New 350i owner

[mrzigazaga]

Hi Ralph..I was reading some similar stories on a land rover forum and although its not conclusive there were suggestions of blocked oil ways causing dry tappy lifters but this apparently would not cause wear at least in not such a short time as yours..Some did mention in severe cases it could be big end bearings or loose liners..There are also reports of it being exhaust manifold bolts being loose...Worn water pump..Knackered pulley bearings or even a loose pulley..Have you actually pin pointed exactly where the noise is coming from?..There is also a mention of running the engine without the pulley connected to rule out the pulley bearings...I hope you can find out WTF is going on mate..And that it is not too serious..Best of luck..Ziga

[adam quantrill]

1. I note you took the lifters out before. Did you number them and then put them back in the same holes? If not (you mixed them up) then you might be in trouble because they bed in against each cam lobe and you might (but not always) get a lot of wear if you move them about.

2. When you get them out again (and number them ;^) you could take out the dizzy too and put a screwdriver on an electric drill to drive the oil pump. You should then see the oilway to each lifter bleeding out oil. You might need to replace some of them if there isn't flow to some of the holes (replace the ones that are gushing oil).

3. Check the lifter bottom faces for signs of excessive wear - there are some pictures in the SDi/Rover 3500 Haynes manual.

4. If you turn it over with the valley gasket off you could try getting a strobe light on it (off the king lead) and that might "freeze" the motion of the internal parts so you can try and correlate the ticking with the position of a rocker or pushrod. You'll probably want to try this at night. Also have all the spark plugs out and it'll rev much faster on the starter. Hopefully the ticking will be a lot louder with the gasket off and rocker covers off too.

[ralph350i]

mrzigazaga said:

Hi Ralph..I was reading some similar stories on a land rover forum and although its not conclusive there were suggestions of blocked oil ways causing dry tappy lifters but this apparently would not cause wear at least in not such a short time as yours..Some did mention in severe cases it could be big end bearings or loose liners..There are also reports of it being exhaust manifold bolts being loose...Worn water pump..Knackered pulley bearings or even a loose pulley..Have you actually pin pointed exactly where the noise is coming from?..There is also a mention of running the engine without the pulley connected to rule out the pulley bearings...I hope you can find out WTF is going on mate..And that it is not too serious..Best of luck..Ziga

Hi Zig
Blocked oil way to lifter is what i am working on mate as the noise is in the valley for sure, defo is not big ends, pulley bearing or liner mate, so am off out this morning to locate and hopefully will have some news later today

Cheers

Ralph

[ralph350i]

adam quantrill said:

1. I note you took the lifters out before. Did you number them and then put them back in the same holes? If not (you mixed them up) then you might be in trouble because they bed in against each cam lobe and you might (but not always) get a lot of wear if you move them about.

2. When you get them out again (and number them ;^) you could take out the dizzy too and put a screwdriver on an electric drill to drive the oil pump. You should then see the oilway to each lifter bleeding out oil. You might need to replace some of them if there isn't flow to some of the holes (replace the ones that are gushing oil).

3. Check the lifter bottom faces for signs of excessive wear - there are some pictures in the SDi/Rover 3500 Haynes manual.

4. If you turn it over with the valley gasket off you could try getting a strobe light on it (off the king lead) and that might "freeze" the motion of the internal parts so you can try and correlate the ticking with the position of a rocker or pushrod. You'll probably want to try this at night. Also have all the spark plugs out and it'll rev much faster on the starter. Hopefully the ticking will be a lot louder with the gasket off and rocker covers off too.

