Blown engine......HELP!!!

[floyd 1.8 turbo]

Hello all,
been a while since I've been on here but have returned for some much needed help. So in a nutshell my engine is fooked!!
Looking for a replacement but not sure where to look, scrap yards and eBay are a no go as I don't know what I'm buying, could be an engine just as knackered as mine. Anyone know of a decent lump for sale? Not after anything special, just a replacement. It's a 1.8 Turbo AEB

Any help will be great

James

[adidasandy]

James,

Is your engine totally gone? TBH I found from experience it's better to repair an engine you know (you own) rather than buying someones elses problems. But if this is not an option I find crash damaged ones are the best as they were running before the cash (in most cases) My mate has a breakers licence which makes it easier as he can buy total write offs.
Good luck in which ever route you go down.

Andy

[murran]

whats up with your current engine?

[floyd 1.8 turbo]

Ok basically I was driving to see my wife in hospital which is about 15 miles from my house, approx 3 miles into my journey the engine started to sound really tinny then started to slightly overheat. By the time I got there the temp was high and sounded real bad but I still had to do the same journey home then to work, had no choice!
A mechanic friend of mine looked at it when it was back at the workshop and said it was the head gasket and it had more than likely mullered something else, head, bottom end etc so just replace the engine incase the head gets done then something else has broken due to the amount of time driven with it sounding like a washing machine full of spanners

[adidasandy]

IMO I would take the head off and check the damage 1st, you may be suprised. Whats the worsed case scenario = you need a new engine but would be better to find out why this happened in the 1st place.

[floyd 1.8 turbo]

Yeah I suppose that'd be a good idea to start with, trouble is finding the time to strip it down myself!! Any ideas of cost if it is just the gasket and I'm guessing the head will need skimming too??

[adidasandy]

Head skim and pressure test £60
Full head gasket kit = £80?
Oil and coolant change = £40
Time = 6-7 hours
Alot more cheaper than an engine bud.
Good luck.

Andy

[murran]

the trouble is; most second hand aeb engines have upwards of 150k on them now and most have scetchy service history and are full of carbon suffering from oil starvation from blocked oil strainers and so are tappety and the cam bearings are suffering.
the plastic feet on the head chain tensioner are ready to break up.
valve guide seals are past their best and its using oil anyway.

unless you can find a sub 100k engine with a full good history?

[floyd 1.8 turbo]

That price sounds good but I wouldn't be able to do it! I do car body repairs so i've got a bit of know how but my mechanical skills aren't quite up to that level.
Is an AEB the only type available that'd go straight in, would another coded engine require a different ecu??

Thanks for your help by the way

[adidasandy]

Mistake

[slepy]

There is an A4 with 77k miles on copart which starts and drives.
Auction is on 30th of January. You could easily register yourself by that time. (my account expired last month)
I'm sure it won't be more than few hundred quid and you would get few quid for body parts that are still good.
Copart

[floyd 1.8 turbo]

Cool cheers for that, registered and just need to send off my documents to them. Have you used them before?

[murran]

is it genuine miles tho? the drivers seat looks too tired for a low mileage example.....
can you look at it before you bid? anyone off here willing to go with you?

its not hard changing the engine on one of these. especially if youve got 2 full cars parked side by side.

remove the complete front panel. disconnect both wiring looms at the main plug/ecu in plastic box under the o/s of the windscreen, other pipes and wires, exhaust front pipe, engine mounts, bell housing bolts, drop the clutch slave cylinder out of the gearbox without removing the hydraulic pipe. engine crane on the engine and wriggle it off.

repeat with the other car....

put the best clutch on it from either engine. or get a new one. stick a new cambelt/tensioner on it too. oil and filter/coolant.

you'll do it and think "what was all the fuss about........"

[slepy]

Cool cheers for that, registered and just need to send off my documents to them. Have you used them before?

Yes mate, many times during last year. Mainly stolen/recovered cars.

They're the biggest salvage auction company in the uk based all over uk.
If you win auction you have 48 hrs to pay for the car and 5 working days after that to pck it up.
You can view the car before auction when you book a viewing with them.

[floyd 1.8 turbo]

You make it sound so easy!! I've got the facilities and equipment but lacking the knowledge, mechanics have never been a favourite of mine but I know a lot of people that could sort it no problem, that's why I chose bodywork!
The trouble is with a second engine is not knowing the history, is it worth selling my car as it is??....how much would I get for it??
Don't know what to do!!!

[murran]

it is easy.

nuts and bolts, pipes and plugs.

[floyd 1.8 turbo]

Just noticed the car on copart is in Scotland, 399.1 miles from my house!! Don't think I'll be attempting that journey!
Spoke to a friend of mine at 'The Phirm' today, he said to jack it up to take the sump plug out and drain out what oil is left in it into a clean container and check for metal filings, if so the engine is pretty much finished, if not strip the head down and investigate further so that's my next step

[floyd 1.8 turbo]

Quick update and any suggestions to the problem will be very welcome!... Drained the oil out today and it was clean, no filings at all. I put a new oil filter on it and put four and half litres of oil back in it, started the engine and after around thirty seconds or so the rattling really calmed down but it still sounds a bit tinny.
Also there is oil in with the water which has turned into light brown sludge, but no water in the drained oil.
Could this be the head gasket or has the oil cooler split??
Any ideas?????

