Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Automotive breakdowns

This is topic Automotive breakdowns in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 02-23-2005, 12:58 AM:

Well, got given a 1986 Honda CRX HF to work on.
The girlfriends sister didn't mention it was leaking oil.
Well, here's why it doesn't run...

There was such a lack of oil in the upper part of the engine because of this leak...Well, the camshaft fused up to the bearings at one end and tore up the rest pretty nicely.
Oh and the camshaft broke into 2 pieces.
Not to mention the pitting and scoring of the rockers.
It's really trashed. Pictures coming soon.

How spectacular...
Who else has had some nice engine damage?

Posted by John Hegel (Member # 628) on 02-23-2005, 02:01 AM:

I was in the passenger seat of a car that had the engine ripped off during an accident.

Does that count?

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 02-23-2005, 02:57 AM:

..back when I was in college where the area of the state loves to have heavy snowstorms, and out of state kids, esp from Sunny California came to school, one kid that I knew had a '57 Chev Bel Aire with a 327 tricked out and blueprinted to the max.

Course, he brought his BA to school to show off his treasure. When he got out of class that late afternoon, a decent snowstorm hit and ended quickly.

Course, the BA had fat, wrinkle wall 50's mounted on the back, and this idiot decide to spin cookies in the grocery store parking lot - just to impress his "roomies."

He would close red-line that engine, spin the wildest donuts until that car found a patch of dry spot where the sewer gate was at causing early meltoff in that area of the parking lot. When that BA hit that dry area with the engine clocking near the red, those wrinkle wall tires suddenly grabbed and just one big loud "POP!" was heard: a connecting rod went through the crank and out of the oil pan, while a pushrod went through the hood of the car. Plus the propeller shaft looked like a twisted pretzel due to so much torque from that 327 spinning its heart out doing redline tricks.

Might say, that was a bit funny to see. Kid blew his entire summer's wages on that car and motor.

...love to see "southern" people drive in snowy conditions where they haven't experienced such a thing.

-Monte

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 02-23-2005, 11:35 AM:

Worst thing that ever happened to me was blowing a spark plug out of a newly rebuilt Volkswagon 1500cc air-cooled engine. Reconditioned single-port heads, helicoils, need I say more? [Smile]

Happened a couple of days after I drove from Las Vegas to Los Angeles to start a new aerospace job with Hughes. Glad it didn't happen on the I-15 in the middle of nowhere. Lucky I suppose, though I always took really good care of that car (a '68 Type 1 'bug') doing my own tune ups, oil changes, and valve adjustments.

Only other major incident was a 4th of July car fire thanks to a fuel line press fitting popping out of the carburetor, a very common failure on older air-cooled bug engines. Again, fortunately I was driving by a gas station when it happened; thanks to their fire extinguisher I had the fire out by the time the county fire department showed up. Replaced the burned up wiring myself then installed engine #2.

In the end that car served very well as my daily driver for over 20 years, through three engines (the one that popped the helicoil was #2), two transaxles, and 265,000 miles. [thumbsup]

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 02-24-2005, 12:29 PM:

Oh that reminds me...About a year ago we were driving over to Alameda from Merced in my girlfriends 85 crx si when the voltage regulator failed and burned up the cd player.
Blue smoke pouring out from under the dash.
I said, "ok, pull over"...She pulls over and there's smoke coming out from under the hood...
The batter was turning ROUND and smoking! Woohoo!

Thanks Sears...Her mom insisted on having it taken to sears and even paid for it, so a "professional" could diagnose the alternator light...

Posted by Ben Holley (Member # 2247) on 02-24-2005, 10:49 PM:

sometimes valves in my engine get stuck open and the cab of my car reaks of gasoline

Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 02-25-2005, 12:31 AM:

Just another Holley carburetor with a stuck float valve.

You should stick with Strombergs because they look like tiny flying saucers have landed in under your hood.

SU's are okay, but you have to paint arrows on top of them that point north, like on the big water towers.

Posted by Josh Jones (Member # 447) on 02-28-2005, 05:43 PM:

Currently own a 92 Geo Metro that cannot seem to keep camshaft seals. they just keep popping out. Replaced the crankcase breather after the second incident, then happened a third time. Any ideas?

JJ

Posted by John Hegel (Member # 628) on 03-01-2005, 12:24 AM:

Around here you might be able to find a new-used metro for less then the cost of a seal.

My friend has went through 3 of those cars. I wish I had one just for the gas mileage alone.

Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 03-01-2005, 01:39 AM:

I pretty much just mess around with funky old vehicles, but I seem to recall someone saying that the Geo Metro had a 3-cylinder Suzuki motorcycle engine. Maybe you should ask one of your bike pals.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 03-01-2005, 02:13 AM:

quote: William Hooper
Geo Metro had a 3-cylinder Suzuki motorcycle engine....

Yep, they do in a way, only designed for the car. And the center jug loves to get hot due to improper water jackets.

I remember the Suzuki two stroke 500 and 750 triples motorcycle engines having the same problem - center jug gets too hot. That jug had to receive a rich mixture so that jug wouldn't get so hot.

