Blown engine? HELP!
 

Sad day folks. I'm driving and floor it to pass someone. Power light comes on, everything's ok. The car starts vibrating a few minutes later, when I let off the gas. When I step on it, it seems ok. Next thing I pull into my brother's driveway a minute later and white smoke is pouring out of the tailpipes. Now the car won't start, it tries to turn over but produces nothing but puffs of white smoke out of the tailpipes.

Any ideas anyone? I would love to say it's the transmission since I have a warranty, but it sure seems engine-like to me. There's plenty of oil and nothing is leaking. Maybe a water pump? I'm brainstorming. HELP!!!

Jeff

white smoke out the tailpipe could indicate a blown head gasket - antifreeze in the combustion chamber. The vibrating may have been the engine missing on a cylinder due to coolant in there. Do you smell coolant and is the radiator or reservoir low on coolant?

The radiator is full and no coolant seems to be leaking or otherwise. The tow truck driver smelled gas tho....

Maybe it is a fuel injector rail???

Jeff

I suppose you could have COMPLETELY flooded it with so much fuel it wouldnt' know what to do with it...but I would lean towards the head gasket.

Maybe pull the dipstick, see if there is a milky look to your oil.

Ryan

Re: Blown engine? HELP!
 

I will bet $1 that the timing belt has hopped a tooth or two. Has it ever been changed?

Thanks for the ideas so far. Keep 'em coming! I thought of the timing belt too. I had it changed at 90,000 miles. The car has 115,000 on it now....sooo.... not likely maybe. I pulled up the dipstick and the oil was nice and honey colored. Pulled open the cap and it smelled fine, couldn't smell any coolant in there.

Jeff

Another thought
 

I remember from the Yahoo days, that one of the founding members, Jester01, had nearly the exact same thing happen to him and I believe it was a coil pack that had crapped out.

I think the symptoms were very similar to yours. Lots of smoke, wouldn't start. This happened a long time ago...

edit: found the original message here it is:
http://www.subaru-svx.net/archive/ar...?message=15051

Thanks Stevesby. Jester's problem does sound very similar to mine, except the color of smoke was white. I never saw a final concluding message from Jester, but I'll keep my fingers crossed.

I don't know if the dealer is open today, but I'll let everyone know as soon as I find out.

Jeff

OH NO
 

I just talked to the Subaru dealer. They want $414 to just tear apart the engine and figure out what's wrong with it. They say it may be water in a cylinder, they don't know. And if I decide not to fix it, they don't put it back together again. What can I do? This seems too strange to happen to this car.....

The engine won't turn over and is locked up. Any more ideas? Please!!!!

Jeff

OUCH, hope things, don't come to that. hopefully the jester deal may provide a little something..


Is it throwing engine codes? can you check that?

The engine won't turn over now?

Uh oh...

From all the times you tried to turn it over, you may have drained out the battery. Hook up the jumper cables to another car, and see if it is able to turn over.

If it doesn't, I think you're in deep... (Find the guy with the $750 SVX engine off ebay that didn't sell, and make a deal with him...)

VK

a second thought, can you break ing to the service area, and steal their, dealie to hook up to the computer to do tests on it?

j/k

Sigh...
 

Well, folks, I have options, but none are really good. I refuse to fix this problem. I owe $3,500 on the car and I would gladly give it to someone if they'd pay off my loan. Tow it on out.

The dealer called again and said they found a used engine with 67K for $1,800!!!! Does anyone know the email address of the ebay engine guy?

What I'll probably do now is go new car shopping and roll the debt I owe on the SVX into a new car. It'll sit in my garage (Thank goodness I have one at my apartment complex) until I find someone willing to buy it for what I owe. I COULD also slowly start parting out things that I can take off. I have a new transmission in it, but I don't know anything about removing that nor do I have the tools. I have tons of new parts and the body is in beautiful shape, as well as all interior parts. I know I could do much better by that, but I don't have the time, space, or equipment.

I am heading down to the dealer later to negotiate. Maybe I can convince them to buy it off me. They can always use the parts, any sensible SVX owner in central florida comes to them since they are pretty good.

Jeff

Jeff - Go back to square one again. I'm no mechanic, but I did blow a head gasket in another car once. (lots of white smoke).
I stupidly drove to car another 7-8 miles to a repair facility. This brilliant move warped the aluminum head, but didn't ruin the engine. The head was replaced & I drove the car another 6 years with no ill effects. When you say the engine won't turn over, do you mean as in dead battery, or is it seized, or do you know for sure? If it's "just'" a head gasket, it's gotta be cheaper to replace, than throw away the whole car. I'll defer further comment to those here that can give you a better diagnosis.
Just don't jump to any conclusions yet.
Good luck, Ron.

crank the crank
 

Jeff,

Get a 22mm 1/2drive socket and put it on the crank pulley bolt and try to turn the engine. If it doesn't turn you are in deep sludge. If you got enough water into the engine through a blown head gasket you should see some evidence in your oil. Check to see if your engine oil smells like gasoline. I had a fuel injected VW once that had an injector stay open and flooded the engine. Literally had fuel pouring out of the intake box. Flowed right down over the hot heads. (Is boiling gasoline dangerous?). These engines are nearly invincible. I had a '79 station wagon that I RAN OUT OF coolant and drove for a mile until the engine clattered to a halt. I replaced the broken hose, filled it with water and ran the car another 30,000 miles before trading it in. This is the same car that was in a flood. Filled the engine with dirty river water in a storm. Had to remove the plugs to even think of turning it over. DON'T let the dealer rape your wallet, ask for some evidence.

Just my opinion.

By the way, I got ya beat on rear wheel bearings. I've had mine replaced 5 times. Got my fingers crossed on this last set.

I wish you the best of luck in the mean time.