Hmm, this one is going to make getting to TOTB a little on the difficult side.

We were setting Robs car up last night on a private test track (called the M5 )
And fook me it was flying, there is no reason for any astra to be going that quick, lol


Anyway, pulled off the motorway and as he dipped the clutch at the roundabout to come to a stop the engine cut out.
Hmm, "strange" we both thought, as there was no hint the engine wasnt running fine (quote the opposite in fact)

He went to restart it and you could here what sounded like the starter spinning but not the engine turning over.

We pushed it down to a layby and got it half up on a curb so that we could get underneath it, and took the cover off between the box and the engine so that we could see the flywheel, as we rocked it back and forward in 6th gear we could see the flywheel moving but the cambelt end of the engine was doing nothing, the flywheel though was still visibly attached to the crank (no loose bolts poking half out or anything).

Sadly ive had to go into work today as we've got a bit of an emergency on here, so Rob is now on his own today trying to get a new crank into it by this evening, worse still he is only allowed to work at the workshop till 6PM at night (its in the lease), so its not even like he can pull an all nighter on it if he wants to.

Fingers crossed for him but its not looking good for us running at TOTB now

 

ah fukkers, i know how chuffed rob was too to get in

so if the crank snapped, that means bent valves too i guess?

what a total c*nt

 

Update:

The crank itself is actually still in one piece, but its taken out the keyway on cambelt pulley, so the bottom end is turning over but not the head.

So not sure now if its damamaged valves/pistons or not, should know within a couple of hours hopefully.

 

snapped!

 

shit, so lots of bent valves then?

such a shame if rob doesnt run at totb

 

We've made the decision to pull the head off now and replace it with another one straight away, we arent even going to strip it down to see if its done guides etc in as its wasted time.

So fingers crossed the pistons have survived it in tact, as thats the only thing we are stuffed for as no chance of getting hold of another engine and fitting it within the next 8 hours.

If the pistons are in one piece still and havent taken a hard enough hit to crush the ring lands down it will all go back together in time hopefully.

Rob is spannering away feverishly as we speak, hopefully its just a case of putting a new head on and getting the gearbox back on and it will be fine.

 

shame looked a right wepon on wed night too

hope any top end damage is not too bad

 

Shit.....gutted - was speaking to him yesterday he was well chuffed with how it was going too!!!

Good luck to him - if it makes him feel any better - I did the same thing with a cam pulley & everything was ok once I replaced the woodruff key!!! Fingers crossed!!

 

Andy, Top end damage we dont care about, we can just fit another head (we both carry spares of that sort of thing!), its just if the pistons have had a hard enoguh whack to crush the ringlands thats it an issue.

We're in the hands of the almighty now in terms of what its done, nothing we can do to effect it now

There wasnt a massive amount of noise from it when it happened, so i reckon we will get lucky on it

 

Lee, we did think of just doing that and hoping for the best, but ultimately we are so limited on time now we dont want to risk wasting any trying things that might not work, so head is coming off straight away.

Annoying thing is i cant even get over there to assess the thing for him, and Rob doesnt have a massive amount of experience with engines, so if there is anything else up he may not notice it

 

Gutted!

 

fingers crossed mate, tell rob i hope he sorts it. shit luck!

 

ahh ok didnt realise you had a spare head. well fingers crossed on the lands lets hope they arn't as girly as standard datsun sunny lands

 

Chip.....surely though just whacking a woodruff key in & slapping a belt on would take him a matter of minutes & may save a hell of a lot of stress in the long run???

 

Andy, luckily calibra pistons are on a par with cossie ones, they are forged Mahle ones as standard.

So fingers fucking crossed!

Just thank fuck that it happened at low speed/rpm as thats obviously lessened the risk of it being major damage.


Poor Rob, he has put so much time and effort (and money, lol) into getting this car ready for TOTB, and now this happens.

 

Bet Rob feels like he's been slapped in the chops with a big wet kipper.....poor bloke!!!!

 

Hmmm, nasty. I've seen it happen on a few cars where the keyway has snapped but it's only slid around a few degree so everything has been fine, just poorly running.

 

How would he know if its right or not though mate?

Even a compression test sometimes doesnt really give you the answer, the guides could be starting to crack up but look fine at starter motor turning speed.

Replacement secondhand head seems like a safer option.

 

Good point I suppose - better to be safe than sorry - just hope he gets it done in time!!! Hasnt he had headwork done though???

 

Thankfully the head on this engine isnt the best of the heads he has (although sadly that one is down in plymouth so he cant fetch it in time so it will be a standard one going back on)

The good news is though, it was going like a coont, so if it comes back together ok, im positive we can crack a 12 on sunday

 

wounder! curse of the cossie, breaks when ya need it...

 

what cossie

 

PMSL

Its an astra GTE turbo mate, not a cossie.

But its a curse common to all modified cars, lol

 

The astra shaped cossie of course!!!

 

Fooking typical, i wanted him to build two Z20LET gaskets up into one (soundsa bodge but they are multilayer steel ones so you can put two centers between one set of top and bottom layers without a problem so its not like using two normal gaskets) in order to make it thicker, and between the 5 vauxhall dealers in the area they only have one metal headgasket between them

An they cant rustle up a complete set of head bolts either

So gutted cause ive got a spare set of ARP bolts and a far better headgasket but they are too far away from him to be useful

So its going to have to a standard thickness gasket and a set of pattern headbolts.

Not what you want on an engine like this

 

gutted

 

gutted for ya mate chip, hope it allcomes together for him

 

FUcking hell Chip - not going so good Hope he gets it running and ready in time............

 

Cheers for all the support lads, im sure Rob (sbd16v on here) will be chuffed at so many people wishing him well

Fucking ace this forum

 

By the way, Robs resolve hasnt changed, nor has his fondness of this event.

So whatever happens this weekend, we will be back next year with a properly built engine that i will spec for him to get the results he really wants, it was never this year we were expecting to do especially well anyway of course on such a tight time scale and with a secondhand engine, but I still really hopes he can make an appearance and get a midfield finnish so that he feels he has got something back for all his hard work

 

Wounder

Hope it all comes together in the end

 

fingers crossed for him, just spoken to him on the phone!

 

Thanks mate

He should have the head off soon and have at least a good idea of the level of piston to valve contact that has occured.

 

good luck lads would be good to have a car there that isnt a jap.......as they seem to be taking over TOTB

 

Fingers crossed it'll be ok then

 

wishing him all the best

 

well that was a good days work prob the most i have ever done it one day lol but never mind engine is all back together just need to fit drive shafts and radiator then its all together

 

Well done mate!