Eventful drive home from Santa Pod

[fallingoffalot]

Set off about 1pm as I had to be back by about 4ish. No stress 2 hour drive, but there could be holdups, maybe, or at least I've got time to break down.....lol

Well about 45 mins into the journey it started raining, put wipers on, a few minutes later the driver's blade fell off, luckily jams against the glass, this is on busy mway junctions round Coventry, so couldn't really stop, so drove on and stopped in a lay by and reattached it, no idea what happened.

Then about 40 miles before home near the hopwood services on M42, the van dies, I coast to hard shoulder phone breakdown man, I said there is a possibility I've run out of fuel, 240 miles already on the tank, but in theory I can get 300+. Anyway he puts 14 litres in, still doesn't start, he checks fuel pump, works ok, he then starts checking electrical connections and finds the condenser lead has come away, pushes it back on and all is well, off I go. Phew, nothing major.

Then as I'm nearing home I thought I caught a glimpse of white smoke coming from the back of my van, mmm, getting paranoid now.

Get home at about 4, go round back and there's a puff of white smoke coming from underneath. My van is pissing oil all over the place, everything s covered, inside the engine all over the tin, fan shroud, under the engine including the red hot J tube, causing the smoke.

Holy smoke, not sure how long it's been doing this or has something just jet go?, I just haven't done a long drive for a while, I reckon I lost a liter of oil it was only just covering the bottom of the dipstick!!! Yikes

Here's a picture of Rob the recovery man fixing things

Will book it in with Miri in Glos next week.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[Matt84]

Do you have much crankshaft endfloat? Main bearing seal could have gone, happened to me not too long ago

 

[ozziedog]

Wow, all I can say is wow. :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:

Ozziedog,,,,,you don’t do things by half bud, do you ? :mrgreen:

 

[thejinx]

:evil: I feel your pain. We have all had those trips where everything goes pear shaped and the stress levels rise. Hope it’s not terminal on the engine. The smoke thing happened to me not long back. I had not long filled up the oil some had stayed in the filler which is a bit loose. It dripped out and created the smoke as it got onto the J tubes.

 

[fallingoffalot]

Do you have much crankshaft endfloat? Main bearing seal could have gone, happened to me not too long ago

I'm not sure, how do I check? The engine has only done about 1500 miles :shock:

 

[sparkywig]

I wouldn’t panic too much.
Could have been overfilled with oil, breather blocked, cooler seals gone, etc.
Just needs dropping out and checking over.

 

[SiDev]

Do you have much crankshaft endfloat? Main bearing seal could have gone, happened to me not too long ago

I'm not sure, how do I check? The engine has only done about 1500 miles :shock:

If the engine has only done 1500 miles you should be good, but as a really rough guide to check end float: open the deck lid, kneel in front of the rear bumper, grab the bottom pulley with both hands, left hand at 9 o’clock and right hand at 3 o’clock, 4 fingers on the back of the pulley and thumbs on the front face, push in and pull out repeatedly, and if you can feel any movement it needs looking at closer. If you can hear anything like a clunk, it’s shagged.
Engines can run for thousands of miles with end float and not let you down, but the longer you run it the less likely you will be able to reuse the block for a rebuild.

 

[fallingoffalot]

Do you have much crankshaft endfloat? Main bearing seal could have gone, happened to me not too long ago

I'm not sure, how do I check? The engine has only done about 1500 miles :shock:

If the engine has only done 1500 miles you should be good, but as a really rough guide to check end float: open the deck lid, kneel in front of the rear bumper, grab the bottom pulley with both hands, left hand at 9 o’clock and right hand at 3 o’clock, 4 fingers on the back of the pulley and thumbs on the front face, push in and pull out repeatedly, and if you can feel any movement it needs looking at closer. If you can hear anything like a clunk, it’s shagged.
Engines can run for thousands of miles with end float and not let you down, but the longer you run it the less likely you will be able to reuse the block for a rebuild.

OK thanks, I recently pulled this off to fit the crank pulley tin, I had to d just as you describe to get the pulley wheel off and don't recall any movement, but I'll double check later.