Does this sound like a burnt valve

Hi All

Trundling down the A1 today and every thing was fine. I was thinking the oil pressure was show a bit low with just under 40 on the dial. I was coasting up the slip road when the battery light came on. i thought it had stalled but it would not start again. I called the AA and the mech thought it was a burnt valve but he was only guessing. He took the rocker cover off and said the top looked fine so must be deeper in the engine. He also said it sounded like the compression seemed to be blowing back or something like that but I'm no mechanic and was looking a bit vaccent by now.

Anyone handy with a spanner around Leeds who could quote me happy for diaganosis and repair

PS. It's a 2.5 DT

No experience of diesels but I've had plenty of burnt out valves on petrols in my youth, mainly BMC A Series, and they've never stopped an engine. Made it run like s***, but always got me home, and usually driving round for a couple of weeks.

a burnt valve will not stop an engine, i took the heads off two valves on a nissan micra,they then holed the piston and it still ran!

Sounds more like your cam belt has snapped.

The engine stopped and won't start?

Take the oil filler cap off.
Look inside - can you see the rockers?

If so, you keep looking while someone else whirls the engine over on the starter.

If the rockers rock the belt isn't snapped.

If the rockers do NOT rock ..................

CharlesY

bigchap said:

a burnt valve will not stop an engine, i took the heads off two valves on a nissan micra,they then holed the piston and it still ran!

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i had a valve head drop orf on a renault fuego. it stalled instantly and wouldn't restart, no matter how long the idiot AA man tried to crank it over. although in this case it didn't hole the piston but wedged in place knocking the **** outta the head, the block and the piston.

this was after i done told him that something internal had broke. i just got a " what do you know? " look from him.

Beaver,

We all want a photo of you. We like piccies of beaver on this forum.

Be sure and tell us what stopped your engine!

If the belt snapped, and it's a 19J, you MIGHT get away with a new belt and a set of pushrods to replace the bent ones. Replace all eight pushrods.

The whole bill should be under £50 for parts if you do it yourself.

CharlesY

I don't think you'd want a picture of my ugly mug

The AA guy had the rocker cover off and he said everything seemed okay at the top end. I'm a mechanical numbty but do the cam belt move things under the rocker cover

I've got a motorcycle mechanic (who's worked on diesels in the past) to help me take the head off on Sunday. Hopefully I'll have an idea what's going on.

Anyone have a spare 200Tdi engine lying around

But unless he turned it over he wouldn't be able to tell from looking at it (unless you were unlucky and it broke rockers) - when my N/A (same as yours without the Turbo more or less) dropped the belt it all looked fine until I looked in the oil filler and shoved a shackle across the starter to watch as sod all moved up top!

Don't take the head off yet - check the basics first - if its the timing belt then you will possibly get away with new pushrods (buy all 8 even if they "look" OK) and a belt, £23.40 it cost me.

DO NOT TAKE THE HEAD OFF till you have checked that the rockers rock when the engine turns over!

If they do not rock when the engine turns it is 99.9% certain the belt snapped, and that is NOT NOT NOT a head off job yet.

You have been told!

CharlesY

The head is off and it's not good news. The head gasket has gone between 2 & 3 cyclinders and there are some precombustion thingys that need replacing. The head needs pressure testing and skimming too.

Going to be a pricey job

did u listen to charles?!

a blown head gasket wont stop the engine running altogether like you experienced. mite make it smoky, lumpy, and hot.

chris_mack said:

did u listen to charles?!

a blown head gasket wont stop the engine running altogether like you experienced. mite make it smoky, lumpy, and hot.

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It's beyond me. At present it's in a Land Rover garage. That's what they told me.

The stealers strike again

Get a 200tdi from a scrap Disco, they seem to be very cheap in the UK, I wouldn't bother with the old motor.

We don't get rust here so there are no cheap scrap Discos