engine and drivetrain The mystery of the frozen M10

[Collinster742002]

Whatever happened led to the motor being removed in favor of the one original to the car. So far I haven't seen anything that shows why this engine stopped, and my dad, the last person to drive with this engine, cannot remember how it went down...just that it shut off and would not come back.

[Collinster742002]

edit: talked about it for awhile; "Something started rattling, it wouldn't go over 35, then something snapped and it wouldn't run anymore. It seized up and wouldn't crank anymore."

...Spun bearing maybe?

Keep in mind, all the rods are intact, as well as the valvetrain (though I haven't pulled the head to confirm the valves are okay)

[Simeon]

edit: talked about it for awhile; "Something started rattling, it wouldn't go over 35, then something snapped and it wouldn't run anymore. It seized up and wouldn't crank anymore."

...Spun bearing maybe?

Keep in mind, all the rods are intact, as well as the valvetrain (though I haven't pulled the head to confirm the valves are okay)

If the engine stopped following a reduced output and then inability to move the crank smacks of bearing seizure to me. I had two engines on VW combi buses go the same way.

[Collinster742002]

Is that curable with oversize bearings?

[TobyB]

Sure, but might not be cost effective depending on how bad it got.

Pull the head and the bearing caps and you'll know for sure.

I found a bearing shell in the pan of a parts motor once...

t

[ricortes]

Various valve sucking scenarios fit that style death too. I couldn't tell from your pictures if everything is where it should be on the head. I've had retainers come off and valve drop into cylinder, timing jump and piston/valve collision where the valve gets bent over and prevents the piston from going full travel, had bolts come loose and lodge both under valves preventing them from closing and just bouncing around in the cylinder until they finally got in a tight enough squeeze to stop the engine. One of my favorites was a washer in the bottom end in that would just occasionally get caught between the rod and the block. I should point out that most of these are engines that have come to me for fixing rather then the result of my work but I am certainly not completely innocent.

But yeah, pull the head and I hope you update us. TIA

Rick

[c.d.iesel]

Toby X2

remove all the bearing caps for a look see

remove the cylinder head - look at the head gasket sealing rings

and look at the head for warpage - or worse

[Collinster742002]

I was thinking it was some sort of upper-end failure; I wouldn't be surprised if i found a snapped valve or something.

Update will come Monday; will pull the head and if I don't find anything ultimately take apart the rotating assy. The object isn't exactly to get this motor running again, but just to find why it died.

[Kpeters]

Take of that head, can't wait to see what's inside!

[Collinster742002]

Well everybody, pulled it apart today. I was so anxious to find out what's up with this motor. Here's my findings... *poker face*

That's PB Blaster.

I think what happened is the head gasket blew and the motor hydrolocked... Only explanation I can think of as to why cylinder 3 is so messed up. The head cleaned up easily, with a wipe of PB Blaster, and turns willingly. I think that head is perfect.

Question is, will this block ever be in a car again? Only reason we're hanging on to it at the moment is "because it's the engine that drove my grandfather around"... But it's not looking very good to me.

No amount of PB blaster or swearing and tapping on pistons would free the thing up. I don't even know if this motor is worth my time.

Rods are all intact. Could not get bearing caps off; didn't have the right socket on hand.

Comments are welcome.

[jimk]

The pits in cylinder wall most likely will run deeper than an oversized bore will clean up. At the minum you will need to do a bore to oversize and maybe get lucky, but those I have seen that were left set like that were not salvagable. After boring, pits were still there.

[Conserv]

Depending on the overall condition of the block, it may be a candidate for cylinder sleeving. You would only have to sleeve the badly damaged cylinder. Korman has done it for me; I couldn't bear to lose my original motor on account of a little hydro-lock!

Steve

[Conserv]

Depending on the overall condition of the block, it may be a candidate for cylinder sleeving. You would only have to sleeve the badly damaged cylinder. Korman has done it for me; I couldn't bear to lose my original motor on account of a little hydro-lock!

Steve

[Collinster742002]

Hmm, I didn't know these engines could be sleeved. Wouldn't that make the displacement smaller, or would the defective bore be hollowed out and a 2.0 sleeve pressed in?

Upon further inspection of my pictures,

does that look like the wrist pin came loose to anyone else? That would account for the "snap" my dad heard... and maybe it dug into the bore so that the engine cannot turn.

[Conserv]

They drill out the cylinder "way oversize," insert a new "sleeve" of metal approximately 3/8" thick, plane the block's deck flat, and bore the sleeve to whatever size you need to match your pistons. If you sleeved all 4 cylinders you could theoretically return to standard size but I'm not certain that such sleeving is commonly, or ever, done. I believe you sleeve a cylinder (or maybe even two) because you need to retain a numbers-matching engine, as was the case with my car.

Looking at your other cylinder bores, I would suspect that you might need to go to oversize pistons by the time you cleaned up the other 3 cylinders. That oversize would dictate the bore of the sleeve.

Steve