HI folks,

I was driving to work earlier today when all of a sudden great plumes of smoke started coming out from under the bonnet. Lots and lots of smoke. I initially sh*t myself and though my engine was on fire but it wasn't, the smoke was the result of lubricants on hot pipes. I turned off the engine and got the bonnet open. After the smoke had cleared I could see there was lots of green coolant everywhere and my air filter had popped off. Luckily it was just before my Subaru place had closed so I got it onto a truck and taken in. I won't find out till Monday though once they've had a chace to look at it.

Any ideas what might have happened? The engine was running at a nice and normal temperature, I have a high pressure alloy radiator, there was nothing noticable that caused it - smoke just started pouring out.

Could my turbo (IHI RX-6) have been damaged?

Air filter popped off:




Green goo:



Radiator with bubbling goo:



Off on the low loader:




Cheers,

Matt

 

Thats a strange one, can you see where the coolant has come from, ie, radiator, hose.

Also you said lubricant has also come out, come out from where?

My initial thoughts when you mentioned the leaking coolant was a sudden head gasket failure, which can pressurise the coolant system causing it to burst.

I cant see how your air filter would blowoff unless there was a reversal of air through the turbo.

Did the engine start to missfire badly immediatelly after this happened

 

What about crankcase compression, could this be cause of the filter blow off? sudden ring failure and head gasket?

willsy

 

As allready said... can you pin-point where the coolant has come from?

It could be anything really. Where the big ends ok before this happened? They weren't knocking or anything where they?

If the headgasket did go, the oil would have mixed with the antifreeze... and the oil would be thick and gooey. This happened to my car, but mine had a severe big end bearing knock... and exactly the same happened to mine. Plumes of smoke from under the bonnet, where the headgasket had gone, and the pistons whacked the valves, bent them... and sent all the oil and water past the pistons and all the way back through to the inlet manifold... where it ended up with a pool of oil in the airfilter box.

It looks like a different problem on your's though. Due to the induction filter being popped off, I would think this would suggest that one of the pistons was on it's compression stroke when the inlet valve was open causing an influx of air to be sent back through the inlet manifold. It could possibly be bent valves, and pistons... and you may have a cracked block hence the antifreeze loss.

Has the car had a belt/chain replacement recently?

Hope you get it sorted... as I could be completely wrong, but I'm just going by the pictures.

-Elliot

 

Bangkok matt do you live in BKK? I am coming back for my hols in Oct you can pick me up from the airport if you fancy a chang!!

 

something like this happened to me before as well , all it was was i hadnt replaced the radiator cap fully when i topped up the radiator , the radiator fluid heated up and boiled over the top and over hoses and the likes , was nothing major though lets hope thats all it is for you as well

 

[quote=AVI-8]Thats a strange one, can you see where the coolant has come from, ie, radiator, hose.

Also you said lubricant has also come out, come out from where?[quote]

Hi,

Sorry, I meant to say "fluid", not "lubricant". That'll teach me to try and use big words.

No, the engine seemed fine, although I must admit I switched it off in something of a hurry.

 

Hi,

It had seemingly come from the radiator.

No, everything seemed fine.

Yikes. It wasn't so long ago that I spent a tidy sum of a number of modifications, including forged pistons, so I'd be double upset if they'd been damaged.

Nope. I've only done 30,000kms in it from new.

Cheers.

 

Woo Hoo!!

Funnily enough, as I was catching up and replying to this thread just now I got a phone call from them. The car is fine.

Apparently my radiator hoses weren't up to scratch and couldn't take the high pressures, and one of them gave up the ghost. They have now been replaced by Sard jobbies which can handle the pressure in their sleep. As they are imported from Japan they're not cheap but I'm more than happy to pay as I was expecting a lot worse.

Once again, woo hoo!!!!

Cheers for the replies everyone.

 

Hi,

I do live in Bangkok, yes. I'd be up for meeting you at the airport and going for a spin in the Scoob, then dropping it off and going for Changs. Sounds like a plan.

Gizza shout nearer the time.

 

Glad you got it sorted matey.