Hi Adam
1. dont worry i did put everything back in order mate
2 great idea Adam i,ll defo give that a try
3.have checked the lifter bottoms and although not perfect there was no dents, but a couple had marks
4 another great idea Adam thank you

hopefully have some news a bit later and thank you very very much

Regards

Ralph

[ralph350i]

Hi Guys
Well i dont think the news is good guys:mad, well started of checking the lifters in which i found that 1 was spinning very fast and the others were turning a 1/4 turn per cam lift
see here


Well it started pissing down so went in for a few hours and then went back out and removed the rocker arm, pulled the spinning lifter and took it apart, check valve bearing was free and put back together, now i never torqued the rocker arm down, but it was tight, so cranked the engine and found that water was coming out of the rocker arm and also found metal fragments which had come up in the bolt oil ways along with water:mad


Metal in the oil:mad



What the hell is happening with this engine it driving me mad lol


Cheers

Ralph

[ralph350i]

Morning Guys
Well after sleeping on it i think i need to remove the engine and find out whats breaking up, so a few questions, do i need to removed the exhaust manifolds to pull the lump and is it easier to just pull the gearbox out with it or is it easier just to leave in place??

Cheers

Ralph

[adam quantrill]

Water in oil - flat bits of metal - could be head gasket breaking up. Re-check the compression on that cylinder (and the rest too).

If that's all it is you can do this job in situ.

[ralph350i]

adam quantrill said:

Water in oil - flat bits of metal - could be head gasket breaking up. Re-check the compression on that cylinder (and the rest too).

If that's all it is you can do this job in situ.

Hi Adam
Thanks, but have still not found the knocking issue and at this piont i really dont want to fix a headgasket only to find the knocking is still present, time to sort this out once and for all and have some peice of mind, any advise on the exhaust please

Regards

Ralph

[Jack Valiant]

Given the range of problems you have had, and if it was me, i would have that engine out and do the whole lot in one hit even if it means the car standing for a bit. The top end knocking could be all sorts of things ranging from rods and followers, cam and end bearings, dissy drive, to oil pump, exhaust and manifold the list would go on and you would soon be looking for some suitable explosives!!

Chris

[Desiato]

ralph350i said:

Morning Guys
Well after sleeping on it i think i need to remove the engine and find out whats breaking up, so a few questions, do i need to removed the exhaust manifolds to pull the lump and is it easier to just pull the gearbox out with it or is it easier just to leave in place??

Cheers

Ralph

I think it's easier to pull the lump out with the gearbox and manifolds all fitted, others prefer to separate them, if you leave the box normally you will need to remove the manifolds too.

[ralph350i]

Jack Valiant said:

Given the range of problems you have had, and if it was me, i would have that engine out and do the whole lot in one hit even if it means the car standing for a bit. The top end knocking could be all sorts of things ranging from rods and followers, cam and end bearings, dissy drive, to oil pump, exhaust and manifold the list would go on and you would soon be looking for some suitable explosives!!

Chris

Hi Chris
Have already started mate and it nearly ready to come out, i,ll pull the engine on Friday and start stripping and re-building the engine, i think its the only way i can get some peice of mind at last



cheers

ralph

Edited by ralph350i on Monday 30th April 20:32

[ralph350i]

Desiato said:

I think it's easier to pull the lump out with the gearbox and manifolds all fitted, others prefer to separate them, if you leave the box normally you will need to remove the manifolds too.

Hi Desiato
Thanks very much, manifold unbolted and ready to come off, as am leaving the gearbox in mate, cheers, ralph

[ralph350i]

Evening Guys
Well another sunny evening, so back out and shes all ready to be removed:thumbsup the exhaust where a right b*****d to get off, but got there in the end by jacking the engine up:thumbsup

So i found the first of not many issues i hope, the exhaust manifolds are cracked and been repaired at some piont by a blind man with a welder :lol:lol:lol:lol and i ant joking, check this out






So there cleaned up as much as poss and i,ll take them down to RSR in croydon and see if it can have them repaired:thumbsup

cheers

Ralph

[adam quantrill]

Those repairs look fine - they are ony manifolds after all - they don't have to look pretty ;^)

Could be the source of the ticking though - quite easily.

[ralph350i]

adam quantrill said:

Those repairs look fine - they are ony manifolds after all - they don't have to look pretty ;^)

Could be the source of the ticking though - quite easily.

Adam
i hope your joking mate, as i used to be a welder and if i had ever produced that, i truely hope i would have been given the sack and i wish it was that easy, still i,ll find out shortly engine should be stripped at the weekend.

