ROVER V8 big end failure
Discussion
OK guys & gals, simple question and not really how I want to introduce myself to the forum, but sh!t happens unfortunately!
I was out for a drive recently with a friend in my pre-serp 4.3 Chim and noticed an unusual noise underbonnet, so I stopped to have a listen. Sounded like maybe (hopefully) only a tappet, but a mile down the road it became terminal - engine still runs but loud knocking. I killed the engine straight away as obviously a big end has gone. So I'm wondering what the likely extant / cause of this would be - can I just have the shells replaced with rover / TVR items to get it going again or am I into a full bottom end rebuild and whats the likely cost? Not exactly flush with cash so I'm hoping to have this done as cost effectively as possible while still having a useable engine - any suggestions welcome!
I was out for a drive recently with a friend in my pre-serp 4.3 Chim and noticed an unusual noise underbonnet, so I stopped to have a listen. Sounded like maybe (hopefully) only a tappet, but a mile down the road it became terminal - engine still runs but loud knocking. I killed the engine straight away as obviously a big end has gone. So I'm wondering what the likely extant / cause of this would be - can I just have the shells replaced with rover / TVR items to get it going again or am I into a full bottom end rebuild and whats the likely cost? Not exactly flush with cash so I'm hoping to have this done as cost effectively as possible while still having a useable engine - any suggestions welcome!
Being wildly optimistic, it's just conceivable that you've got a broken manifold or something rather than major mechanical damage. I can't remember last time I heared of somebody breaking one of these in normal driving. But there's no way to be sure until you've had a look. Think you will need to dump the oil and see what that's like, if in doubt drop the sump and take a look at the state of the bottom end.
The only bottom end failures I've heard of have been due to oil starvation. That's not to suggest that it doesn't happen, just that I've not heard about it. Assuming that you've not been running it low on oil, or getting oil surge round the track, I'd suspect that there might be another problem that has caused the bottom end to go. If this is the case, and one bearing has gone, the rest probably won't be too far behind (especially when they've had a nice bit of swarf running through them from the damaged bearing).
Did you notice that you had low oil pressure when the problem occurred?
James
Did you notice that you had low oil pressure when the problem occurred?
James
Sounds more like a slipped liner to me than a bottom end.
I have a friend who is currently having his bottom end rebuilt after the cam bearings shifted and caused a change in oil pressure resulting in the bottom end bearing getting knackered ...
But the engine was running fine and had kept running like this for a while, including track day fun !!
I have a friend who is currently having his bottom end rebuilt after the cam bearings shifted and caused a change in oil pressure resulting in the bottom end bearing getting knackered ...
But the engine was running fine and had kept running like this for a while, including track day fun !!
Hmm, wish it was just a manifold gasket or suchlike: alas no, it is definately bottom end either big end or main bearing.
Now the car has done about 8 trackdays in my stewardship, never any issue's, always very careful to check oil levels and always good oil pressure. Strange thing is that if there was a fault I would have expected it to go at the last trackday (900 miles ago), but no it waited until I'd run maybe 800 motorway miles and went after about 50 miles of crosscountry 'fun' driving where I wasn't using high revs but the car was under more or less constant high G, so am wondering if (as somebody mentioned) journals 5/6 suffered starvation - there was certainly no indication of a drop in pressure and the oil level was spot on the dipstick max.
If this is so, I still don't understand why it didn't go at the last trackday where the G loads were much higher? Oh well, here's hoping the damage isn't to bad and some new shells and clean oil will do the trick! (Incidentally the car has only covered 29K!)
If not, maybe there are some other things I should look at doing while the engine is out? Any suggestions?
Now the car has done about 8 trackdays in my stewardship, never any issue's, always very careful to check oil levels and always good oil pressure. Strange thing is that if there was a fault I would have expected it to go at the last trackday (900 miles ago), but no it waited until I'd run maybe 800 motorway miles and went after about 50 miles of crosscountry 'fun' driving where I wasn't using high revs but the car was under more or less constant high G, so am wondering if (as somebody mentioned) journals 5/6 suffered starvation - there was certainly no indication of a drop in pressure and the oil level was spot on the dipstick max.
If this is so, I still don't understand why it didn't go at the last trackday where the G loads were much higher? Oh well, here's hoping the damage isn't to bad and some new shells and clean oil will do the trick! (Incidentally the car has only covered 29K!)
If not, maybe there are some other things I should look at doing while the engine is out? Any suggestions?
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