Engine Problems

neb · 25-05-2005, 03:37 PM

Well it seemed to have started a couple of weeks ago. One of my thermo fans became partly disconnected from the fan motor and got very noisy. So I disconnected the fan (but disconnected the wrong one first and reconnected it up backwards). Therefore I only had one fan blowing and it was blowing the wrong way causing the temperature to get to the top of normal. I pulled over and realised what i had done and swapped it around so it was blowing the right way.. the car cooled down again no worries.

So I've been running the car with one fan and its been fine until a few days ago. I was performing a standstill (legally on private property). And it got very hot very quick to the top of normal which it usually wouldn't do.. I figured because it only had one thermo fan it must be getting hotter. But now during the last few days the temperature has been very random (temperature normal.. then for no reason temperature goes up past halfway then will go back down again shortly after). My first guess is that the thermostat is stuffed but now I'm not too sure. I realised I still had the pipe from the overflow bottle tied up from the drags.. so I've untied that and today in the morning I started the car up with the overflow bottle cap off and let it run until it got to operating temperature just to make sure there was no air in the cooling system. I drove to work and it was still doing the same thing (fluctuating temperature as before).

Now I picked up some brand new el thermo fans today that I will put in shortly... But now for the bad scary part of this. The last few days I've also noticed that my lifters have ticked a bit when starting the car up when its still cold (fair enough this is a common ford thing but I only just topped the oil up a week ago and it usually wouldn't do it). The oil pressure guage is also a bit lower than it would normally be. When I had the cap off of the overflow bottle I noticed a very fine small black specs in the coolant which seemed weird. Now the worst part... I unscrewed the oil cap today just to make sure the oil wasn't milky or anything.... and chunks from the bottom of the black plastic oil cap ARE MISSING. basically half of the screw bit on the cap is gone!

Now my theory is that somehow when the engine got very hot it caused bits of the oil cap to get hot and weak and break off? which has got into the rocker gear and engine and maybe also somehow into the cooling system ??? I'm putting a whole new bottom end and head etc. in soon so its not a major deal but still really weird! The engine is still running fine performance wise.

Has anyone heard of this happening before?? I might have to replace my radiator and thermostat as well now for the new engine!

I havn't had a change to check the actual oil level yet because i didn't have a rag. But i'll check it tonight. And update this thread with a photo of the oil cap when I get home.... bloody cars!

Comment/Suggestions? First thing I'll do when I get home tonight is... check oil level, put in new thermo fans, maybe pull off rocker cover and have a look if i can be bothered. I'll most likely flush the coolant and put a new thermostat in on the weekend, and change the oil and oil filter.

ned · 25-05-2005, 04:07 PM

My oil cap had the same problem. Very weird I thought too, my lifters used to tick as well, however since the cam went in it has stoppped significantly. I'd like to find out some more info about this too.

neb · 25-05-2005, 09:41 PM

well this is what the oil cap looks like (sitting next to an unbroken one) as you can see a large chunk of it somehow went missing in the engine.

anyway tonight i have dropped the oil... took the rocker cover off and had a look under there.. couldn't see any bits at all. put new oil in and new oil filter. put in new twin thermo fans and made sure both are blowing the right way!!! drained old coolant and put in new coolant and started the car with cap off until it got warm. adjusted thermo fans to make sure they were coming on.. (i think they are set to come on a little early at the moment but thats ok). anyway dropped a big standstill on private property and the temp guage didnt move at all so i think thats fixed.. hopefully! i'll see how i go driving it tomorrow.

also there wasn't any black bits in the coolant.. must of been seeing things.. and couldn't see any bits in the old oil either so it seems ok.

ned · 26-05-2005, 12:32 AM

It's probably in the bottom of your sump! Well that's where I reckon mine is. :P

**Polyal** · 26-05-2005, 09:33 AM

jeez ive never heard of that happening!

Ive just got some thermos installed not long ago and my temp varies alot more than it used to (because its not a constant flow I guess).

Ive just recently had a valve stem seal problem, which I dont think is related to the over heating (my thermo relay losens now and then). Its just that time of the year I think.

neb · 26-05-2005, 09:37 AM

Its ticking when I start the car up when cold worse then it used to, the oil pressure is taking longer to build up and seems a bit lower than it used to be. other than that it seems fine now. driving to work today the temperature stayed fairly consistent around the 1/4 mark.

oil pressure and ticking i'm not too worried about.. as long as it holds together for a few more months then i'm happy.

but still i can't believe half the cap broke off??? geez