cabbitzilla (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cabbitzilla) wrote2003-03-07 01:16 pm
cabbitzilla) wrote2003-03-07 01:16 pm
Madness reigns...
Seems to be the theme today. I just got back from Ritchie Automotive; I had some time and wanted to talk to the tech about the car, rather than the guesswork I'd done on the phone with the shop owners. And now I'm very confused...
Pep Boys had said there was no oil in the engine. The tech assured me he drained roughly 4.5 quarts from the block before pulling it from the car. The residue on the back of the car has been verified to be what looks to be SODA, spilled across the trunk deck. There's no oil OR transmission fluid residue on the undercarriage.
The engine is locked up. There's no question there. But the head gasket, it turns out, is completely intact. I stood and watched as they unbolted the old one and pulled the head off. All the pistons are intact, there was oil, and the engine is locked up.
The heat issues are apparent, though, from the melted and slagged components that were piled beside it. Water pump, fuel filter and housing, thermostat and housing, oil dipstick tube... and the spark plugs look like someone shot the tips off with shotgun.
*scratches her head* So what I'm now looking at is an engine that completely and suddenly terminally overheated, fragging the entire assembly in catastrophic failure. The radiator was full of coolant; I verified this as well.
I simply do not understand why this happened, but it's quite clear that SOMETHING went wrong.
And Crystal, as a footnote to this, I've been unable to get onto AIM for several days now... I need to touch base with you, sweetie.
*sigh*
I'm going to go to therapy now. This is going to bug me; I spent a number of years working as a 'shade tree' mechanic, and actually made a living at one point doing air-cooled Volkswagen engine repairs and rebuilds. I've never seen anything like this; everything I've learned says that it simply shouldn't happen. And while philosophical mysteries are wonderful to explore, -this- kind of puzzle just whomps me upside the head with categoric wrrongness.
The tech had one possible answer; one that I don't like at -all-. If the car had been tampered with deliberately, this could happen. There are compounds that could be added to the oil and coolant to do just exactly what happened. But the car always was locked, and the hood release is inside the passenger compartment... which means if this -is- the way it happened, someone did an awful lot of work to kill my Saturn.
I'm less than happy with that notion.
~Ellie-chan
Pep Boys had said there was no oil in the engine. The tech assured me he drained roughly 4.5 quarts from the block before pulling it from the car. The residue on the back of the car has been verified to be what looks to be SODA, spilled across the trunk deck. There's no oil OR transmission fluid residue on the undercarriage.
The engine is locked up. There's no question there. But the head gasket, it turns out, is completely intact. I stood and watched as they unbolted the old one and pulled the head off. All the pistons are intact, there was oil, and the engine is locked up.
The heat issues are apparent, though, from the melted and slagged components that were piled beside it. Water pump, fuel filter and housing, thermostat and housing, oil dipstick tube... and the spark plugs look like someone shot the tips off with shotgun.
*scratches her head* So what I'm now looking at is an engine that completely and suddenly terminally overheated, fragging the entire assembly in catastrophic failure. The radiator was full of coolant; I verified this as well.
I simply do not understand why this happened, but it's quite clear that SOMETHING went wrong.
And Crystal, as a footnote to this, I've been unable to get onto AIM for several days now... I need to touch base with you, sweetie.
*sigh*
I'm going to go to therapy now. This is going to bug me; I spent a number of years working as a 'shade tree' mechanic, and actually made a living at one point doing air-cooled Volkswagen engine repairs and rebuilds. I've never seen anything like this; everything I've learned says that it simply shouldn't happen. And while philosophical mysteries are wonderful to explore, -this- kind of puzzle just whomps me upside the head with categoric wrrongness.
The tech had one possible answer; one that I don't like at -all-. If the car had been tampered with deliberately, this could happen. There are compounds that could be added to the oil and coolant to do just exactly what happened. But the car always was locked, and the hood release is inside the passenger compartment... which means if this -is- the way it happened, someone did an awful lot of work to kill my Saturn.
I'm less than happy with that notion.
~Ellie-chan
no subject
In that case: find them, kill them.
Slowly. Over the course of weeks. Maybe even months.
Would a brain in a jar count as 'not dead'? Could draw it out even to years...
Grrrr....
Love,
~~Kt3, Evil Overlord~~
no subject
However, I've been doing that for about 18 years now, and I can make some guesses what probably happened based on the parts needing replaced.
While I can't rule out tampering, how you leave your vehicle makes it unlikely to have happened. At a guess, I'd say the thermostat stuck shut, causing the coolant in the engine to overheat. That heating probably took out the water pump impeller. Though I'm a bit surprised to hear that the head gasket wasn't ruptured. From my experience, the heating tends to make the head warp and that will cause for gasket failure. If it/they haven't been, make certain the head(s) have been checked for cracks or warpage. Usually, though, that creates either an internal or external coolant leak; either burning the coolant out the tailpipe or extreme mixing of coolant with the engine oil.
Regardless, the engine is, in a word, fragged. If it's not too late to do so, you might want to consider a replacement long block that is either remanufactured or a decent, low mileage, used engine.
Not good news regardless....
*hugs*