nasty engine noises zx diesel

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Andy malton
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nasty engine noises zx diesel

Post by Andy malton »

Hi all,
I was driving to work this morning at about 80mph and my engine just let out the most horrendous grinding crunching noise,I rolled to a halt with the engine still ticking over(just)then it just stopped and would not turn over.I got the car home and so far have checked the water pump/alternator/camshaft and pully wheels,then I dropped the sump and found what I can only describe as what looks like a bullet when its been fired into something hard, it's aluminium not steel and it has black paint on one end I also found an oil seal about an inch across,I know this is a bit vague, I cannot think what it is or see where it has come from,I have also removed the oil pump and that seems all ok,so what is this piece of aluminuim thats been bouncing around in my engine?the only thing I can see in the sump thats ali is the oil pump casing and thats all fine.Any ideas[?][?]
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AndersDK
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Post by AndersDK »

One of the oil gallery plugs from the block ??
Could have been left there since the production line assembly [:(]
Andy malton
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Post by Andy malton »

what do they do?and what do you think is causing the engine not to turn over?the car has done 180k.Cheers Andy
Dave Burns
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Post by Dave Burns »

Don't think its a oil galery plug, they are either brass or steel and screwed in, or a ball bearing pressed in and peened over.
Has this piece of aluminium got any signs of a normal geomatric shape to it, i.e round, cylindrical, square or is it random on all sides.
Were there any warning lights that came on like the oil and stop light.
Will the engine turn at all by hand backwards, or is it locked solid in both directions.
My first thoughts are that it has dropped a valve and punched a hole through the piston and probably the aluminium is part of the piston, I hope not.
Another possibility is lubrication failure leading to a piston melting and siezing of the crank, I've known pistons to melt during oil pump drive failure, this was in a Fiat 124 so the less said about that crap the better.
The oil seal like Anders suggests could have been there from new, or does it infact look as if its been in use somewhere, though I can't think where.
Dave
CITMAN
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Post by CITMAN »

if the oil gallery plug had been floating about the engine it would wreck anything it come in contact with. My theory is that something has broken off within the engine but what is the obvious question. I think the pistons are aluminuim but doubt anything breaking off would cause the engine not turnover, to do this it would have to be in the combustion chamber which means!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Your cambelt might have stripped a few teeth and resulted in the pistons coming into violent contact with the valve and combusion chamber roof, causing the pistons to break up quite possible a lot of damage would have been caused with car doing 80 mph and the spinning at 3500rpm at a guess. Check the cambelt but I think you ll find that either way the engine has basically self destructed itself i.e gone bang. I think you will need another engine[:(] Then again I might be way off, because you said after the noise the engine was still running just, which leads towards a problem with the lubrication system.
Andy malton
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Post by Andy malton »

Yes I was wondering wether it was terminal as I did find a couple of very small pieces aswell,ok guys thanks for the replies it will remain a mystery as I have not got the time or devotion to fix it,so i'll be looking for another ZX this week,must say it's been a fantastic little car,Cheers for sharing your knowledge with me. Andy
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