Found out what was wrong with my engine... (carnage content)

[88jetta350]

Well, I found the problem....









Mind you that this is a hydro engine, that's not a lifter shim...



All I can say is, WTF? What would cause something like this?

[Rabbit on Roids]

i pulled a cracked lifter out of my 1.5 engine last time i had the head apart. my grandpa has had a fair amount of lifters break on him and eat the head. im just glad i actually inspected all my lifters before i threw it together.

[88jetta350]

do you think it effed up my piston any?

[smutts]

EEEK! That is one horror story!
The sounds that my red GTD is making at the moment, that is what I expected to find when I gutted it last week. Suprised to find 8 reasonable tappets. The search continues,

If the cam slipped though, wouldn't it be the exhaust valves that would get clobbered by the piston? That looks as though it is at the intake valve?

[Rabbit on Roids]

that is an intake valve. and its probably not that bad. tear the head off, your gonna have to if anythings seriously wrong anyways.

[88jetta350]

I'd say things are pretty messed up. Almost makes me wanna switch back to a gasser.  

My Scirocco doesn't do crap like this, but it's a gas hog, lol.

[88jetta350]

So you're saying it might have just been a stuck lifter?

And you're right, it has nothing to do w/ gas or diesel, it has everything to do with interferance vs. non-interferance

I feared for my diesel every time I started it, because I'm always worried that I didn't time it right, or that the timing belt's not tight enough. With an 8v gasser, it really doesn't matter. It either runs or it doesn't.

Also, more info on the running conditon of the engine. It ran, it drove, it didn't seem to be all that down on power, it just ran rough and smoked really bad. (unburnt fuel) So maybe you're right, maybe the lifter just decided to commit suicide.

[burn_your_money]

Rather then going through the work of re-installing and timing the engine up just pull the cam off, remove what's left of the lifter and do a leakdown test on that cylinder.

I bet your piston is fine.

[Quantum TD]

I'd be worried about that lifter bore. On a mechanical lifter head, there's less concern since the oil just lubricates the lifters. But on a hydro head.....

Make sure that lifter bore is not mangled. It looks pretty bad in the pic.

You might be into it for some serious head work.

Obviously, minimally a replacement cam, lifters and valve job.

[riceatingrabbit]

id just buy a use head and slap it on....

[88jetta350]

I'd be worried about that lifter bore. On a mechanical lifter head, there's less concern since the oil just lubricates the lifters. But on a hydro head.....

Make sure that lifter bore is not mangled. It looks pretty bad in the pic.

You might be into it for some serious head work.

Obviously, minimally a replacement cam, lifters and valve job.

If I'm going to pull the head, I might as well just replace it with a good used one.

It's a shame, too. If you can tell in the pics, this was obviously a very well maintained engine before I got it, not even the slightest hint of sludge, and it has about 230,000km on it.

I'm still shaking my head over this one. I have a strange feeling that this was my fault somehow.

[MizpahPAH]

I think that I read some place that when these lifters go bad the valves tend to kiss the pistons.?

am I correct in thinking there are three states of these lifters

good = lifter will push down hard and spring up maybe even push and suck oil
stuck = lifter will not push down or is very hard, maybe valve kiss piston then pushes past stuck point?
weak = lifter will push or is squishy even after running engine for the 30 min the bently suggests when checking lifters.

when I did my IM shaft bearings I looked at and played with my lifters some / most I could not push down at all some were springy and pushed oil and some were just plain weak

I drove it for a good hour pulled the valve cover and I could only push one down as per bently test would be weak / bad and need to be replaced.
but how do I check for a stuck one or is it just that. If i cannot move / compress a lifter its stuck.

[turbosuzi]

before you remove the head or cam sprocket you could check the timing and see if the cam sprocket did move on the cam.