Blown Motor????? Please help!
 

Ok I was driving my car home last summer, the temp gage went to max...then back to normal but I lost all oil pressure and when I pressed on the gas just smoke was coming out of the back and no power...the car then shut off I pulled over and it smelled like burning oil plus the oil was leaking under the car...I had it towed home.

I opened up the hood and the #1 plug was off...(popped off??)

I removed the other plugs and they were fried except #6.

The car was turning over but making a wierd whining sound. I am now looking into trying to fix it ..

Is it worh it just trying to replace the wires and plugs of is the engine fried?

Help please!.....

Do a compression test. Check oil and coolant for cross contamination. If either is leaking a significant volume externally locate the leak. I wouldn't spend a cent on parts until some basic diagnostics are performed.

Please elaborate what you mean in stating the the spark plugs were "fried". Damaged from detonation? Ceramic insulation shattered? How did the #1 spark plug just "pop off"? Is this a 7M, 1G, 1JZ? GE or GTE?

I will have to try to locate a compression test kit. I never done one how easy is it to do?
When I popped tthe hood the spark plug wire was off and the plug itself was loose, I removed by just picking it up.
I have a 87 N/A 5 Speed.

I do not see any oil in the coolant...none in the resoviour and the oil seems ok...whats left of it.

There has to be more to the story, what were you doing? Did you introduce anything "special" to the combustion chambers?

Did nothing different, was just driving home from work like normal.
The olny thing out of the ordinary was a pin hole leak of the coolant from a hose, but I was keeping a close eye and made sure it was topped up every trip to and from work...the drive is 20 minutes and after wards the resoviour was still filled of coolant.

just a thought.....i also had a sparkplug boot "pop" off.the reason for my issue was oil in the plug gallery,quite a bit. I was surprised those bolts could leak that much.

nani
 

Did the hose pop losing all cooling fluid? Where did all of the oil come from? Have you checked the engine for physical damage? Do you see any signs of an explosion? Really did you add any thing to the petrol?

More basic info about the nature if the failure is needed before any further diagnosis can be performed. Please read me post again. Additionally, even saturated with oil tension lines don't pop off. The interfacing clip has a strong spring on it and unless it isn't locked into place it isn't going to come off from anything short of a hole opening in the spark plug letting the combustion gases literally blow it off...

EDIT: More often than not the oil in the galley is from leaking valve cover seals. See the MKIII FAQ section for information. When installing new seals DO NOT OVER TORQUE THEM! (That goes for just about every screw on the car... spark plugs too.)

None of the coolant hoses popped off or exploded all were good and coolant was still in the car.
There was oil in the spark plug galley but I had already know about the valve gasket leak. Could this have cause alll of this??

The plastic on the spark plug wires were melted on to the plugs.

I will try to do some more investigation this weekend and try to locate the oil leak...as for any physical ddmage I can't see any.

The car was driving just fine before...no warning lights no strange noises, pressure and temp gages alll good...nothing..

In my case,I believe the oil starts to boil and burn giving off gases and smoke, building pressure under the #3 gasket.enough to force the high tension wire to pop out.the oil is boiling enough to coat the open hood. I have not started working on mechanical issues,so this is just what i have observed.not sayin' it's your issue.But cre is absolutely right,as usual;) check to see if it's going to be worth your effort.

Oil doesn't boil until well beyond 500?F.... some blends only hit boiling point for mere moments before flashing (exploding into flame). If the oil in your plug galley is reaching those temps regularly then save yourself the time and set the car on fire now before it does it for you and without your consent.

Oil will degrade plastics, rubbers and silicone if left in contact with those materials. It's not uncommon for them to reduce to a glob of goop resembling melted plastic. It is not going to soften the spring clips at the ends of the wires... If the wires are coming off they A) are some amazingly cheap crap; B) Are stretched out from improper installation/removal/handling; C) are too short (either in total length or the available length in the boot in which case more wire just needs to be pushed into the boot).

The #3 valve cover gasket is not designed to old in pressure. Actually the way it's designed it's almost like a check valve (only when new). Even if there were significant gas building up in there the most you'd see is the top seal of the spark plug boot popping out to let the gas vent. A cracked head, spark plug hole with the threads completely stripped or a spark plug which has somehow developed a hole all the way through are the only ways I can see a plug wire literally getting blown off on this engine.

ebang, it sounds like the vehicle may have very seriously overheated from a sudden loss of oil. Do a compression test already... details are in the TSRM, it's quite easy. Drain and inspect the oil. Use a clean drain pan so that you're sure that any grit or moisture is from the engine. Drain and inspect the coolant (you can't judge based on what's in the reservoir).

