Blown engine........

[bobs996]

Car started sputtering on freeway & the CEL came on. Wife drove straight to a gas station where they added 3 Qts of oil. Checking the OBD-II codes revealed P0300, P0301 & P03044. I pulled all te p,lugs fore comparrison reason. The plug in #4 cylinder was soaked & the plug from #1 was "damp" for lack of a better word. Installed new plugs & marked the ignition coils for reference reasons & swapped them round to elimiunate the possiblity of a bad one.

Started engine & got ther same codes. Took the intake apart & was greeted with the mess depicted below! both intake chambers "right & left" had the same goop in them! :eek: Ive dropped the engine & trans but havnt taken the heads off yet. I think that the cylinder head is cracked around cylinder #4 but im not sure! Ive styarted second guessing myself & now im not really sure of anything but praying i dont need a new engine!

As allways the help of you gents is greatly appritiated. :notworthy:

[wvicary]

Any chance it's the AOS? It's got a coolant passage running through it.

[bobs996]

Thank you for that suggestion. That possebility hadent occured to me. How does one check the AOS for damage? Worth noting that there is no oil in the coolant & plenty of coolant in the exhast system!

Edited August 28, 2012 by bobs996

[JFP in PA]

You can pressure test the entire cooling system and see if there is a pressure drop. Almost any shop can do this.

[bobs996]

Well Gents.............Took the heads off & its much worse than expected. A dropped valve seat causing extensive damage & a cracked cylinder liner. Looks like a chunk is cracked & ready to fall off. Im pretty sure i can save the head & have looked at sleeve options available at L&N engineering though exellent in quality with an great reputation, they are too rich for my blood.

Are there any sources for the traditional steel cyninder liners pref in CA? Thank you ion advance.

[bobs996]

Here are a few pics. Void of edditing skill;s ive placed a RED D where the sleeve cracks are

Edited September 6, 2012 by bobs996

[phillipj]

There are some folks who can help you with resources for your rebuild.. Hopfiully they will reply to your problem soon..

[bobs996]

Thank you.Keeping fingers crossed. The quotes ive been getting are :eek:

[phillipj]

Look up member "Logray". He rebuilt his own 996 engine with no previous experience..

[phillipj]

Did you see this post?

http://www.renntech.org/forums/topic/42496-theres-a-34-forsale-in-my-area-have-photo/

[bobs996]

Thank you for your help. :notworthy: Ive already gotten an email back from him & waiting for his call.

[phillipj]

My pleasure. Good luck

[txhokie4life]

what year is your 996? I have a 3.6L engine in search of a car.

Mike

[bobs996]

Its an 02

[txhokie4life]

sent you a PM

thanks,

Mike

[9552T500]

Interesting. There are more threads on cracked valve seating ring issue.... Also an '02, and also Cyl 4 & liner crack as a consequence. My #4 piston rings are  seized, and likely the additional radial pressure from piston/ring initiated the  sleeve to crack . However, interestingly, there are no signs of a broken seating on the #1 cylinder , but I also see that there was some hard debris in the chamber (see picture of the damaged #1&#4 domes/pistons) , causing piston and head to be deformed - yet the rings are still ok, and piston would likely work again. The real question to me here is where the debris in Cyl # 1 could have originated ?  Can a parts of the broken intake valve seat from #4 somehow be transported to  #1 cylinder ?? How likely it is that the damage may have been primarily triggered by sth. other  than just a valve seat quality issue for this model year???  So far I thoroughly sonic'ed and inspected 99% engine components w/o finding any obvious damage/emanating hard debris material. The crank cradle assembly is the last item In question here, but which I am hesitant to dismantle if the likely hood of the root cause there is low. All rods move smoothly and show no bends or other damage). I just wanted to clean the cradle from the oil/coolant mix and just re-use.  Otherwise , it looks like, likely getting  engine casing , one head and at least one piston replaced  is what will likely  get this baby running again.  BTW- if sb. has a 3.6l casing in good used cond. for sale - please let me know. Thanks.