Dropped Valve....Mullered engine.

[leeparkes]

Hi Lee.

I'm in Solihull, near Birmingham Airport. Don't think I lost any coolant but have to admit I haven't checked.

You are near 'rav335'!
when my valve dropped,it made the clattering noise you described followed by emptying all the coolant out of the exhaust.

the engine wouldnt turn over as the valve had locked it up,when a valve drops its bouncing around in the cylinder and the first one to get it is the head (alloy) which in turn make a hole in the head and dumping all the coolant out.

get the rocker cover off and you will have a fair idea from there,mine broke 2 rockers too

[Zimmer325]

I was also accelerating hard in 3rd when it happened. Symptoms were loss of power and plumes of smoke out the exhaust. As I was on the A14 I pulled onto the verge to call the recovery then drove slowly to the nearest layby to wait.

The engine hasn't locked up as yours did, but I'm expecting a missing valve or two due to the amount of back pressure felt when the oil cap was removed.

I will hopefully be getting the head off over the weekend to assess the damage and I'll post some pictures.

[jbh]

Denny, where abouts are you based? Your sig says you have a 2.5 engine for sale. I could be tempted by that, would it be a straight swap?

im in central scotland bud fk66pw it would be a straight swap could get it delivered if you wanted call me 07856001234

James

[town325i]

you may off been lucky and only snapped a couple of rockers worst case is what lee had happen to hik that did look a mess

[charlE30]

I'm with town on this, I've snapped rockers and your symptoms sound similiar.

Don't sell it, repair it and enjoy

[Zimmer325]

well, we took the rocker cover off. No obvious signs of damage. Moved on to the spark plugs, one was VERY tight. When we had removed it, we were faced with this...





Anyone want a slightly broken 325....

http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... c&t=125051

There's a touring around here somewhere with my name on it!

[kam-325i]

Will that be a "Sport Engine"?

Nah, all the genuine M-tech Motorsport engines will be £500.

No such thing for the E30.....(S14 excluded)

[leeparkes]

That doesnt look like good news!

Have you taken the head off yet?

[Zimmer325]

Not removed the head after I saw what had happened to the spark plug as it's a definate engine swap now, which I don't have the time or space for.

[Speedtouch]

Try shining a torch down the spark plug hole to check the state of the piston crown...

I blew an MGB GT piston after fitting a Weber 45DCOE, fortunately a complete replacement engine came up locally on E-bay for just £35 and worked a treat

(Rest assured, the Grim Turd has since been sold )