Morning all,

So last night my engine decided it wanted an extra hole in the top of the block...just what I needed!!

Thought it was worth a post in here incase anyone has had a similar issue.

Basically the back story is, the cambelt service was due, so I got the cambelt done last week, the next day the car was smoking quite alot (which the garage said it might smoke a bit, so thought nothing of it), checked the coolant the next morning etc. as they had requested, but the car seemed to be getting hotter than it use to, so I booked it into the local garage I normally use for car reapirs (as the Subaru guys I used for the cambelt are a 2 hour trek for me), whilst taking it to the garage to look at the heating issue, the car explodes on me!!

I literally have a 2inch hole in the top of the block as you look at it...I am absolutely gutted and just wanted to see if anyone could offer any advise as to why this has happened or has had a similar issue before??

Many thanks for reading my blurb!

Carl

 

id be getting in touch with the "subaru guys" at 9am sharp!

 

why the f'''' would an engine smoke after a belt change, sounds like its been timed up wrong then running lean, id be kicking up a total stink with them.

 

Shouldnt smoke after cambelt, had a clio do the same after change guys didnt know what they were doing take it back complain and get it new engine fitted elsewhere at their expense, btw what exactly did they change?

 

Yep sounds like "subaru guys" "fcuked up" get on the blower sharpish.

 

whip the cambelt covers off and see if you can see the timing marks and if they line up.

 

To be fair I think the excess smoke out the exhaust was just steam as there was too much coolant in the tank, as once I had syphoned some out it stopped smoking.

I have spoken to them this morning, and they have said they are happy to have it back to investigate, but suspect it may be just pure coincidence....but I know very little about engines to be able to know what the score is really..

Carl

 

Thanks JDM_Stig, have asked my local garage to do exactly this to see if anything looks wrong.

Carl

 

Have the timing checked at another garage but dont jump to conclusions of it was done wrong.

It may have been but you'll have egg on your face if you go in all guns blazing and they did nothing wrong.

Once timing is confirmed right or wrong then take it from there

 

Completely agree Darrell, I have been very polite with the previous garage who did the work and equally them with me, they are keen to help and have said they will happily hold their hands up if they are at fault, but to be honest I would be surprised if they are as they are a very renowned garage in the Subaru world who would of done thousands of these cambelt changes.

Shall keep you all updated as best I can.

Carl

 

Good advice

 

Where to start?

First off, if there is "too much coolant in the tank", how do you think it gets into the cylinders and thus, into the exhaust? It can't, unless the headgaskets have gone, or there is another more major problem. What you see coming out of the exhaust is water vapour from the chemical reaction between petrol and air.

Second, what did you base the idea of too much coolant in the tank, on? And where did you take the reading?

Thirdly, how much did you take out?

I can't see how any of the above could cause your problem, but it worries me that you don't appear to know what you are doing, sorry.

IF the coolant had got into the upper cylinder somehow, it would be more likely to blow the headgasket properly, or even take one of the heads off, as water cannot be compressed, and the hydrostatic shock has to go somewhere.

 

I had already confessed that I don't really know what i'm doing, but thanks for the reiteration, much appreciated!

I checked the coolant level the morning after the cambelt service as requested by the garage, and all looked fine except there was extra coolant in the overflow tank, so I simply took coolant out of there until it was at the max level again.

I hope that answers your questions.

Carl

 

If it has too much coolant it has its own way of getting rid of it ie overflow pipe you should never need to drain it and really you should never need to top it up if everything is working as should be.
If you've taken coolant out then chances are you've taken too much out which will cause your engine to run hot and more than likely overheat.
Your coolant header tank should be full to the top then the expansion tank should also be to the fill level.
I think if you've removed coolant then you're to blame for the engine over heating and more than likely you've caused head gasket to fail.

 

Also your avatar shows a bugeye so your expansion tank is behind the passenger headlight. The one on the inlet manifold is the header tank and should always be full (never open this one when the engine is hot)
Hope this helps

 

Thanks for your response Dexstar.

Yeah the expansion tank behind the passenger headlight is the one I took some out of, as it was above the max fill level.

So am guessing that reducing the expansion tank to the max level can't of caused my head to blow surely?

Thanks,

Carl

 

No. As long as the header tank is at the right level then the expansion tank pretty does nothing. A possible cause for overheating after having a timing belt done is if the water pump bearings fail. This usually isn't a problem with Subaru. It's a common fault with land rovers. A lot of other makes change the water pump as a precaution when doing timing belts ie audi.

 

When the car is hot the water level can go slighly over the expansion tank full level so all you have done is remove some to get it back to the max. Thats not going to cause any probs.

Sounds very suspicious regarding the fiment of the timing belt. Sounds very like something has not been tightened correctly but as others have said remove timing belt cover and see if the belt is intact and lines up with the marks

 

was it a back street garage or a specialist who did the cambelt?

 

The timing marks won't line up on the belt for something like 120 turns of the crank so that's not really going to tell you much by just looking at it.

 

Just to clarify, did they replace the water pump at the same time? Hence the request to check the coolant level?

 

It was a specialist garage as recommended by people on here.

They did not replace the water pump, but I believe they had to remove the radiator to get to the cambelt or something, hence the request for me to check coolant the morning after.

Many thanks for all the responses, always helpful to get people's opinions who know what they are talking about.

Carl

 

Sounds more like a bearing picked up causing the rod to exit stage left (Not exactly uncommon on a Subaru) and nothing to do with the cambelt job at all.

 

My thoughts exactly, just out of interest when it went bang, were you driving it hard, high revs? Whats the mileage?

 

Not driving hard really, normal driving I would say.

The car has done 101k, only had her a few months, but she has a full Subaru service history.

I think I am just going to have to accept that it is just a bit of bad luck and these things happen unfortunately.

Carl

 

I'm sorry you thought I was just being clever...I wasn't trying to be, but your post was not only giving us odd info, but showed a distinct lack of knowledge of how an engine works.

For that reason I questioned you closely about it.

I now need to ask another question: this hole...IS it in the block, or is it, as you said later "my heads have blown"?

if it's he former, It would be my opinion that the car has "put a leg out of bed" or put a conrod through the block.

If it's the latter, we may still be talking hydrostatic shock.

Either way, sadly, you are looking at a very expensive rebuild, with the former needing a new half engine.

 

Many thanks for your response and help alcazar, much appreciated.

My local garage has said it is in the side of the block (top as you look down on the engine), so I reckon the conrod popping out you and a couple of others have mentioned sounds like the culprit.

I guess my only decision now is to either hunt down a lower mileage engine and get somebody to rebuild it or break her for spares

Carl

 

What year is it bug arnt worth a great deal these days and to have a second hand engine fitted it wont be cheap

 

Just thought i'd quote you to remind you of the story, because it does sound fishy to me and i'd be looking in the direction of the specialist right now, regardless of what's been said.

 

The bit that gets me is why they said it might smoke a bit?

After a cambelt change?

That aint right