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 03-01-2005, 02:27 AM:

Talk about teaser titles? I thought this thread had to do with some new-fangled machine that automatically broke down plattered prints onto 2k reels.

Posted by Scott Balko (Member # 438) on 03-01-2005, 08:20 PM:

Josh,

How many rounds on that thing? More than likely, the reason you can't hold seals on the cam is you've got a good amount of leakage past the rings. What's happening is you're getting more volume of combustion gasses in the crank case than your ventilation system can handle. The seals weren't meant to hold pressure, just keep the oil in. So it doesn't take much pressure behind them to pop them out. One of the other things I have seen is a significant amount of hydrocarbons build up in the crankcase caused by the same problem and something ignites it and you get a small reaction in the valve cover and it blows the seals. It's more than likely the first scenario though.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 03-02-2005, 03:32 PM:

A strange coincidence given the 'Gracia's happy news' thread: I once saw a pall of smoke coming from a layby on the Stonehenge road, about five miles west of it. As I approached I saw a burnt-out car and a woman waving at me (this was '96 or '97, just before most people had mobile 'phones). As it was around 3am (I was driving back to Exeter after having finished a relief shift projecting at a cinema in Oxford) and there wasn't likely to be anyone else along soon, I stopped to offer help. Despite the general advice not to stop under these circumstances (in case it's an ambush by 'carjackers') I decided to risk it.

The car was a totally burnt-out shell; a complete write off. In fact, the driver was probably lucky to get out alive. She was French, had come off a car ferry at Southampton and was on her way to Bristol. She'd stopped to fill up at a 24-hour filling station, and about five miles further on had started noticing a burning smell which got progressively stronger. Eventually it got so strong that she decided to pull over. When she got out of the car, smoke was pouring out of the radiator grille, and as she walked away from the layby to try and find help, the car burst into flames.

This lady's English was very poor and my French isn't much better, so the following is only an educated guess. But I'm 99% sure that a language issue at the filling station resulted in her filling up her Peugeot 205 Diesel with petrol (gasoline). She told me that she'd asked the station attendant which was the 'gazole' (French for Diesel) pump; my guess is that he just heard the 'gaz', assumed 'gas' as in what us Brits call petrol, and the rest was history. Very scary that this could cause a car to totally burn out, though.

Thankfully I did have a mobile, called the number on the travel insurance card she gave me and the RAC turned up within 20 minutes - impressive for the middle of the night on a Saturday/Sunday, I thought.

Posted by Dean Kollet (Member # 1789) on 03-02-2005, 07:36 PM:

My grandma took her 1995 S600, yes 600 to her companies shop to get it gassed up. Well, the idiot filled it up with Diesel, and attempted to start the car. After pumping the gas tank clean and putting unleaded in, the car started, but never worked too well after that incident.

Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 03-03-2005, 12:50 AM:

quote: Scott Balko
More than likely, the reason you can't hold seals on the cam is you've got a good amount of leakage past the rings.

If that's the case, a band-aid solution may be to go to Pep Boys or wherever & try a ventilated oil cap. They're hot-roddy-type on-the-shelves items, often look like little oil filters on an oil cap base, have little holes on the underside which vent to the atmosphere (or ocean, if you drive underwater). Bring in your oil cap & find one that has a base similar enough to fit fairly well; it won't likely lock down like the original.

It ventilates enough to get rid of the pressure which blows by worn rings, & may be enough to get you around for maybe a year with no real problems besides ragged idle or starts from cold (all these autos with processor-controlled fuel infection, a bazillion sensors for everything, & programming which may spaz out slightly when things are a little out of spec).

It's an old band-aid that can work for a long while, but it does mean that it's rebuild or discard time. It still works: I had a modern OHC car with a deteriorating front crank seal & worn rings that emptied oil from the crankcase in about 2 hours, put a ventilated oil cap on it & it lost no oil. When you put the ventilated cap on, put an old green sock over it so that it doesn't sneeze oil all over the engine.

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 03-05-2005, 03:28 AM:

quote: William Hooper
try a ventilated oil cap

...Why by one when you could just whip out your handy, dandy dremel tool?

*Bzzzt!* There ya go!

I can't tell you how many times I've been out in my friends garage working on something with him and said "Hey, I got my dremel in the car...let's save some time".

As of late, everything on the passenger side of the 86 CRX is disconnected and labeled...Now for the million and one vacuum hoses!

Posted by Josh Jones (Member # 447) on 03-08-2005, 09:52 PM:

The car in question just went over 105K. I've had it for a year and put about 10K on it. Rings out at 100K? Sounds supsicious. I can run a compression test and see.

Josh

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 03-29-2005, 12:46 AM:

Hey, Josh, what'd the compression check show?

As promised, pics of the damaged valve train.

The 2 pieces of the camshaft:

It's hard to tell from the pictures but the journals are grooved, pitted, and torn to hell.
Mopping up the oil in the top of the head I found all sorts of flakes of metal flakes.