Author Topic: My motor screwed now?? (Read 4043 times)

NOTORIOUS VR · « **on:** January 18, 2006, 08:02:41 am »

So yesterday was a horrible day to me...

After not having driven my car in a while, I decided that I'd take it out for a drive, put some air in the LR tire (seem to have a slow leak somewhere)... and generally just enjoy it...

But that all came to a big halt when I started my car... which by tthe it started w/o hesitation or anything... and it was only around 0-1 deg. C here and raining... I let the glow plugs cycle once, pulled the cold start, and cranked... fired up no problem! Nice steady idle, all is well... Or is it?

I notice that both my coolent and oil lights are blinking on the dash... Back up the car a bit to get under the hood and promptly turn it off.

Pop the hood... look around... hmm... open the coolen resevoir.. nothing.. bone dry.... Strangely enough my car doesn't leak fluid's at all. Then I noticed it... the coolent hose between the coolent pump and the oil cooler, etc had burst.

The worst part of all this is... This happened 2 days ago when my roommate decided he'd help me out by starting my car (as I haven't driven it for two+ weeked) but, after him starting the ccar, he decided he come inside the house... then FORGET about my running car and leave to his GF's house for a few hours (I was sleeping while all of this was happening BTW).

Now my cooling fan didn't work automatically (and he knew this and he knew where to turn it on) because of the PO being a dumba$$ and cutting up all the wiring/relays.

When I woke up in the morning (2 days ago), my buddy asked me if I had turned off the car... I just looked at him funny and asked him why I'd do that, and he told me because it was off when he came back (not knowing he left it running unattended). I didn't pay any mind to that, and that brings me to what I had found out yesterday.

So in short:

The car was left running for a few hours in one spot, with the cold start out, w/o a working automatic cooling fan.

My guess is the car started to over heat, busted the hose by the oil cooler and ran out of coolen compleatly.

The car then stalled somehow (or seized temporarily??)

Some how the oil went from being in the middle of the min/max mark of the dipstick to barely registering on the tip of the dipstick.

Now... I'm guessing some internal damage must of happened to the motor, since I'm guessing the car overheated.

BUT... the car starts w/o a problem, runs fine, revv's up fine, feels smooth (as sooth as diesels go anyways) just as it did before this.

I'm planning on buying a new coolent hose and topping it up along with the oil and seeing what happens. I guess it can't get any worse then it is.

Anyone have any suggestions/comments about this? Maybe things that could have gone wrong?

My roommate called a friend who's a tech @ a VW dealer, and he said that diesels automatically stop running when they over heat, and that probably nothing is wrong with my motor.

I have a hard time believing that, as A: He's not the smartest in the bunch, and B: I doubt that the car will automatically just turn off on you if it starts to over heat, as it's just a simple 12V ignition switched source that goes to the pump that allows the car to run.

So what do you think? Start lookin for a new motor? Start gathering parts for a rebuild?? Drive it as long as I can, and possiblyl have no other problems?

I'm not a happy camper that's for sure... my beloved TD went from being a great running car to this :twisted:

BlackTieTD · « **Reply #1 on:** January 18, 2006, 08:22:16 am »

these old motors don't automatically do anything. :lol:

yes, that is all very bad. don'd do that any more.

i'd try replacing obviously damaged parts, refill fluids, have a compression test done and coolant system test to start... see how those check out. i'm surprised it fires right up.

(btw, start car with cold start IN, then pull out once it catches)

(if you end up needing parts i have a couple spare motors and parts for the MF code mkII TD motors, like your's)

ps- i'd have strangled my roommate blue right there.

935racer · « **Reply #2 on:** January 18, 2006, 08:46:23 am »

My lady over heated her bunny once while she was driving, the engine quit, and she pulled over and called me to come save her ass. Anyways to make a long story short I fixed the broken coolant line topped her up and she has put about 5000kms on it with no leaks, not even a headgasket leak, it runs like a champ. So if I were you would fix the leaks, top her up and see whats up, its possible you warped your head, thats usually the point where they stopped running.

NOTORIOUS VR · « **Reply #3 on:** January 18, 2006, 09:46:56 am »

Quote from: "935racer"

My lady over heated her bunny once while she was driving, the engine quit, and she pulled over and called me to come save her ass. Anyways to make a long story short I fixed the broken coolant line topped her up and she has put about 5000kms on it with no leaks, not even a headgasket leak, it runs like a champ. So if I were you would fix the leaks, top her up and see whats up, its possible you warped your head, thats usually the point where they stopped running.

Honestly... I'm hoping that is the case.... the only thing that makes me think the car is ok, is that it starts w/o any hesitation and runs/idles smooth there after... Obviously I didn't let it warm up because there isn't any coolent in the car, so thing might change once the motor warms up I guess.

But yea, I'm going to put in a new coolent hose (I believe I can use on off of an 1.8L 8V correct?) in there and see what happens.

I'm still a little confused about where my oil went tho...

