Spend £1000 on engine maintenance, LARGE BANG, lots of steam and oil, WHAT NOW?

HI All

Basically I have recently got my Gti back on the road, in the last month I have had the following work done:

-Exhaust manifold gaskets replaced
- New oil pump, + all oil senders + temp senders
- New Oil, engine flush etc etc
- New Clutch, + replaced gearbox and crank oil seal
- New cambelt, tensioner etc
This little lot has just cost me £1000.

After all of this iv taken the car for a 40mile trip, and on the way back up the M11, something happened:

Driving along at 90mph, heard a slight unusual noise so pulled into middle lane, then BANG, oil, steam smoke, sounds of spanners in a washing machine type thing.

I now have 2 pistons hanging outside the block, oil pump and dizzy are destroyed.

Imjust looking for other peoples opinion s on

1. what should I say to my mechanic as i have not payed him yet.
2. What is the best option for a new engine…

At the moment im torn between finding a half decent standard lump and putting that in, or I have a mate who is saying he can put in a mk2 8v digifant lump, all inclusive for £1000ish, any advice or info would be much appreciated.

Thanks for reading….

well, doesn't sound good

i would be straight back to the mechanic to see what he says

but the work listed above shouldn't have cause this, unless he had the whole crank out to do the seal

The sound you heard before the big bang could have been oil pump failure which would cause this sort of damage when going at motor way speeds also check if cambelt and tensioner are still in place as may have been fitted incorrectly.

Sorry to hear this mate. I feel gutted for you. Go back to the mechanic and see what he says and hopefully you can come to some arrangement.  

Could be oil starvation following the flush, some muck the flush has dislodged has blocked the oil pumps strainer or something, you need to get it properly inspected by an expert

To add insult to injury, my new oil pressure gauge turned up today!

Sounds like oil starvation to me… I wouldn't be paying the mechanic though myself. 

Mrvtech said

To add insult to injury, my new oil pressure gauge turned up today!

         

I would certainly not me letting the mechanic near it before it has been looked at by an expert who can properly diagnose the cause and put it in writing as the previous mechanic could try and make all sorts of excuses otherwise and things can go missing or be cleaned, theres a good reason many people avoid engine flushes and a number of manufacturers now state in their cars handbooks that engine oil flush must not be used, it can dislodge muck and cause blockages leading to oil starvation

Balls in your court if you haven't paid him.

Can I ask what was your reason for doing the work anyway?

It seems strange to me to change the oil pump on its own. If the pump was worn out then highly likely so would the rest of the motor be anyway so seems like a waste of a grand to me? Who advised you to do the work?

You say the pressure guage turned up after so did you measure the pressure before changing the pump?

If the oil pump has been changed then the sump would have been off and most of the sludge in the engine settles in the sump so would have been easy to remove while the pump was being changed.
If this is the case then it would be really unlucky to have a blockage. Was the old strainer re-used?
Could be a faulty pump from new.
Is there still plenty of oil in it? Loose/missing sump plug? badly fitted crank seal? If it lost oil quick then that'd make it pop.

Regards a new engine, get yourself a worn out DX and rebuild it yourself, you can't blame anyone but yourself if it goes wrong! They're not difficult to do and they'll be plenty of help on here.

Hi Thanks for all the replys..

Iv owned the car for about 5  years, when i first bought the car the clutch was slipping so i had it replaced, when i got the car back the clutch started slipping again, i took it back to mechanic1 and he then replaced the crankoil seal and cleaned clutch, and this was when i was first made aware of high oil pressure he said it was running at 90psi on tick over.

I then had some family problems, so the car was put away for about 3 years.

I recently decided to try and get it back on the road.

So the first thing i did was get mechanic2 to check out the oil pressure and it was high (90psi tick over) the problem was diagnosed as a blocked pressure relief valve in the oil pump, so he changes the whole pump(seemed to make sense) pressure now at 2-3 bar , + new oil, flush, oil filter, oils sensors (to try and remedy oil light issues,which are still happening even though oil presure is now ok). Then he replced exhaust manifold as it was blowing severley.
Now the oil pressure is ok he also put a new clutch in, which was fine.

Seemed like i was getting somewhere.

I then broke down on new years day, turns out id stripped teeth off of the cambelt. (now this was my fault , i checked my receipts and thought id had the cambelt done when i first bought the car, but i hadnt, i waslooking at a receipt from another mk1 i had!!!!)

Mechanic then replaced cambelt and then i drove about 35miles and blew the whole engine up, and was very lucky not to have caused a serious accident.

Sorry about the essay!

As for the engine:

What are peoples opinions on me thinking the best thing to do is to keep as standard as possible (as the car is pretty standard) and keep with the dx rather than messing about with digifant 8v from a mk2?

Does anyone know anyone thats selling either  a half decent dx engine (not sure if it matters but needs to be the seperate oil cooler one?)
 or the neccessary parts to build one.

Also how likely is it that i have damaged the gearbox ( i cant remember if i put my foot on the clutch when it blew up) , it seems to go into all gears fine but not really sure if that means its ok.

If your looking for something to rebuild i have a dx lump for sale on here http://vwgolfmk1.org.uk/forum/index.php?page=topicview&id=engine-and-running-gear_2%2F1800-dx-gti-engine

1K to fit a mk2 lump is rediculous      

Engines worth £50-100 and will drop straight in so £900 to fit & wire is just taking the mick!!

Just get another engine, not expensive and fit. you could do it yourself in a day!  

You cant blame your mechanic. Sounds like when belt went you have done internal damage. If a rods have come out block ssounds like big end fail. 
did head come off after belt stripped. I find it hard to abelieve xyou didnt do damage.

Either use a specialist vw engine place like tsr or do it yourself. Even if your not a trained mechanic you will put more love and attention into it than a careless mechanic who is just doing the minimum to earn his fee. 

Although irrelevant now, the second clutch slipping would have been due to the seal in the end of the gearbox input shaft leaking around the clutch push rod - not the rear crank seal.

Maybe the high oil pressure was compensating for worn big ends.
I wouldn't have thought busting the cam belt would bend a rod. bend a valve yes.
I wouldn't be caning along a motorway with oil light issues neither.
I don't think you can blame the mechanic tbh.

mk1gtc said

Either use a specialist vw engine place like tsr or do it yourself. Even if your not a trained mechanic you will put more love and attention into it than a careless mechanic who is just doing the minimum to earn his fee. 

that would`nt be aimed at all mechanics now would it ?  

cabfan said

mk1gtc said

Either use a specialist vw engine place like tsr or do it yourself. Even if your not a trained mechanic you will put more love and attention into it than a careless mechanic who is just doing the minimum to earn his fee. 

that would`nt be aimed at all mechanics now would it ?  

It's ok your on this forum, which means you care abou the old mk1's. it's my experience of bad garages that has turned me in to a (amature) mechanic. I would have been happier to pay but in the end had to teach myself. As they say " if you want a job doing properly, do it yourself or pay a specialist"

if its a dx lump then the digifant bottom end is identical, so just swap it in. same goes for mk1/2 1.8 carb engine, and k-jet too. so DX, PB, GU, EV etc all same as yours.

if head isnt trash swap it over. if it is then gti heads almost all same, there is slight difference on inserts i cant remember which ones are compatible, basically you unscrew digi inserts and fit k-jet ones but i dont know if its early or late k-jet ones u need for digi head

edit: and 1.8 bottom ends are worth sod all, usually you cant give them away. most i would pay is 50 quid and only if i was proper desperate! so dont let anyone rip you off i got a complete 2.0 8v engine for 40 quid so that gives you an idea