Hey guys,

Well after 100,000km of being boosted I think I've finally gone and done it--I think I blew my engine or turbo.

It happened as I was driving on the highway, I had just sustained boost for about 5 seconds when I heard a pop noise. The engine begin to bog down with complete loss of power. It eventually stalled. It took me a while to restart it and when it would finally turn over I couldn't get it past idle as it wanted to stall. I managed to get off the highway and pulled into a parking lot to try and diagnose the problem. By this time the car had stalled and would not restart. I tried holding the gas pedal and cranking--this time it caught on and I was able to rev to about 4000RPM, however it felt very rough and muffled. I then heard another pop sound and the boost guage dropped to 0psi. I managed to keep the engine going but there was absolutly no change in pressure being read from the boost guage. Then all of a sudden the turbo began smoking heavily and making a screehing high pitched noise between revs--again, no readings on the boost guage. Then the car stalled again. I also noticed that once the engine was revved, I would see blue smoke exit the exhaust a few seconds later and thats when it would stall.

I had my car towed home and got to taking it apart immediately, here's what I noticed:

-Spark plug in cylinder one was pressed in (absolutely no gap) although there was no visual damage to it.
-There was some oil in the intake side of the turbo but not the exhaust side.
-The turbo fins DO spin but there is some shaft play and the fins slightly rub against the walls.
-No vacuum leak detected.
-Oil return line had two holes and was leaking but I don't think was a contributing factor.
-A compression test has not been done yet.

So there you have it--Is there a chance that my engine may be shot as well as the turbo. I just find it strange that a blown turbo can prevent the car from starting.

I will be taking the turbo to get it rebuilt. Anyone have any clues?

sounds like you broke a wrist pin, and then continually trying to start the car (bad idea) may have caused said pieces of piston to make exit through your turbo which would have also ruined your turbo. But I could e wrong, but def. sounds like an issue lol



LE61T PTE6262 Powered

Blue smoke out of the exhaust?
You're gonna need a motor buddy, especially since the one plug was like that.
Possibly will need a turbo rebuild aswell.

not wrist pin I meant ringland lol



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Phil aka QBE wrote:not wrist pin I meant ringland lol

I was really confused when you said wrist pin. I was like.. heh, I guess I know even less about engines than I thought I did (which wasn't much to being with :\ )

if you could try to run the car with a new spark plug in place, that'll let you know if thats what caused the engine to die.

I drove on a cracked ringland for a solid month before i broke something else. had the typical smashed plug. pried it open with a screwdriver to drive home and it was ok for a while.


and for future reference, DON'T keep trying to start a car that makes the noises you describe/ acts the way it does, you're only damaging it further.

Sorry to hear this happened to you. I get so upset when crap brakes on my cav.

Cracked ringland? So this typical attributes to a smashed spark plug? I re-gapped the plug and reinstalled it but it made no difference. Here's a questions though, if the engine passes the compression test, could the ringlands still be the issue?

I know I probably shouldn't have tried starting it but I guess I just got too anxious.

ring land breaks off and bounces around , then smashes the spark plug

motor time , and rebuild turbo time

***UPDATE***

Ok I did the compression test and here's what resulted:

Cylinder #1 ------152
Cylinder #2 ------100
Cylinder #3 ------99
Cylinder #4 ------195

Cylinder #1 supposedly had the smashed spark plug so it surprises me that it's compression level was in the green. As per the documentation included in the compression tester, it states to pour 1 TBSP of oil into the combustion chambers of the lower compression cylinders and retesting the compression. This resulted in substantially higher readings in all cylinders which according to the documentation signifies bad piston rings.

I had the Turbo taken to a rebuild shop and they're telling me it's definitely shot and will require a rebuild.

What do you all think....

new motor/ turbo and you are good to go.

.......
off topic ? /
How is Sam doing with the s/c i sold him?

Hey Jake, the sc is fine. Still burning pig rich as usual but I love it. Really, dont know how anyone could part from these things. Before the turbo went, my brother Mark wanted to get rid of his car, now...he wants to fix it and wants nothing else!

ya i miss the s/c (and the car at times). glad to hear it is still working for you, as i knew it would.


good luck on getting the ecotec/turbo fixed up.


maybe a junkyard motor and a turbo rebuild and you will be back on the road.

Alright well it looks like I will be replacing the engine with a newer one and rebuilding the turbo. I have a question though, when it comes to removing the ecotec motor--does the tranny HAVE to taken off with the engine or can the engine just be unbolted from the tranny and removed from the top?

when i removed/helped on 2.4's this is what we did.

up on jackstands. removed the wheels, 3 strut tower nuts on each side, tied up the rack and pinion and then dropped the whole subframe out ..

then dropped the motor attached to the tranny out from the bottom as a whole. I remember one time we dropped a motor out in 3 hours including cleaning up.


good luck though. aint that hard really.


other people do it different ways, some leave the tranny in there.

Thanks for the reply Jake. I was considering bringing down the subframe too, but I don`t think I have enough clearence from the bottom (using regular jackstands). Do you know if theres enough space in the engine bay to slide the tranny from the engine after they`re unbolted and simply lifting the sucker. I tried searching around in the forums but I`m not getting anything concrete.

You can do it from the top.
Where are you doing this? Your place?
You will need to take off the crank pulley and angle the tranny up, but it will clear through the top.

Hey Darren, if your up for it, why dont we bring the car to your house? PM or call my brother if your interested.

when we did my car, we dropped it out from the bottom onto a jack i think and then lifted the car up with the cherry picker and slid the engine out. got to make due with what you got.

I did it from the top very easy, only problem you will run into will be lining up the motor and trans again with such tight spacing. It can be done. Like gtpsunfire said, you will need to remove the crank pulley and to make it even easier remove all detachable pieces from the left side of the motor such as ( crank pulley, Motor Mount Bracket, Idler Pulley.)

wow that sux. i know lakeside junkyard in omaha NE has 2 ecos with under 50,000 and they want 200 a motor

sunfiresam wrote:Hey Darren, if your up for it, why dont we bring the car to your house? PM or call my brother if your interested.

I would love to, but unfortunately, I dont have time or room for it now.

Thanks for the input guys. Im picking up an engine this weekend from Michigan.

What do you guys think of an engine that has 20,000 miles on it but hasnt been turned over in 4 years. Do you guys think I would have an issue. According to the owner, its been wrapped up since the extraction.

dump a little bit of oil down the cyclenders and turn it over by hand( wrench on crank pulley bolt).

it should be ok.

Jake wrote:dump a little bit of oil down the cyclenders and turn it over by hand( wrench on crank pulley bolt).

it should be ok.

Yep... worked well on your 96 2.4