Have I blown my car up?

[mrzwei]

It's really difficult to correctly diagnose an engine sound without actually hearing it, as has been said a million times on the forum.

Quiz:

When somebody says 'rattle' what do they mean?
When somebody says 'knock' what do they mean? (example already posted)
When somebody says 'tapping' what do they mean?
When somebody says 'ticking' what do they mean? (that's what I thought when you used the very good bike analogy)

Possible answers:

Rattle - always associated with loose heat shields.
Knock - always associated with big end failure.
Tapping - usually associate with the noisy top end or chain tensioner.
Ticking - always associated with blowing exhaust manifold gasket.

I know you think I'm having a go at you but I'm not. This is a forum wide problem. Words are the wrong medium to explain a sound problem.

If you can post the sound then you may get a more helpful diagnosis.

If we could create a 'sound' library then this could be of great use to future owners.

If anyone is still reading, then STOP YAWNING and PAY ATTENTION   s:lol: :lol: s:lol:

[Anonymous]

Take it to someone who knows what they are looking at and can diagnose the fault.

[loadswine]

Sound advice, I reckon.

[Carplay]

Yeah I know guys it's very difficult, well I think you guys have helped as much as you can so will let my mechanic friend have a look tomorrow and report back with his diagnosis. I bought it as a cheap summer toy, it is becoming an expensive one so might just offer it up for breaking on here and move back to my bmw's which I have always had  s:( s:(  thanks again guys will post tomorrow

[vincenzo]

Didn't read page two yet, ignore.

[Carplay]

The smoke coming out the exhaust feels wet

[Mr X]

Don't forget that water will condensate in the exhaust overnight and take a good 10 mins to burn out. Mine acts like it's pumping out a swimming pool in the morning! You can see it dripping out and even sitting in a small puddle inside the exhaust tip.

[Carplay]

Still watery after a rag up the road and pressure coming from oil filler cap

[Anonymous]

Take it to someone who knows what they are looking at and can diagnose the fault.

Still

[Carplay]

I have the head off it now, it's getting water in the engine some how, don't think it's the gasket after inspection, I could do with a diagram of the cooling system to see where water might be getting into the bores

[Anonymous]

The only way water would get into an engine would be via the head gasket or cracked cylinder head or cracked block, if so the cooling system would pressurise which would show up in a number of ways, the most obvious being a pressure test, you don't seem to have mentioned significant water loss that would point to this scenario.

All the advice given here is purely guesswork and I'm sorry but you obviously don't know what you are looking for and don't want to enlist the help of someone qualified to diagnose the probable cause, in which case you will end up with a stripped down engine with no answer.

[Carplay]

les, it's what I bought the car for mate, to learn and to mess about, I could quite easily pay for everything to be done but that wouldn't be much fun to me, I have other cars, this one is just a little project to unwind on and think about

[Carplay]

But I do appreciate your reply as I have the head off, and it has to be down to one of the things you said as there is deff water getting in somewhere, also my water bottle drops and rises when it runs which I'm sure shouldn't happen

[spit]

Bottle rise when running is normal, we all get that.

When you say you have the head off, are you talking about a full cylinder head removal??

If you have taken the whole head off, congratulations. Its a big job with the engine in situ and you probably have a floor full of cams, chain covers, manifolds, fluids and etc.

If you're not currently surrounded by bits of engine, I suggest you may have removed just the cam cover and you're still a considerable amount of work away from glimpsing the head gasket or anything else of significance along the way.   s:? :? s:?  Sorry.

I'm not going to dive into possibles on this thread as I reckon your best option - far and away - is to get a mechanic on site to establish whats going on. My gut feel from your bits of evidence are that its something other than a cylinder head gasket problem and potentially much easier to fix, but I wouldn't wish to send you down the wrong route with limited info. As said by others, get it looked at. Once you have a firm diagnosis you can determine the best course of action for a speedy and affordable fix.

[Jandaw]

les, it's what I bought the car for mate, to learn and to mess about, I could quite easily pay for everything to be done but that wouldn't be much fun to me, I have other cars, this one is just a little project to unwind on and think about

Yeah I know guys it's very difficult, well I think you guys have helped as much as you can so will let my mechanic friend have a look tomorrow and report back with his diagnosis. I bought it as a cheap summer toy, it is becoming an expensive one so might just offer it up for breaking on here and move back to my bmw's which I have always had  s:( s:(  thanks again guys will post tomorrow

Ok. Which one is it? How is it becoming expensive? What have you done that was expensive?

If you could easily pay for everything then pay someone to diagnose the problem then undertake rectification yourself and move along the learning process.

You've had advice from some of the most experienced members on the forum and It would be easy to come to the conclusion that you are just fannying around. (Pardon my French)

[Mr X]

Water can get in 2 ways that I know of (correct me if I'm wrong), presuming your head isn't cracked!
A broken head gasket and you've tested that. Or seal inside the idle control valve has gone. This is water cooled. These are the only 2 point water gets close to the intake system.

The valve is under the throttle body and the water pipes can be removed with minimal coolant spillage without clamping them.
see 3rd picture down, 2 bottom blue arrows.
http://www.mr2roc.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=49521

[Carplay]

Jandaw what are you harping on about now?? Your posts are starting to wind me up, I am having light discussion with fellow members and you keep popping up and running me down, you might want to stop

[Carplay]

Thanks Mr x helpful advice mate, I have the head of, haven't had a chance to look at it yet but will do, could possibly be going about it the wrong way but I'm learning and having fun, if I can get it running myself I will be very happy  s:) s:) . I have calmed down a bit with it now, when it first went wrong I was gutted but iv developed a bit more patience now and just plodding along with it

[norrie]

Jandaw what are you harping on about now?? Your posts are starting to wind me up, I am having light discussion with fellow members and you keep popping up and running me down, you might want to stop

Calm down mate. People are just trying to help you and in my opinion you aren't taking there advice. You could be making a lot of extra work for yourself not forgetting expense.

I am quite a new member on here and have found out a lot of info on here and found it a really friendly site. A lot of car forums are full of people that are full of bullshit and advice that is totally wrong. People are just trying to help you.

I hope you get it fixed.

Norrie.

[Carplay]

People are very nice on here, iv had lots of help and had parts sent to me, EVERYONE on here are very nice, my reply wasn't meant to sound aggressive so I do apologise. Could have worded it different, but how am I not following advice? The only thing I am not following is getting a mechanic on it because I want to do it myself, unless I have missed something? I mainly use the site on my phone I could quite easily miss something

[Anonymous]

water is a yoyo on these due to all the water pipe run etc. to late to test now, but if the head tests out to be ok fit a new water pump and thermostat. the water you want to see if it keeps going down ie have to fill it constantly, that normally the front rad is shot. as for your knock my guess knowing the common fault of lack of oil is the bottom end so you might as well do a bottom end refresh in the interest of learning and saving you doing the head off bit all over again.

[Carplay]

I may have found something, on the right hand side of the head, (timing chain side) there is a whole and I can see the switch or sensor that is on the timing chain end of the inlet side, not sure what it does, but none the less I can see the through it, it looks like a piece of metal has come adrift, I want to post a pic but don't know how

[Wabbitkilla]

I may have found something, on the right hand side of the head, (timing chain side) there is a whole and I can see the switch or sensor that is on the timing chain end of the inlet side, not sure what it does, but none the less I can see the through it, it looks like a piece of metal has come adrift, I want to post a pic but don't know how

 l viewtopic.php?p=257299#257299 l

[Carplay]

After closer inspection I think the holes in the side of the head are oil ways to lube the chain