Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2001 09:02:03 -0700
Reply-To: Tobin Copley <tobin.copley@UBC.CA>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Tobin Copley <tobin.copley@UBC.CA>
Subject: Re: Dead diesel diagnosis/postmortem
In-Reply-To: <F50j545DaYngJqdocqv0000e7db@hotmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"
Dan,
That sounds ugly, Man. From your description, is sounds a lot like
what happened to mine, only quite a bit more severe. I think the big
concern for the existing engine (aside from the
where-the-heck-did-all-the-shavings-go-and-what-have-they-damaged
question), is that it's very likely (almost a certainty) that the
bearing seat on the crankshaft end of the connecting rod is no longer
round (well, half-round).
Although a replacement bearing shell may *appear* to seat in there,
should you decide to replace bearing shells as a heck-why-not shot at
a fix, the middle of the seat will have been pounded up towards the
small end of the rod, thus making the seat elliptical. This means
the con rod will have longitudinal play against the crankshaft, and
you'll end up with rod knock. And if the knock isn't hellacious
right away, it will get that way, probably with continual drop in oil
pressure, which will speed the process, which will wear it faster,
making more knock, lower pressure, less lubrication, more wear,
harder knock, and so forth until catastrophic failure of the rod
and/or crankcase and god knows what else calls your hand.
So, yeah, I'd have a look at a replacement engine. :-/
If you have the shells still around, maybe you could scan them and
email the pics? I think we're getting material here to start a
"Vanagon engine failure house of horrors picture gallery". If anyone
else has ugly Big Problem internal part failure pics, feel free to
email them to me with a description of what they are, symptoms,
result, and final fix, and I'll post it on the web, similar to what
I've done with my oil pressure/bearing failure page at
http://www.sfu.ca/~tcopley/vw/. Might as well get some laughs and
learning out of our pain!
Hang in there!
T.
At 10:19 PM -0700 8/16/01, Dan Snow wrote:
>Ya'll may recall that I have an '82 Diesel that was free. It made an
>atrocious skreech, skreech, skreech, skreech when the motor ran. It sounded
>terminal. So tonight I finally pulled off the oilpan to find...
>Enough bronze shavings to cast a statue with. Then I peered up, rotating the
>motor with a 17mm socket. The cylinder walls looked shiny and unscored, but
>that is a very preliminary judgement. The crazy thing was this: the big end
>bearing cap on connecting rod #2 (second from the back of the van) looked
>funny. All the other rod ends were nice and wet with oil and are smooth and
>metallic. #2 looks like someone sandblasted it with iron oxide, and it is
>bone dry. Furthermore (those of you with tender stomachs might want to skip
>this part) there appeared to be a little bit of thin metal, like a piece of
>aluminum foil, stuck between the con rod end cap and its next door neighbor
>crankshaft piece. I got out the trusty 14mm and, on further inspection found
>that this foil is in fact steel or iron and it is literally being extruded
>from where there should be bearing. I was able to pry some of it away. It's
>awful.
>
>I have a friend who will sell me an apparently good dasher diesel block
>(minus head and accessories for cheap, so I am not without hope. I do have a
>few questions, however:
>1) Did #2 get oil starved somehow? It seems odd that this would only happen
>to one con rod. I guess engines are pretty complex systems and some
>randomness might have accumulated into a local problem...? Or is #2 a design
>problem?
>2) I am very poor (and even more lazy), and I wonder if there is some way I
>might just, you know, emery cloth that particular piece and put in a new
>bearing?
>3) If you are appalled by #2 and insist that I use the dasher engine, is
>there anything I should be aware of as I do the transplant? I will use my
>own head, and I wonder if bronze shavings made their way upstairs. That
>would be bad.
>4) Anything else?
>
>Daniel Snow
>PhD Student
>UC Berkeley
>
>'82 Vanagon Diesel
>'78 Puch Maxi Luxe Moped
>'72 Motobecane Mobylette Moped
>'01 Xootr Scooter
>
>
>_________________________________________________________________
>Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Tobin T. Copley, M.A. tobin@chspr.ubc.ca
Project Director, Centre for Health UBC Voice:(604) 822-6219
Services & Policy Research UBC Fax:(604) 822-1370
University of British Columbia :: Bowen Island office ::
Vancouver, BC Canada V6T 1W6 Voice: (604) 947-0117
http://www.chspr.ubc.ca Fax: (604) 947-0188
| 