I also just checked, and saw that I have a hydraulic lifter head (according to a thread on here that I just searched) due to the outwards vertical line between cyl #1 & 2. So if the HG did go... I guess it would be a good time to upgrade to a 1.9L head and HG (I'm looking on the bright side)

dieselweasel · « **Reply #4 on:** January 18, 2006, 09:51:01 am »

You might get lucky...I've seen and heard of engines stopping due to overheating and then being ok after. The engine was not under load when this happened so that is a positive thing. Possible damage indcludes: scored pistons/cylinders, warped/cracked cyl head, blown head gasket. As said before, fix the coolant hose then top up the fluids and check for problems.

zyewdall · « **Reply #5 on:** January 18, 2006, 11:58:36 am »

I couple of years ago I overheated an old subaru while offroading on a jeep trail. Stalled, and refused to start. Was dripping both coolant and engine oil from somewhere. When it cooled off, it seemed fine, but about 6 months later the head gasket blew (giant cloud of white all of a sudden), and 6 months after that, the blown head gasket finally got bad enough that I had to fix it (still ran fine, but was only getting 40mpg on the coolant) Maybe you didn't do anything bad, but I'd be worried about something happening down the road.

Don't trust your roommate with the keys to it any more :evil:

Dr. Diesel · « **Reply #6 on:** January 18, 2006, 01:25:44 pm »

Quote from: "libbybapa"

and get a new roommate, or at least wreck his car Andrew

(just kidding).

sort of...

jtanguay · « **Reply #7 on:** January 18, 2006, 01:32:28 pm »

yep... my car overheated on the highway... there was an accident and the rad fan didnt kick in.. so as i was sitting in traffic i noticed that there was some nice steam coming out the hood... glanced at my temp gauge... and it was pretty damn hot!! shut motor off... had to get the fire department to fill me up with water and drive it far enough with the heater blowing in my face on a nice hot day!!!! my car didn't shut off automatically. but maybe it wasnt getting hot enough?

the only way i can see the car shutting off from overheating is when the injection pump, or injectors internal parts expand so much from the heat that it actually starves the engine of fuel. OR the fuel cutoff solenoid is heat sensitive? I would be super impressed if VW engineers designed it that way... completely blown away!

lesharoturbo · « **Reply #8 on:** January 18, 2006, 04:24:47 pm »

VW engineers did not "design" the motor to shut off in case of overheating. I had this happen on my air cooled motorcycle years ago as it was idling in the yard. What happens is the pistons, bearings and other moving parts expand due to the heat and will stop the motor if it is idling because the energy needed to push the motor necomes greater than the motor generates. If you were driving this car, then the engine would have siezed eventually. Since it was idling, thereis a very good chance that it is ok.

Bernie

dieseldan · « **Reply #9 on:** January 18, 2006, 04:44:14 pm »

To prevent failures from overheating, many fleet and military engines use a small relay in parallel with the warning light circuit to shut off the fuel solenoid if the engine overheats. This same idea can be used to prevent oil pressure failure as well. You may just want to change the oil and filter, do a compression test, and replace your radiator cap. If the cap had functioned properly, the hose should not have blown off. The dealer also told me that my 84 TD uses a different cap (green) than the N/A (blue).
Daniel

chrissev · « **Reply #10 on:** January 19, 2006, 03:04:44 pm »

I've overheated a NA rabbit (1979 1.5 litre) and what happened was the cylinder head gasket blew. After that, car no run no more. Weird that your head gasket didn't blow. What Libbypapa said sounds actually frighteningly accurate. After all the coolant was lost through the burst hose the engine would continue to run until the pistons expanded enough to scrape against their bores, then the engine would stop. But that would mean you'd have some really big scratches on your cylinder bores, because it takes a lot to stop a diesel engine, they have huge amounts of low end torque.

NOTORIOUS VR · « **Reply #11 on:** January 20, 2006, 07:20:50 am »

Sigh... I know... I'm seriously in a big conflict here... I don't know if I should just rip the motor apart, or top everything up, drive it and see what happens "after"

but... IF I were to get my hands on a 19L head, things will probably be different... I probably would rip it appart anyways and just re-do the motor (which I was planning on doing anyways in the future either after running too much boost, or when I had more money on the side).

My roommate has offer to get me money for what happend... so who know's, maybe this happend for the best LOL...

Either way, I'm not activly searching for a 1.9L head, so anyone who is willing to part with one PM me :lol:

BTW, anyone have any suggestions on pistons?

Either OE replacements (new) or lower comp ones, and the approx. price and where to buy in the Toronto area? Thanks!

LeeG · « **Reply #12 on:** January 20, 2006, 08:24:57 am »

Rent, beg, borrow or steal a borescope / endoscope, pull the injectors and have a look in each cylinder.

Snapon sells boroscopes, $1000? Chinese knockoffs for $150 and
used medical models at various prices on Ebay (gotta wonder where those have been :oops: ).

dieselweasel · « **Reply #13 on:** January 21, 2006, 02:49:08 pm »

Quote from: "NOTORIOUS VR"

Sigh... I know... I'm seriously in a big conflict here... I don't know if I should just rip the motor apart, or top everything up, drive it and see what happens "after"

I definitely wouldn't start taking the engine apart until you know you have to. You won't do anymore damage than was already done by starting it.
I would make sure it turns over by hand a few turns, then after monitor how the engine starts and runs. Make sure you're not loosing coolant.