motor is f_cked!!

[yan tang]

so as i was driving home tonight after work, i was cruising at about 100km/h just getting off the port mann heading eastbound just as i was starting to creep up the hill, my car felt like it had a couple of misfires and all of a sudden i noticed a couple of crunching sounds and car dies.  i quickly pull over and call a tow truck.  when i got home, i pulled the plugs and noticed that the number 2 cylinder spark plug had been smashed to pieces.  a look down the hole i noticed there where metal bits sitting on top of the piston.  any ideas on how this might have happened?  i rotated the motor manually and it felt quite rough and all of sudden it hits a wall and i can now no longer rotate it, it's as if something is jammed.  what are your guys' theories? 

[Brett Haviland]

sounds like your piston went to far up ( to hit the spark plug)... the only way for that to happen is if your rod starts separating from the crankshaft.  Even when a timing belt breaks it wont destroy the spark plug....... UNLESS....


But.....  If you drop a valve or break your timing belt, and break a valve..... and it snaps the valve head off... then total destruction will result and the pieces of the valve(s) will rattle around destroying everything in thier path.

My bet is that either
A)  your timing belt skipped or broke... causing it the break a valve...  and the pieces destroyed the spark plug...

B) Your retainer/keeper assembly let go due to high(er) lift cams and the stesses assosiated with them and the valve dropped, came in contact with the piston, broke and then rattled around busting shit.


Either way sounds like time to swap in your spare motor  (hopefully you didn;t sell it yet!)

Your block MIGHT be salvageable as long as the pieces of metal did not come in serious contact with the cylinder walls.   Almost certainly the head is destroyed along with the piston(s).


Good luck getting it all fixed up.

Give me a shout if you ever need a hand with it.

[John Hartman]

Pull the head and have a look

you may be lucky and have it just metal from a valve or valve seat

then you clean up the piston and put a different head on

But it may be much worse... 

[yan tang]

The timing belt looks like it's all in tact. If the belt skipped, would it not have taken out more than one cylinder? I'm almost certain the motor's gonna need to be replaced. I'm gonna start by pulling the head and see where it goes from there. Today was a bad day. Very depressed now...sigh...

[Brett Haviland]

Sorry to hear about it yan.  You are probably right about the timing belt...  as long as the marks line up....  I would pull the valve cover and see if all the retainers and keepers are in place.... if they are... then i guess it might still be possible for a valve head to break off.... or maybe the piston came apart.


I will pray for the 2nd fastest DSM in BC to have a quick recovery.

[yan tang]

Thanks for the input guys. I have to admit though, I'm pretty bummed out about this whole thing. It seems like it's one thing after another. I thought my engine would have a nice easy life especially after reducing the setup by 100hp. The car will be back shortly, but I'm afraid it's no longer be as strong as once was. We'll have to see what happens. Like I said though, I'm pretty discouraged at this point.

[Brett Haviland]

A lot of people have surprized themselfs on the durability of the stock 6 block shortblock.

I will bet that a stock 6 bolt will almost be as durable as a higher compression built block, if not more so.


From what i have seen the wiesco pistons (not sure if that what you were running or not) seem to melt and fail pretty easily under hard detonation.  I sometimes ponder weather if the stock pistons would take the same abuse, if not more considering they have lower compression then a typical 9:1 compression, built block.

[Ryan Coft]

I know the feeling buddy, so scared to push this motor even a little I drive around without hitting boost anymore

[Remi Raymond]

Did you take a look at everything from the turbo back to see if maybe something broke free and was ingested? (compressor blade maybe?)

Sorry to hear.

[yan tang]

That's a good point. I think I'm gonna start taking it apart tonight after work. I'll keep you guys posted. The sad thing is, I haven't even boosted the car hard for over two weeks. I just had all the dents in the car pulled and all the paint cleaned up. The car looks like it just came off the showroom floor.  I had just picked it up and that was my first drive home. At least it looks good sitting the driveway.

[John Hartman]

do you know the body shop guys well?  I wonder if they took it for a rip?

[yan tang]

I don't think that's a possibility cuz the guy could hardly drive stick. He stalled the car about 6 times just pulling the car in. I've also been keeping an eye on my gas gauge cuz I'm trying to see how many km's I could squeeze out of a tank without boosting and so far I was at 250kms and still just over half a tank left. My car's a pig on gas when boosted. If somebody took it for a rip I would definitely see it on my gauge. Wouldn't that be something though? Somebody would definitely be getting hurt.

[John Hartman]

just cause that one guy didn't drive it doesn't mean that someone else there didn't.  Owner, body shop foreman, car wash guy.

Topped off the tank with regular when it went down.

Not saying, just sayin you know?

[Drew Sale]

before they get rid of the security tapes, go see if they have cameras pointed at where the guy stalled it a bunch. if there are cameras there, call the police and file a report saying that someone there broke your car and you need the cops to get a hold of the tapes. then file a complaint with the company and tell them that you have evidence of someone there abusing your car (stalling it) and who knows what else they did. if you can afford it, tell them you will pay for the repairs if they reimburse you for it. or tell them they have to pay for it up front and you will take it to a mechanic of your choice.
or call ICBC and tell them someone at a shop you took it to abused it a destroyed it. explain that you need that security footage (if there's cameras there) and see what they say. it might actually work! i naturally argue with everyone so if all this doesn't sit well with you then pay no attention to it. but if you can get someone else to pay for anything that needs fixing (hopefully nothing) then it's all worth it, right?
sorry to hear about it though, when you've hit bottom the only way to go is back up 

[Paul Pigar]

I "always" checked my odometer before and after i dropped my car to the bodyshop. U never know, lot guys this day are stupid(no offense to lot guys here), but in my dealership they crashed so many cars.