is evidence of a lack of oil supply there.

Muncher · 8 Nov 2009 at 18:11

The sump is actually baffled, it has a plate which is rivetted in.

Bedford is anticlockwise but with a lot of bends going the other way too. The oil pump is on the offside so I don't think that was the issue.

Muncher · 8 Nov 2009 at 18:28

crankbro said:
Id say if the engine is pretty hard to turn over by hand then it might have damaged the crank already. Always worth a look, just dont get your hopes up thinking you might get away with just the bearings

The company that were setting up the handling reported the dipstick wasn't really registering on the dipstick before they started a test day. I explained that the dipstick was notoriously poor on the z22se (inconsistent and doesn't seem to read properly) and told them what oild to use to top it up.

It came to the trackday topped up and after the incident the first check of the dipstick showed it was at maximum.

Muncher · 9 Nov 2009 at 03:21

crankbro said:
Bit confused here? Has it been set up by another company and driven? If so how long did it take for them to notice the oil was low?

Yes, I will check but I think they checked the oil level even before starting the engine pretty much.

Problem with the dipstick has been mentioned on the VX site:

it's the way the dipstick system has been designed, the dipstick is at the back of the engine but the point of entry is at the front of the engine, so if this channel gets any crap inside the oil level will be wrong.

you could simply drill a hole through the steel 'lid' of the channel near where the dipstick enters the sump

or

fit a saab sump which has a normal dipstick - it measures the oil where it enters the sump

Muncher · 9 Nov 2009 at 12:49

Drained the oil out and it is seriously low on oil

Only approx 2.8 litres came out, when the capacity is 5 litres. Yet the dipstick was still reading at maximum!

Muncher · 9 Nov 2009 at 13:02

The filter is out and it doesn't contain much. I usually managed to get 4.5l in on an oil change.

Muncher · 10 Nov 2009 at 15:40

Bits of bearing in the sump do not make me a happy boy. New engine for sure.

Muncher · 11 Nov 2009 at 02:07

Looks like I have a have a plan coming together...

I already have a head from a scrap engine I picked up a while ago. I've just bought a bottom end from a guy on the VX forum for about £130 inc delivery.

I already have a head bolt set and a head gasket from the LSJ build sitting in my loft. On this temporary engine I may remove the balancer shafts and fit a lightweight flywheel just to allow it to rev a tad more easily.

I have also bought an 182k mile engine from a local scrap yard which I heard running (slightly poorly at first but it may have been due to sitting about) for only £80(!!) which I will almost certainly break for parts.

I may even make a profit out of this...

Muncher · 11 Nov 2009 at 10:07

Virdi said:
Surely you would want to start with a pukka engine - If you're going to mod it?

No, as the higher powered/strengthening stuff I am doing will be on a separate engine anyway, this is just temporary.

Muncher · 14 Nov 2009 at 18:01

Getting there slowly, really hampered by the weather

Old engine not quite out yet as it's a lot of work. You don't know how lucky you guys are with normal cars that don't need a whole clamshell removing to get to!

Muncher · 15 Nov 2009 at 17:50

Clam off

Engine Out

A big hole, a pretty tight fit!

Muncher · 16 Nov 2009 at 14:10

Dogbreath said:
I reckon you need to design some kind of quick release mechanism for the clam and engine, will make changing it the next time much faster

I don't even want to think about doing that again at the moment! There's no way to make the rear clam truly easy to remove without severe modification I'm afraid

I've just stripped the old engine down and it was kind of as I suspected, half of number 2 cylinder's lower bearing has worn away to nothing as are a couple of others. Visually the crank looks ok but will need properly checking and regrinding. The main bearings seem pretty much ok.

Muncher · 17 Nov 2009 at 17:12

crankbro said:
Main bearings ok but big ends done for Damn dude, hows the crank looking?

Visually it is ok but will almost certainly need work on it.

Replacement engine is done apart from:

- Flywheel and clutch to go on
- Timing to Set
- Big end bolts to change when they come tomorrow
- Sump to be stuck on

Muncher · 18 Nov 2009 at 19:32

Replacement engine is all built and in. Timing chain cover still to go in, then every other ancilliary, pipe, connecter, exhaust, supercharger etc needs to go on.

Then I can start it and see what happens!