Clatter uner rocker cover and small hydraulic leak

[jrdpod]

Hello all,

The replacement engine in my BX 16 Meteor had been running fine until today, when I detected a clattering noise, while cruising up the A12 near Colchester.
I slowed, and pulled off at the next exit (Marks Tey), where the engine promptly died.

Intitially, the engine would not fire at all, then it did, but "ran rough", with a knocking noise coming from under the rocker cover.

Sounded like a valve or tappet fault of some sort.

I'm surprised this has happened, as this engine is relatively low mileage (32K), and has no noticeable wear, such as burning oil etc.

Anyway, the car has been recovered to my friends garage.

I remember that when I was running my MKIII Escort, something similar happened, and that was due to a broken tappet.

I also have a very small leak in my accumulator.

It is LHM fluid seeping through a blanking plate, but only when the car has been parked for a while, and the hydraulic pressure has dropped. The fluid loss is negligible.
I have spare blanking plate.

Hopefully I will be up and running again fairly soon.

Regards
John Podgorski/jrdpod.

[ken newbold]

Good luck John

[jrdpod]

Hi Ken,

Well I think I'm already in luck, as I have a spare engine (the old one), on which the valve gear is OK.

Or maybe we will be able to fix the fault on the "new one" without too much problem, with relevant new parts.

We shall see.

Always good to have a stash of spares.

Regards
John Podgorski/jrdpod.

[docchevron]

Any chabce it's skipped a tooth or two on the cam belt?

[DLM]

Good luck with the "tappety" noise.

It is LHM fluid seeping through a blanking plate, but only when the car has been parked for a while, and the hydraulic pressure has dropped. The fluid loss is negligible.
I have spare blanking plate.

Is this "blanking plate" at the other end of the PR from the accumulator?

[jrdpod]

We've started to investigate.
Firstly, the noise actually seems to be coming from the bottom end, so it looks that the problem could be with a big end or crankshaft bearing, rather than valve or camshaft.
This is a relatively low mileage engine, as mentioned before, so the sump will be coming off, to see what exactly has broken.
The resultant repair could end up costing a bit, but as I've come this far with this BX, I am not planning to give up.
The car will be off the road for a few weeks due to what has happened.
I also believe that there might be a problem with the oil circulating, or abnormal oil consumption in this engine, but more investigation is required. I do check oil and water on a weekly basis, and didn't detect anything amiss.
The engine appeared to be "running fine", right up to when this breakdown happened, ie no tell tale warnings.
However, the oil light is not working, which could have acted as
a warning, to what I feel could have been an avoidable breakdown.
I'll keep the Forum posted.
Regards
John Podgorski/jrdpod.

[jrdpod]

The accumulator blanking plate will be checked eventually, but dealing with the engine fault is priority.
The timing belt hasn't slipped. It and the tensioner were virtually brand new.

Regards
John Podgorski/jrdpod.

[Geoffrey Gould]

Hi checking the crankshaft pulley bolt for tightness and damage might be a good idea. Why do you suspect the oil circulation/pressure??
Cheers.
Geoff.

[jrdpod]

The only reason we are wondering about the oil, is because this relatively low mileage engine, seems to have used a lot of oil in only 6K, and we can't (yet) find any obvious signs of oil loss.

The sump will be coming off next week, and we will take it from there.

The worst case scenario is we will have do do some engine rebuilding.

Regards
John Podgorski/jrdpod.

[Geoffrey Gould]

OK. Thank you. Low mileage can equal piston rings not bedded in or glazed bores depending on what has been done (or not.). The reason I asked about the crank shaft pulley is that if the bolt is loose and the pulley has 'worked' on the crank it is not unknown for it to knock and rattle, it also clamps and secures the oil pump drive sprocket.
Mine is 20 odd years old and has had the mains and big ends replaced as well as the oil pump (which it strictly speaking it did not need the pump.) It leaks more oil than it burns. 'B' cam cover gasket which defies all attempts to seal properly.
All the best.
Geoff.
What oil does it actually burn/lose per 1000 miles and what oil is it??

[jrdpod]

We have now started to sort out the problems.
The sump has come off, and we have found that no1 bearing has failed, due to oil starvation.
It has been decided to repair the engine, and it is now being stripped down. It is having to come out of the car again.
I think the moral of the story here is to be cautious about even low mileage second hand engines - if you don't know their history.
There is obviously a reason why the engine here consumed so much oil, and soon we will discover why.

My friends Rob (my mechanic), and Peter (classic car friend), are providing much assistance, and they feel that they can get things sorted relatively soon, now the work has started.
We are lucky that we have an undercover workshop available.

I will keep you posted.

Regards
John Podgorski/jrdpod.