Cheers

Ralph

[ralph350i]

Evening Guys
Well it looks like i have been sold a truly knacked engine:mad
Well up early this morning and pulled the lump, which apart from not finding a couple of fixing it was pretty easy to do on my own, so out with the lump and first problem, gearbox nuts not long enough to put on engine stand, still had a pallet, so bricked it up and started stripping it down, so as most was already removed, the heads were first to come off and just look what i found:frown:frown, this is on 4 out of the eight pistons and heads, 3 one side and 1 the other, now there's no way this has happened by me and if you look at the head gaskets which are in mint condition with no burn marks what so ever, this surely has happen post the heads being re-built??? so guys the question is what can cause this????? and don't you just love buying cars that people sell, when they must of know about this damage, as these heads have only just been removed in last October and fixed, thanks a bloody lot and this is not even the cause of the knocking noise, that's to come, great i cant wait

Edited by ralph350i on Sunday 6th May 19:34

[mrzigazaga]

Hi Ralph..WTF!!..Im no mechanic but i used to work stripping blocks and replacing pistons and cylinders, Valves etc..I did it for a few years and never saw anything like that!!..even with some of the worst case scenarios..It looks like its been done by whoever took the heads off..Especially where the gasket sits as there is nothing there that would of caused that kind of damage!!..Looks like something has either been left in the bores when it was put back together or it was done deliberate, Are the spark plug threads ok?..I wouldnt of thought that ian would of known about it but his poxy so called mechanic would of..If your there ian what exactly did he do and did he charge you..If he did then he needs to be paid a visit and given a swift kick to the bolax...What a gut wrenching sight to be-hold..I really feel for you ralph..All this perseverance to find that!!..Ziga

Edited by mrzigazaga on Sunday 6th May 20:21

[Jack Valiant]

Ralph, thats serious fella! If I was to guess i would suggest that the previous heads had a major failure of valves or similar and deposited metal into the bores. Then possibly the heads have been changed post problem? I have seen something similar with breaking down / moving liners but you say yours are ok?

If it were me i would bite the bullet and get a short engine and use the good bits off yours if the heads are good etc

Not a good first Wedge experience matey...... good luck

Chris

[ralph350i]

mrzigazaga said:

Hi Ralph..WTF!!..Im no mechanic but i used to work stripping blocks and replacing pistons and cylinders, Valves etc..I did it for a few years and never saw anything like that!!..even with some of the worst case scenarios..It looks like its been done by whoever took the heads off..Especially where the gasket sits as there is nothing there that would of caused that kind of damage!!..Looks like something has either been left in the bores when it was put back together, Are the spark plug threads ok?..I wouldnt of thought that ian would of known about it but his poxy so called mechanic would of..If your there ian what exactly did he do and did he charge you..If he did then he needs to be paid a visit and given a swift kick to the bolax...What a gut wrenching sight to be-hold..I really feel for you ralph..All this perseverance to find that!!..Ziga

Hi Zig
yeah am left scratching my head mate, god only knows what the hell has happened, as if something had dropped into the cylinders surely marks would be all over the place?? and not just on these outer edges??? never mind mate have still got to find the knocking noise lol, cant wait until tomorrow mate, surely it cant get any worse and Ian's mechanic probably messed up mate and just put it back together, i,ll send Ian a text a tell him to get his money back, at lease then one of us has give the bloke hell, cheers, ralph

[mrzigazaga]

Hi Mate..I just found this which looks pretty similar..It doesnt sound good and probably would explain the metal shards you found the other day and possibly explain the knocking noise..


SMASHED DEBRIS

This piston crown has been damaged because debris entered the combustion chamber and was crushed between the piston and the cylinder head. This engine had a corresponding damage pattern on the head's squish band. The common causes of this problem are broken needle bearings from the small or big end bearings of the connecting rod, broken ring ends, or a dislodged ring centering pin. When A problem like this occurs, its important to locate where the debris originated. Also the crankcases must be flushed out to remove any left over debris that could cause the same damage again. If the debris originated from the big end of the connecting rod, then the crankshaft should be replaced along with the main bearings and seals.