I've killed my 244.

[Nick]

So my 244 is dead. This will be the 2nd redblock I've murdered. Unfortunately this is going to be my official dumbass tbricks moment. Heres the story;

I drove home (Vero Beach, about an hour and a half from Orlando) on Saturday evening after work so I could attend my sisters birthday party on Sunday. So I made it home ok, no problems, ate dinner w/ my mom and then went over to kevin's (boosted) to hang out w/ him for a while. So we got kind of bored and decided to go for a ride in my car. Kevin drove it around a little, then we switched and I got in to drive. I made it to the end of second gear at full boost when I noticed something was wrong. I backed off and noticed while the motor was running on 3 cylinders. I figured I had probably blown an IC pipe off or something, so I pulled into a gas station to have a look. Popped the hood and we heard some horrific top end noise. Checked all the normal stuff, and everything seemed ok. Cranked it up again to try and diagnose the sound and thought it might be a shim that popped out of the bucket. Valve cover off.... nope. Cranked it up again to try and hear. This time, there was a terrible rattling noise, but the motor ran better....... hmmmm... At this point we were thinking valve seat, spring, bent valve; something in the head. Compression check showed 185 on 1, 2, and 3 but only 170 on 4. We drove to Sebastian, ripped the head off his old 245 and got some sleep.

Sunday morning I got up, went and ordered the HG set and we went over to the gas station where the car was. Pulled turbo/mani. Went to pull the intake and then we found it. Kevin reached into the intake port on #4 and pulled this gem out:
http://nickflyman.com/volvo/volvo19/IMG_0144.JPG

Yes, folks, thats 1/2 of a hose clamp. The other half had been chewed into the motor by the valve and was inside the cylinder. The only place I can figure this thing came from is the cold side of the IC. I got it from a garage where it had been sitting for some time under a bunch of crap. I inspected and flushed it out, so it must have been wedged solidly into the bottom. The amazing thing is that it stayed down there for a YEAR. I went to SE5 like this. Countless trips from Vero to Orlando. Strange. So we continue pulling the head off and finally have it removed to find this:

http://nickflyman.com/volvo/volvo19/IMG_0140.JPG

http://nickflyman.com/volvo/volvo19/IMG_0141.JPG

and this:

http://nickflyman.com/volvo/volvo19/IMG_0143.JPG


****.

We rolled the motor over and noticed that there was amazingly, no damage to the cylinder walls. The head was f-'ed and we knew that for a fact. This is the first time the motor had been opened up to my knowledge. There was still faint crosshatching on the cylinder walls (this is a 300+k mile motor!). The inside of the engine, except #4 obviously, was surprisingly in amazing shape. What a shame.

It was decided that I should clean the piston crown w/ emory cloth as best as possible, clean up the wagon head, and throw it all together in hope of just getting me back to Orlando where I can spend the time to do a motor swap.

http://nickflyman.com/volvo/volvo19/IMG_0149.JPG
We reassembled and got it running. Now the amazing thing is, that the motor ran very well. I drove it around Vero some, home that night, over to my sister's thing, and back home. The next morning (yesterday) I depart for Orlando. Fires right up, get on 95, no issues, pull off on 520, no issues, merge onto 50...... nothing. I had to go into second to get up to speed after traffic slowed. It just died. No noise or excitement. Nothing. Turns over super easy... no compression. Did a quick roadside test to confirm... 30 psi on #4. Call EricF. Go home. Towed it home last night w/ Isaac's brother's truck.

I'm going to start taking it out tonight and EricF and I are going to go get a new longblock tomorrow morning, hopefully.

Big thanks to Kevin, Isaac, Eric and Andres. They saved me big time. I haven't missed work because of the VW Andres is letting me borrow. Heres some other pics from my lovely Sunday:

http://nickflyman.com/volvo/volvo19/IMG_0145.JPG
http://nickflyman.com/volvo/volvo19/IMG_0148.JPG
http://nickflyman.com/volvo/volvo19/IMG_0155.JPG
Oh, the irony.
http://nickflyman.com/volvo/volvo19/IMG_0154.JPG

[pwschuh]

Ouch. Nice story though.

[blkaplan]

typical floridians :lol:

[242Fast]

hehehe FL FTW

[Nick]

In my defense, the intercooler and previous owner of the intercooler was from Oregon.

[JW240]

dang, that sucks.
I hope you can find a nicer replacement engine.

Reminds me to re-check everything really good when i install it (everything from after AMM to intake mani..)

[JohnMc]

I doubt anything in the bottom end died the second time around. Just figure out what's wrong with the head and keep on rockin.

