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*Deep Breath*
Hi, my name is Eric and I'm an engine killer. I'd like to think it was an accident, but my engine was a victim of my own hubris and arrogance.
My story begins with a 944t that I recently purchased for my wife. (Side note: I'm going to be very happy to get her out of the tin-can Protege she's in now.) It's a 1993, blue over tan, 121k, lots of maintenance records. When I took it out for a test drive it felt good and strong, no smoke from the turbo, the tranny wouldn't go into OD, the temp gauge was flakey at the start then dead at the end, it braked straight, but needed pads if not rotors as well. The interior was in decent shape, needing only a bit of saddle soap or Lexol and some elbow grease. The price was right, so I picked it up.
I took a look at the OD, the relay checked out fine as did the solenoid. There was a fair amount of metal in the pan, so I was thinking that it could actually be a case of the OD getting ground to shreds. Oh well, I can get another AW71 and drop it in. In the meantime, I can use it for shorter trips around the metro area without worrying about it too much.
Considering how everything else looked, felt, and sounded, I wasn't too worried about the temp gauge. I'd fix it soon, but not right now.
So, on the fateful day, I was running around town a bit and coming home by way of I494 for about 6 miles. About 2 miles in, I heard a rattling noise. It sounded kind of exhaustish, like the sheild that always rattles on a 240. Not giving it much thought, I even felt a bit smug when the "Check Engine" light went on. Ah, maybe something around the O2 sensor has come off and caused an error code. The noise was getting a bit louder, but I wasn't too worried because my exit was right ahead. As I came around the curve, the engine revs slowly dropped, and just kept going until it stopped cold. I was a bit surprised by this, but even more shocked when I popped the hood, and found steam and coolant billowing from the cracked plastic of my radiator. I looked at the overflow tank, and it still had coolant in it. I still wasn't all that concerned. I figured that the coolant got onto something that shorted out, and cut out the engine. Oh well, no big deal. Time to pull out the cell phone and call the autoclub.
It wasn't until I was home, taking a closer look at what happened that I realized what I had done. The red paint on the block near cylinder 1 was gone. Melted off, burned off, whatever, just gone. The plastic of the water pump seal had melted out and around the water pump. The plastic of the timing belt cover also had some heat damage. And the kicker, it really sounds sick when I turn the key.
So, for those of you who have made it this far:
LESSON: Don't ever drive a vehicle without a functional temp gauge; especially one new to you.
QUESTION: Am I going to have to pull the head to get a good idea of all of the damage I caused, and is it even worth the effort or should I just hunt down a "new" B230FT?
-Eric
'89 765t, 185k, clean injectors are wonderful things
'93 944t, 121k, not going anywhere for awhile
PS. And the downright WORST part: I will never ever ever be able to say anything about my wife mistreating her car. *Sigh*
Thanks for listening!
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now thats why you fit a buzzer to the coolant system...much harder to ignore a demented buzzing sound...
(although i have to admit to once ahving a car that had a cracked cylinder head and it hydrolocked at a set of trafic lights....and it was automatic and it was full of my girlfreinds stuff and it was in the middle of no where and it was a sunday and i wasnt am ember of an auto club...ahhh well learnt 2 VALUABLE lessons (1)if you keep having to top up the water - investigate properly, (2) join an auto club.....)
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I'm sure John will disagree with me on this one, but...
My wife did the same thing with my departed 740T. The heater hose, under the intake manifold, went and she just kept on driving it home, about 5 miles, during a eally cold Colorado winter night. She came in and told me the car was smoking, I could smell the anti-freeze, so she parked it in the garage. In the morning, I bought new hoses, we wee down to one car due to a drunk hitting our Explorer, put them on and added coolant. The car went on to do 291K miles without the head ever coming off. That little mishap happened around 125K miles. SO, all is not lost, check your compression, look for oil in the coolant, and vice versa.
The B230's are really stout engines.
Go for an all metal Nissans radiator from IPD or other places. I swapped my Nissens rad with an OE rad before I donated the 740T.
--
Warren Bain - '99 V70GLT G-Valve > 80K mi, 89 300SE, '96 965 >120Kmi, near Manassas Va.. Check the 700/900 FAQ via the 'features' pull down menu. This post written with 100% recycled electrons.
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if you do decide to go the head only route,look for piston/cylinder damage.
