Engine problems bottom end?

[greggers1986]

Need some help if possible, I bought an s13 about a year ago, knew the turbo was goin as she was a little bit smokey, also noticed when giving it some there was a slight rattle. Anyway was driving one day with Lowish oil and all a sudden it started running very lumpy, so went home chucked some oil in and left it for ten mins and tried to start it. When it started it was still very lumpy and oil leaked out the air filter. Sooo i turned it off and made a few enquires and settled on it being the turbo, so for the past few months I have gathered parts for stage 2, and then sent it to my mates garage so he could get it all fitted.

So now to present day, all parts fitted and was fired up today. But it still runs very lumpy and shakes like a v8, I have a feeling that the bottom end has gone as reading on here it seems like the most common thing to let go.

The questions are-
Is there anything else it could be?
If it is the bottom end does the whole engine need to come out or can the engine stay in the car?
Is it just the shells that go or the crank aswell?
And any other advice and costs involved?

Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks, Mark

[stevros]

hard to give a diagnosis without hearing it! the cause could be a number of things, you say its lumpy is it like a misfire could it be a knackered from oil spark plug? if the ottom end goes you usually get a knonk from the engine under the transition from load to idle so if you rev it it usually sounds when just takin your foot off the throttle. have you cleaned all breather and intake pipes out after the oil was in the filter?

[croustibat]

Need some help if possible, I bought an s13 about a year ago, knew the turbo was goin as she was a little bit smokey, also noticed when giving it some there was a slight rattle. Anyway was driving one day with Lowish oil and all a sudden it started running very lumpy [...]

global engine failure due to lack of lubrification. Only way to know how much it would cost is to disassemble the engine and check everything, but low oil + rattle + very lumpy does not sound good at all, il mostly means there are nice chunks of metal that went everywhere in your engine, scratching everything.

Seeing you needed a mechanic to bolts parts for a stage 2, this is going to cost you a lot in labor. I would not even bother rebuilding it TBH, just get another one.

And put oil in it this time ...

[greggers1986]

Finally managed to sort the video out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDzYX...e_gdata_player

My mate rang me this morning and said I have a coil pack gone no1 cylinder (closest to front) done compression test, first 2 cylinders were 118 psi back 2 were 188 psi possible rings possible head gasket.

Does this relate to any other possible symptoms? Are the compression test results ok? The engine was run for 5 mins and then tested.

Or should I just get a second hand ca18det?

Thanks for your help so far. Much appreciated.

[voodoo_melon]

Dead coil will make it run like shite and shake like you say. It shouldn't cause any rattling though.

Swap the coil out and try again

As for the compression, 118psi is pretty crap, definitely into rebuild territory. Depends why it's low though. 188psi is quite good, so if it's the HG between 1 and 2 then I'd say do the HG then get it fixed. If it's rings then either do the whole bottom end or replace it with another engine.

[croustibat]

cant help for the video, no sound at work

coil pack gone means you found the reason for the lumpy engine. 188psi is high, even unusually high ... should be around 160 when new !

i'd say possible HG too, as 2 cylinders are concerned and have the same pressure. Try wet testing, that will tell if it is the rings of not.

but still, if you need a mechanic to install stage 2 parts, you wont be able to rebuild your CA... if you have, or if someone can lend you a camera that goes through the spark plug hole, you could check your pistons without disassembling anything. but if you ran with low oil, it will cost a lot of money to fix, because you basically have to do a full rebuild.

You can also use a second hand coilpack and drive until your engine dies, it should not be lumpy anymore. I assumed the lumpy part was due to metal grinding, if it just is a duff coilpack, you are very lucky. you can find some here for 5£ maybe ? i bought a set of 4 + loom for around 20.

[voodoo_melon]

cant help for the video, no sound at work

coil pack gone means you found the reason for the lumpy engine. 188psi is high, even unusually high ... should be around 160 when new !

Just to clarify the compression figures, the service manual says standard 171psi (11.77 bar), minimum 142psi (9.81 bar). Maximum difference between cylinders should be 14 psi (0.98 bar).

So as Croustibat says 188 is far too high - either it's been measure wrong or it's had the compression increased a lot (10% over a factory fresh engine) - I'd guess the former.

[yetis200sx]

Head been skimmed too many times ? Might need a thicker head gasket ?

[greggers1986]

The engine is a 10 year old norris designs recon lump, been standard until now had all services etc. So no major work not had a head gasket or anything like that just strappe on stage 2 mods including the h dev stg2 chip. Have just bought a coil pack from gduk so guna try that and then see what happens, thanks so much for all your help and if u got any other ideas keep them coming lol