[linuxman51]

agreed, if its not blowing smoke HARD out the breather, the bottom end is fine, and you've got a tight cap or broken valve spring, or some sort of thing. You have to really put a hole in a cylinder or get the rings completely locked up on the piston to only have 30 psi compression.

[mAydAy]

30psi is not a bottom end issue on an engine that had 170psi just right before, its definitely something else, and like kenny said, it'd be smoking hardcore if it was busted up enough to only have 30psi.


There's probably a valve not closing up for one reason or another.

[towerymt]

typical floridians :lol:
takes one to know one

[jpbturbo]

There's probably a valve not closing up for one reason or another.

The other half of the hose clamp.
:rofl:


Hope you get it working soon.

[blkaplan]

takes one to know one

thats why i can say it

[Nick]

True about the bottom end not being the issue. The thing is, I don't want to use this motor w/ the piston looking like that. The head came off of a running car. Everything was cleaned up and installed properly. I don't know what it could be, really. I'm thinking that it would just be smart to get a fresh motor.

[Nick]

It lives! Cam roll pin was teh dead. Now I can take my time looking for a 90+ FT block.

[Nick]

What are the possible effects of driving w/ a piston that looks like ^^^? Detonation due to hot spots?

[smith_t240]

What are the possible effects of driving w/ a piston that looks like ^^^? Detonation due to hot spots?

Yeah and more places for carbon to embed, which may cause the same issue with detonation.

[thelostartof]

so pull head and sand piston down smoother?

[Slobodan]

Why does the engine need replacing? Just make sure that it comes up to the top of the deck like all the rest. And you say the bore looks fine still... then ****. I'd still run that bottom till there is a ROD poking out.

[BDKR]

In my defense, the intercooler and previous owner of the intercooler was from Oregon.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[linuxman51]

make sure there's nothing still in the intake manifold (ask me how i know)
other than that, tape up the holes on the deck, and see if you can't polish that piston, or at least get the sharp edges out of it.

[Nick]

I cleaned it up a lot. That pic was taken before I went at it w/ the emory cloth. Now that I've got it up here again and running. I'll play with it a little more and see how it runs.

[towerymt]

Just run it. If you hurt it, replace the engine with the '90+ you're about to find.

[BDKR]

Well I'm glad it's running. That thing sounds awesome!

[boosted]

lol nick, now just imagine if it was an audi...

this story made for an awesome weekend, of course it was to nick expense :-(

but i am glad that motor is still tanking on..

[Volvo740Ti]

Dayum man, glad you got it running again, sucks about the clamp though. I'm in dire need to visit you guys like hardcore, its been long enough and i need to make a random trip down to Orlando.

Redblocks are some strong bitches

[2fast242gt]

that really really sucks, i cant belive it sucked that clamp in! weird

[jpbturbo]

Dayum man, glad you got it running again, sucks about the clamp though. I'm in dire need to visit you guys like hardcore, its been long enough and i need to make a random trip down to Orlando.

Redblocks are some strong bitches

You still have the whale penis in your honda?

[PRVersion]

I'd still run that bottom till there is a ROD poking out.

+1

[HonestJhon]

my 940 ate a spark plug, there were dents in the piston and head. replaced the head with a junkyard model, and polished the piston a bit to make it not sharp.

ran through TWO rallies, and countless cruises/drives to work.

then again, when my car did that, i pulled the bottom end apart basically, cleaned the rings, checked gap, cleaned it all up, replaced the rod bearings, replaced the oil pump, cleaned more stuff...
but you should be fine, only reason i pulled the pistons out was cause i was finding smalllllllll pieces of the ceramic from the spark plug in places i didnt want to.

[Volvo740Ti]

You still have the whale penis in your honda?

yea until its replaced with Intercooler piping

[badvlvo]

I've polished the tops of a few pistons after valve contact. I used a roloc disc and a die grinder. Never really had a problem after polishing the top of the piston when there was no cylinder wall damage.

[Aoder1]

ouchies, but thats some good teamwork there, floridians helpin out each other...props on that

and i need to meet that andres guy, i never see any more of them since i am one

[MII]

Oh man, Sucks. And the trip from Vero to Orlando Sucks.... espically when your iffy on the motor.
I had something similar but got lucky. bought a Junk yard motor for the Race car and decided to pull the head just to take a look before putting it in..... Whoa was i lucky. I found peices of a vavle retainer in the #2 piston. No idea where they came from and the car wasn't run with it in there (guessing someone at the junk yard dropped it in the intake somehow) but had I not pulled the head... probably would have been game over on the motor.