Hello, I have a question.. I've rolled the car few months ago. The car was upside down for about 3 hours or so.. I checked the engine today and saw that the spark plugs are completely wet from oil. Only 1 cylinder is dry. I've also noticed that one fuel injector is completely wet from oil too .. (other 3 are ok). Is the oil on the spark an indicator that rings on the cyls (i dont know the english word for that) are worn out? Or is this "normal" because the car was upside down? .. Also, what should I do with the engine ? Should I run it normally and wait to run normal again? Any suggestions would be appreciated. I havent started the engine yet, car is a mk2 gti. thanks.
Welcome to the forum!!! Id guess the bores filled up with oil with the car being on its roof... Probably worth taking the plugs out & turning the engine over by hand to see if any is forced out through the plug holes... When you are happy the cylinders (cyls) & head are free from excess oil clean up the wet injector, fit new plugs & give it a go! Might smoke for a bit but should burn off any oil relatively quickly!! Edited by: chrismc
Chris! Thanks for warm welcome. Do you have an idea why would 1 cylinder stay dry? (or 3 injectors for that matter). greetz
ehh... perhaps there was more oil on one side of the engine than the other, so the oil was heavier in certain cylinders. I attribute it to the randomness of the way fluid flows.
just check the level..and start her up,it will smoke alot and either be okay or shot to hell good luck
The thing to be wary of in this situation is wether or not the engine ran for any length of time while it was upside down. Even a short spell upside down while running is enough for there to be no oil circulating and serious damage could have resulted due to overheating and wear. I'd think it is common practice not to reuse engines from cars which have been rolled for this reason.
Make sure you get all the oil out of the bores before you start it (have all the plugs out an spin it over as said above). It is a possiblity you could hydro-lock the engine while trying to start it, maybe bend a con rod?
Welcome to the club, rolled a car in July, bought the day before!! Engine ran whilst upside down, which as someone has said is a recipe for worn bearings (crank specifically) as the engine is designed to work right side up. For the work involved in whipping the head off, inspecting the pistons float etc, I would do split the engine and have a good look. I take it you are putting this engine in another car..in which case you don't want to fit it and then find out!
Hi everybody. Thank you for your replies. I'm taking the engine apart as soon as I get the time. I'm not sure whether the car ran or not.. I cant really remember. I think it stopped during the crash thanks
Surely if the piston rings are designed to keep out oil under the pressure of normal running, then why would they let oil pass when it's upside down?? Or am I missing something?
I think the combination of gravity and cylinder pressure along with the oil retaining ring (bottom one) works very effectively to keep oil back. When the engine is upside down there is much more pressure forcing oil down the indide of the cylinders. I was dismatling my block and whilst it was updside down there was slight oil leakage into the cylinder down the side of the piston. Engine didn't use or burn oil when running though
could someone explain how you "hydro lock" an engine, i.e what happens, a guy at uni said someone did it to a deisel engine there and bent a con rod, didn't want to show my ignorance and ask him what it was though! cheers mike
The cylinder fills with liquid. You can compress gas into very small volumes and pressures. Liquids don't change volume as much as they are much denser. imagine the engine turning over and drawing in water into one cyilnder instead of air, as it gets the bottom of its stroke and starts moving up again the valves start closing and the pressure increases. As the valves shut for detonation teh water pressure is so high the piston stops (can't go any further) the other pistons are still spinning and can put enough pressure on the system to bend things