[Byzan Pics]

Id check the cooler first for sure

[floyd 1.8 turbo]

Ok, if it's busted what should I expect? Big job to replace, expensive part etc?

[Byzan Pics]

easy to change, its the silly alloy thing that lives just above the oil filter. 2 pipes and a nut and it's off

[mwarrey]

Oil cooler leaking into coolant system is a common problem. Straight forward to replace, flushing all the old coolant out is probably more difficult. Quite a few years since I changed one but approx £60 for the part. Would think that a garage would charge around 1-2 hour labour to do including flushing?

[floyd 1.8 turbo]

I'll have a look tomorrow, cheers for that

[rs4wannab]

if the engine is toast let me know, think my 1.8t aeb may be getting stripped for parts pretty soon. dont know the exact millage but is quite high 177k although runs great would sell with box and lightened flywheel and fast road clutch. if ya need any other bits pm me.

[murran]

id ignore the cooler for now. bit of oil in the water isnt an immediate concern.

get an oil pressure guage on it and run it up to temp.
if the oil pressure isnt what it should be, id carry on with the search for an engine.

[floyd 1.8 turbo]

Its not a bit of water, its real thick sludge.

[aragorn]

The cooler is still far more likely tbh. Headgaskets on these motors are fairly robust unless youve cooked it.

Get a new cooler (wont go to waste as you can always transfer it to your new engine), and give the motor a good flush and refill with fresh oil and coolant and see how it goes. Use cheap oil, as you'll probably want to dump it out pretty soon as it'll have picked up the remains of the emulsified oil etc.

[floyd 1.8 turbo]

I'm gonna strip the car tomorrow and inspect the cooler, what should i be looking for...cracks, splits etc??
The car did slighty overheat, about three quarters on the gauge and then i pulled over and turned the engine off, there was a bit of steam but not much at all

[aragorn]

3/4 is probably over 110c, certainly not good.

You wont be able to see anything on the cooler, just fit a new one and see what happens.

[floyd 1.8 turbo]

Ok will do, thanks for your help

[murran]

but still reguardless of oil in the water (not the cause of your noisy cam tappets). if the oil pressure itself is low.... bolting new parts to the engine and flushing the cooling system is fairly pointless if your guna end up buying a s/h engine (cus of the over heating/tapping) it will most likely have a good oil cooler already on it.

check the oil pressure to assess engine condition. given the rep. these have for carbon build up blocking the oil strainer.
the oil cooler could have been seeping oil into the coolant for weeks without you noticing.... then the strainers got too blocked up causing the engine to sound tinny and tappety. the thermostat could have even stuck closed to over heat it.
you then spotted the oil in the coolant and presumed this is the cause of all your problems.

we had a 55 plate passat 1.9tdi in at work around 18 months ago, coolant had thick grey/black sludge in every upper part of the cooling system, expansion tank was full of it.
car was booked in for a service..... the guy had no idea and not reported any complaints about it running/sounding any different/over heating.
that was the oil cooler. took about 3/4 goes (bottle of cooling system degreaser each time) flushing and running it up to temp again. was a total ball ache!

the fact he had no idea this was happening to the cooling system (and it was used everyday covering high mileages)..... shows this isnt the cause of your over heating or tappets being noisy (oil floats on water so the expansion tank may look bad, top few cms, but the rest of the cooling system should be operating normally).

check the most serious suspect of your problems first. low oil pressure. cus after youve fitted the new oil cooler and running it up to flush the cooling system you could have very little oil pressure and not know it, the light only comes on at like sub 12-15 psi but you should have atleast 25psi at hot idle and up to 60psi at 2500 rpm.
ive seen blocked up oil strainers a few times and they are tappety like you describe, on checking they usually have like 20 psi at idle but struggle to even make 25 when you up the revs.

[floyd 1.8 turbo]

Went into work yesterday with a mechanic friend of mine, explained what had happened then started the car to show him and it was fine!...no rattling at all. I know there is still something wrong but surely that's a good thing right??? It sounded like normal again.
He advised to replace the cooler as its a common problem and the symptoms matched up, is an oil cooler something that could be upgraded or do I just go OEM?
So I'm gonna replace the cooler and fully flush the system, change the oil and filter again and see what happens

[floyd 1.8 turbo]

[floyd 1.8 turbo]

[floyd 1.8 turbo]

Its fixed!!, running perfect now. flushed the engine and coolant fully 3 times to get rid of that sludgy crap. Really pleased as it only cost about 50 quid in parts...much better than a new engine

The pipes from the cooler were blocked as the exit pipes on the cooler were all corroded as you can see in the pictures

[slepy]

Good to hear that mate.
Way better than a new engine

[Byzan Pics]

Good news that man

[caistor_bmx]

For the record, taking an engine past 110 degrees for a while isn't too bad. Just not Ideal. MK1 and MK2 golfs seem to hit 120 on a track day and will carry on all day before the owner thinks about an oil cooler before the next outing. Hell, mine runs at a constant 100 and has no issues.

[floyd 1.8 turbo]

Yeah really pleased, tax ran out at the end of jan so it's on a sorn until march. Gives me plenty of time to sort the bodywork out, can't wait to have it back on the road. I'm borrowing an N reg 1.2 fiesta for the mean time with no heater or radio and is proper hanging......roll on march!!

[aragorn]

caistor: 120c oil temperature maybe. I doubt the coolant could even get to 120c without blowing the pressure valve on the expansion vessel.