I think I've cooked my engine

[SteveGoodz]

Went out for an enthusiastic drive yesterday morning. After about 40 miles the car felt reluctant to pull away from a set of traffic light and I noticed that the temp gauge was off the dial  :doh:

Pulled into the roadside and popped the bonnet ~ the air con fans were running full tilt ~ only to find I'd forgotten to putthe top back on the expansion bottle after checking the water on Saturday evening. Oh Hell!!

Poured in about 7 pints of water whilst waiting for No. 1 son to arrive with more supplies. After a few minuted there was a rush of hot air from the expansion bottle, followed by horrible noises from the coolant hoses (which were dancing about) and a fountain of VERY hot water gushing out of the bottle. All very impressive but worrying  :-k

Once more water had arrived I topped the bottle up again and waited for the engine to cool down a bit (about 45mins) before setting off for home ~ about 5 miles. After just 1 mile the temp gauge rapidly went off the scale again so I stopped, popped the bonnet open and cracked open the top on the expansion bottle. Boy that water can boil! Waited for everything to settle down again and poured in more water. Managed to get the rest of the way home without any nastyness.

This morning I went out and checked the water level ~ needed a cup full to top up to line in expansion bottle ~ and started the engine. Hmmm, a bit rattly ~ well, more knocky than rattly actually ~ but it drives okay. I'm thinking I've aggravated an already poorly motor and speeded it's demise ... anyone got a late 300Tdi engine for sale?

[Wireless]

The knock could just be a leaking head gasket, have heard similar before and it turned out to be that.

Fingers crossed!

[TDi90]

oooh, ouch. dont mean to sund pessimistic, but it could be engine bye bye! warped head etc etc...
on the other hans depending on how quick you saw it and stopped it could be ok.
Rob

[muddyjames]

I know how you feel mate. Read my recent posts. I have exactly the same problem as you.

Race ya to another engine :lol:

[SteveGoodz]

I drove from Bristol to Stoke (and back) today and was starting to hope that I hadn't done anything too drastic to the engine but about 30 miles into the return journey the temp gauge climbed into the red again. Pulled onto the hard shoulder and opened the expansion tank to find it almost empty  :doh:

Poured about 10 pints of water in and limped to the next services. Stopped again and re-topped up before limping home at between 50 and 60mph. Temp gauge never moved from normal!

Once home I checked the water level and the tank was almost empty again  :shock: so I let it cool down and then refilled with water. No point adding anti-freeze it won't be in there long enough to corrode  :-#

A bottle of K-seal, which I bought off eBay, was delivered while I was out today so I have to collect if from the local sorting office in the morning. Then it'll be going straight into the car before I go to work and we'll see what happens.

[marky]

Any luck with the k-seal. I've tried 2 bottles in the last two days and all thats happened is a small leak has developed in the passenger footwell, so maybe not a head/ gasket failure, maybe just a blockage/ airlock or maybe something REALLY serious

[SteveGoodz]

Any luck with the k-seal. I've tried 2 bottles in the last two days and all thats happened is a small leak has developed in the passenger footwell, so maybe not a head/ gasket failure, maybe just a blockage/ airlock or maybe something REALLY serious

Hi Marky,

I put a bottle of K-seal in on Thursday night and I don't appear to have used any coolant since BUT I haven't driven very far since either, so maybe it hasn't got hot enough to show yet.  :-k

I'll keep you posted  :)

[ben_haynes]

do you have sufficient clean oil and not watered down oil in the engine, as this will give you knocking,

[SteveGoodz]

do you have sufficient clean oil and not watered down oil in the engine, as this will give you knocking,

Hi Ben,

Not that the engine uses oil to any degree but I do keep the level topped up. There's no obvious sign of water in the oil either so I'm fairly sure that's not the problem.

[ben_haynes]

do you give it regular oil + filter changes, and is the oil dirty black and grainy or clean?? do you use a cheaper oil or a more expensive oil?? im only asking as we use a cheaper oil at work and the diesels tend to become black and grainy and knock more, i used to used a cheaper one in my 200 and i used to have to change the oil every few thousand miles as i would loose performance and it would get noisy then i found Castrol Magnatex 15/40 diesel and it would last 12000 + miles before getting dirty and noisy

[marky]

Sounds to me like you may have solved it! If there was a hole before that was causing the problem you might have fixed it (only from my limited recent experience)

[SteveGoodz]

do you give it regular oil + filter changes, and is the oil dirty black and grainy or clean?? do you use a cheaper oil or a more expensive oil?? im only asking as we use a cheaper oil at work and the diesels tend to become black and grainy and knock more, i used to used a cheaper one in my 200 and i used to have to change the oil every few thousand miles as i would loose performance and it would get noisy then i found Castrol Magnatex 15/40 diesel and it would last 12000 + miles before getting dirty and noisy

Hi Ben,

Yes I do regular oil and filter changes ~ roughly every 8 weeks/6000 miles. I do tend to use cheaper oils and it does go black fairly quickly but all of the diesels I've ever owned have been like that. I thought it was a by-product of the combustion process. I also use engine flush at oil change time.

Funnily enough I bought some Magnatex 15/40 diesel oil this evening ready for an oil change tomorrow afternoon. I'll let you know what happens  :)
 

[SteveGoodz]

Sounds to me like you may have solved it! If there was a hole before that was causing the problem you might have fixed it (only from my limited recent experience)

I've got my finger crosses, Marky, but not counting my chickens yet  :D

Gonna take the motor for a good run in the morning and see how it fairs. If it looks like the water is okay then it's oil change time tomorrow afternoon. I'm planning to re-seal the sump (got a small leak) while there's no oil in it and then fill up with Magnatec 15/40 diesel oil and a new filter to see what happens with the knock.