--
83 242 DL -129k, 92-965-195k, 94-965-203k, 84-242 GLT-Gone, but not forgotten,83-245GLT-1'st one (the 1'st 3 currently on the road)
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posted by
someone claiming to be Chrissij
on
Wed May 5 16:58 CST 2004 [ RELATED]
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What metro area? I know of a few wrecked 940T's...
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If you managed to melt the paint clear off, IMO, you might as well boat anchor the engine without even pulling the head. With some work, you could make any B23 or B230FT from a 1984-1995 700 or 900 series turbo fit just fine. Instead of pulling the head, spend the effort looking for a nice late model motor.
I think the real important lesson is to always investigate new sounds and new idiot lights going on ASAP.
--
alex
'89 765T, 173,3xx mi
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"QUESTION: Am I going to have to pull the head to get a good idea of all of the damage I caused, and is it even worth the effort or should I just hunt down a "new" B230FT?"
A head gasket and a good head will probably fix it fine. The head is surely warped, and a used head will probably be cheaper than repairing the one on the engine.
--
john
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posted by
someone claiming to be Chrissij
on
Wed May 5 16:57 CST 2004 [ RELATED]
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John,
I think you're great; I'd hire you in a heart beat as a service writer...your knowledge is WAY up there, and I agree with everything you say...up to now...
It's motor time! If the paint's melted?!?!?! and the timing cover is melted!?!?!? on a turbo?!?!? there's about a 1% chance the motor made it. I'm not saying it won't run with a new head...but I think he want's it to be a 940...not a 930...or a 920...
Chris
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Thanks for the compliments from one of the two brightest participants on the brickboard.
In my experience while the engine may be toast, it may not be. I bought a good running 1994 B230FT that had experienced that degree of overheating. The rear half of the upper timing cover was badly melted. The engine paint was burnt near number 1 cylinder, but it ran great. The head was badly warped (but the head gasket was not blown), and the cost to straighten it exceeded the cost of another used head. I had a used head gone through by a local machine shop.
If the engine got really hot, the rings will have lost their spring tension (ask me how I learned about that), and the engine will consume lots of oil. But it is worth looking at.
If you do any bottom end engine work with head work, the cost will exceed the cost of a fine used engine.
Please give me some feedback.
--
john
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I agree with John. I have installed a couple of heads on b230 engine that have overheated that bad and replacing the head was the cure.
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posted by
someone claiming to be Chrissij
on
Thu May 6 01:04 CST 2004 [ RELATED]
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I don't know why, but it seems to me that the B230F will take tons more abuse than the B230FT...is it because of the lower compression? Is it because of the sodium filled valves? I don't know, but I learned that old adage "f me once, fault resides somewhere else", "f me twice, my fault entirely". I did a couple of customers a favor, providing them with a running 92 730T, and a 94 930T, prior to replacing their motors for them at a greatly reduced cost. Of course there are the ones that are so toast that you don't even try...
One customer roasted his engine, had it towed in, and was standing next to me as I made my assessment. Okay...it's out of coolant...let's add some water and see if the car will start...I watched the dipstick literally float up out of the tube. My stunned expression must have alerted the customer who said, "I take it that's bad?" Ummm....yeah...that would be bad.
Chris
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"If you do any bottom end engine work with head work, the cost will exceed the cost of a fine used engine."
That's the kicker, right there. It surely needs a head gasket. The head *may* be so warped it can't be saved. I've seen a pretty bad '92 740T get saved before, and it always ran reliably- but they took almost 60-thou off the head. That's a sixteenth of an inch, an awful lot of aluminum! Too much in my opinion. And as for the lower end- it had tremendous piston slap, in spite of having good compression numbers. They were within 10psi. Turned out, later, when the owner couldn't stand the slap anymore and the engine was replaced with a healthier 70000 mile block, the #1 piston had actually started to melt. Don't ask me why the cylinder wasn't scored and the thing still had compression- there wasn't a good reason for it.
In the end, fixing both the top end, and bottom end of this engine is going to cost more than simply pulling it, finding a good used one, and calling it a day.
And yes, you shouldn't trust a flaky temp gauge. It's telling you something, even when it doesn't work!
--
Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: '87 244DL/M47- 229K, 88 744GLE- 218K, 82 245T-181K Also responsible for the care and feeding of: 88 745GLE, 231K, 87 244DL, 239K, 88 245DL, 246K
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