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RIP Black Beast?
Today marks a sad day in our ownership of our LN130. The Black Beast may have roared for the last time.
My mum drove it down to Portsmouth on Saturday to pick up her fiancé, then drove back to Bluewater. On the way back, it began making noises similar to a blowing exhaust, and it was noticed it was running very rough at idle. It made it to Bluewater where I met her. As we left, she asked me to listen to it and tell her what I thought.
It sounded so bad I ended up running across the car park after just three seconds yelling at her to kill it. It literally sounded like the engine was tearing itself apart. I had a look underneath and couldn't spot anything obvious, so I tentatively asked her to crank it. This time, it sounded like the starter gearing was knackered; it cranked way too fast and wouldn't fire. So, she came home on the back of a lorry - a sad place to see a Hilux.
A mechanic friend has looked it over today, and it's pretty bleak. It looks like the camshaft stopped for whatever reason. Valves are all ruined. He's noted possible causes could be sheared crank/cam pulley keys, a sheared camshaft or... uh-oh, slipped or snapped timing belt (tensioner)
He noted there was no compression, meaning the starter was working, but with no resistance in the cylinders. He managed to peek under the timing cover and saw that the belt appeared to be in place, so it hasn't necessarily snapped.
There's no way to tell the extent of the damage until I take the rocker cover off and inspect the valvegear, but all signs are pointing to a ruined head and possibly pistons. Pretty much time for a new engine, but with the cost in the four-digit region, it's not worth it. Sad to say, the Black Beast may be doomed to the scrapyard.
I haven't been able to even tell my mum yet, since she's in Venice until tomorrow and not answering her phone. I'm a little nervous I've had something to do with this - about 3-4 months ago, the water pump failed and I had to remove all the timing gear to clean the old gasket off the engine block. I retimed the engine properly and it's been fine until now, no hint of any loss of anything. However, since then, it's been in a significant frontal collision.
So yeah... RIP Black Beast, you had a good run, but maybe your time has finally arrived.
My mum drove it down to Portsmouth on Saturday to pick up her fiancé, then drove back to Bluewater. On the way back, it began making noises similar to a blowing exhaust, and it was noticed it was running very rough at idle. It made it to Bluewater where I met her. As we left, she asked me to listen to it and tell her what I thought.
It sounded so bad I ended up running across the car park after just three seconds yelling at her to kill it. It literally sounded like the engine was tearing itself apart. I had a look underneath and couldn't spot anything obvious, so I tentatively asked her to crank it. This time, it sounded like the starter gearing was knackered; it cranked way too fast and wouldn't fire. So, she came home on the back of a lorry - a sad place to see a Hilux.
A mechanic friend has looked it over today, and it's pretty bleak. It looks like the camshaft stopped for whatever reason. Valves are all ruined. He's noted possible causes could be sheared crank/cam pulley keys, a sheared camshaft or... uh-oh, slipped or snapped timing belt (tensioner)
He noted there was no compression, meaning the starter was working, but with no resistance in the cylinders. He managed to peek under the timing cover and saw that the belt appeared to be in place, so it hasn't necessarily snapped.There's no way to tell the extent of the damage until I take the rocker cover off and inspect the valvegear, but all signs are pointing to a ruined head and possibly pistons. Pretty much time for a new engine, but with the cost in the four-digit region, it's not worth it. Sad to say, the Black Beast may be doomed to the scrapyard.
I haven't been able to even tell my mum yet, since she's in Venice until tomorrow and not answering her phone. I'm a little nervous I've had something to do with this - about 3-4 months ago, the water pump failed and I had to remove all the timing gear to clean the old gasket off the engine block. I retimed the engine properly and it's been fine until now, no hint of any loss of anything. However, since then, it's been in a significant frontal collision.
So yeah... RIP Black Beast, you had a good run, but maybe your time has finally arrived.
Enjoy....
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