Hey CRE, thanks for all of the input, I will drain the oil and coolant to see whats up with them, the compression test will be done sunday, a freinds is bringing the kit by to assist.

Well I drained the oil, no coolant in it and it no other debries or anything same with the coolant...no oil.
The coolant came out more water than coolant...must have been when I was topping it off i was mixing it too weak. Not a whole lot of coolant came out!

I got the valve covers and the gasket of course is shot...there are four bolts holding it on what do I use to remove these.

There was still alot of oil that drained so it did not lose a whole lot...

If the car would have overheated really badly why would have I lost all oil pressure and nothing but white smoke coming from the exhaust?

No worries there unless it's been a good bit below freezing temps there. Water by itself is a better heat exchanger than the components in coolant. The term "coolant" is a misnomer... it's a dielectric agent and a freeze temp modifier.

I believe it's a 10mm allen socket that you want. PROTIP: a 10mm long nut and a 10mm socket wors very well if you can't find an allen socket or they're over priced. ;)

It could be two unrelated issues. White smoke is indicative of coolant entering the combustion chamber. A compression test may reveal it or pressurizing the coolant system may. This does not bode well for your HG though. Of course if your oil pump failed your pressure would fall to nothing and the extra friction could generate enough heat to warp things, blow the HG, causing the white smoke and crack the head allowing the gas from the combustion chamber to blow out the tensions wires.... Let's all take a moment to pray or wish or whatever it is you may do that this is not the case. This whole scenario is quite unlikely.... and a bit silly to even speculate on.

Well lets hope it's nothing too serious...
I will know more on Sunday after the compression test.
I will keep you posted?

If you're talking about the 4 bolts for the no. 3 cylinder head cover (between the valve covers), then they're 14mm hex keys. I think I paid around $10 for one of those hex keys from NAPA awhile back, they were the only people in town that had one in stock

Okay, thanks I will have to go out and get one at the local parts store.

Well, did a compression test this weekend past and was not good...didn't get any readings on #1 and 2 and about 50 on #3, and around 25 on the rest..so just going to look around for a new engine.

You should at least take this one apart. It would be interesting to see what blew the engine? For grins and giggles, did you check the timing belt?

Zero on one or two cylinders.... sure... seriously blew the HG, melted holes in pistons, etc. Low reading on a couple cylinders... sure, same possible causes as the former... Low readings on ALL cylinders... bad gauge, operator error, head lifted, or entire bottom end fell out.

I'm thinking you should pull the head before you start throwing money at unknown problems.

I have decided to take it apart...almost done and will post as to my findings..I am only a novice as far as mechanical skills go.
the timing belt looked fine as far as I could tell.

I have all the head bolts removed but the head will not budge not even a wiggle..14 head bolts are loose and the timing belt is removed the exhaust manifold is removed.

Ok so I got the head off.not the head gasket or I dont think so...2 of the pistons look like thay were cooked...totally charred up and burned to crap.
So looks like I need a new engine

Sounds more to me like you need new pistons and probably to get the block machined... Typically MUCH better than a used engine swap.

Just a word of warning.. whatever you do, dont spend money until you map it out financially if you are shy on the $$ that you want to pour into the car. You can fix it cheaply, but I haven't talked to anyone personally that has been successful with that route on a MKIII. And because you say you have limted mechanical skills (as do I) your going to have to rely on a paid professional service for the good stuff.

I have personally looked at doing my engine for higher output and came up with a 10,000.00 rebuild amount (that included balancing, forged internals, a rebuilt and ported head.. basically a fully built longblock) and the previous owner of my car paid 5700.00 to have the turbo and engine rebuilt back in 2002 (about 20k km ago on my car). So, I just warn you to get the pricing all figured out before you spend anything simply because in some cases its cheaper to just part out the car or sell it as is and pick up another (depending on whats available to you).

Just warning because I sold a 90 Supra to a youngster who had big plans until the head got taken off and found out that he had to put about 5000+ into the engine and exhaust on TOP of the 1800.00 they had already billed him to diagnose everything.. All because he was "learning" as he went.. and didn't heed any of my warnings.. lol.

Good luck with the repairs!