Week off work

[jimbob_steele]

Hi all

Just had the week off work. Always a bad sign. See how many things I can botch in just 5 days!?

This time, it was the Surf. Got myself some driving lights - not huge. Just big enough to fit under the bull bars. Wiring them up, I thought it might be useful to remove the battery so I'd have more space to work.

And what did I do? Dropped it on the drive way. Now I have an extremely clean driveway. (Sulphuric acid does a good job of removing the oil and diesel I spilt whilst doing the filters.)

And I'm £60 worse off. I actually got the replacement battery from the local Toyota dealer. I thought that was a pretty good price, too! Cheaper than the local motor factors.

Who else is terribly clumsy (or has a high botch factor) ??

[Guest]

How about driving my Surf even though one of the tappet shims had worn away. Thought I could get away with it for a week until I could get it stripped apart. Ended up breaking a valve, trashing the head and one of the pistons. Lots of money later, Surf is apart, just waiting for a piston to be delivered. If I'd not driven the car I could have got away with a new tappet shim for a couple of quid, instead it's hundreds. Even a Hire car for a month wouldn't have cost what the rebuild cost.

Batteries are easy to drop anyway, they are heavy and awkward to carry so don't be too hard on yourself.

Cheers

[InfraRed]

Now That's Lucky

Sorry couldn't resist it!!

[turbotommy]

How about driving my Surf even though one of the tappet shims had worn away. Thought I could get away with it for a week until I could get it stripped apart. Ended up breaking a valve, trashing the head and one of the pistons. Lots of money later, Surf is apart, just waiting for a piston to be delivered. If I'd not driven the car I could have got away with a new tappet shim for a couple of quid, instead it's hundreds. Even a Hire car for a month wouldn't have cost what the rebuild cost.

Batteries are easy to drop anyway, they are heavy and awkward to carry so don't be too hard on yourself.

Cheers

Owwwww. Comiserations, tho i have a question as to why you think it dropped the valve due to lack of shim (for my edification...). The presence of a shim is what controls how far down the valve goes. So if there's nothing there, it goes down less far and would seem less likely to hit the piston head... Or did the lack of shim lead the valve to fall out ?

In return for education, i'll recount the saga of my knackered engine, recent re-build, and current oil leakage/disaster. Though you'll have to wait a while, since the pain is so bad that i can't type, and superstition fobids me from talking about it until it is really fixed. That may be never...

[Guest]

Owwwww. Comiserations, tho i have a question as to why you think it dropped the valve due to lack of shim (for my edification...). The presence of a shim is what controls how far down the valve goes. So if there's nothing there, it goes down less far and would seem less likely to hit the piston head... Or did the lack of shim lead the valve to fall out ?

In return for education, i'll recount the saga of my knackered engine, recent re-build, and current oil leakage/disaster. Though you'll have to wait a while, since the pain is so bad that i can't type, and superstition fobids me from talking about it until it is really fixed. That may be never...

I think that the lack of shim caused the valve increased stress due to the knocking which caused a stress fracture in the valve.

I think the sequence of events was.

Shim wore out (never known this before)
Shim popped out (Heard it go and removed rocker cover and retrieved it).
Valve fractured due to stress
Valve broke due to fracture
Valve banged about in the cylinder causing damage to head and piston.

I know it sounds all a bit far fetched however I am pretty sure that's how it happened.

Up until the valve snapped the engine was running sweet if noisy, afterwards it ran but very lumpy and started to smoke (small hole in piston and oil leaking past valve guide I would think. I'll see anyway when I get it back together.

Cheers

[turbotommy]

Shim wore out (never known this before)
Cheers

????? this is unheard of. In my limited experience with shim adjusted valves (horrible to do, but good that it needs done so rarely) i never thought it possible that they actually wore out (the valves do, but the shims don't...?). Did you get a worn patch in the middle ? And given what a hassle it is to get the buggers in, i'm astonished that it could come out...Maybe the valve stuck down; enough to lose the shim, but not enough to hit the piston (possible?), and the later problem was because it got stuck again, but didn't get unstuck and got hit. As plausible as JFK assasination theories...

Further comiserations...

[Guest]

????? this is unheard of. In my limited experience with shim adjusted valves (horrible to do, but good that it needs done so rarely) i never thought it possible that they actually wore out (the valves do, but the shims don't...?). Did you get a worn patch in the middle ? And given what a hassle it is to get the buggers in, i'm astonished that it could come out...Maybe the valve stuck down; enough to lose the shim, but not enough to hit the piston (possible?), and the later problem was because it got stuck again, but didn't get unstuck and got hit. As plausible as JFK assasination theories...

Further comiserations...

Yep middle wore completely through and then caught the rough bit on a cam, bent it to bu**ery and then threw it out of its bucket. Me too never heard of that one before, would have to be right before I sell it too.

Still, Piston is in now, head's on.

Just got to do the manifolds, sump, timing belt, front end of the engine including bolting the aircon pump back on, then the front diff back in and finally the aircon rad - then I got to get that recharged.

Going to make sure it runs before I put the Diff and the aircon rad back in though.

Cheers

[kitesurf_phil]

This is not very spectacular or expensive, but recently I have been doing a lot of work with my little 18V battery drill. The chuck is one of those hand tightening jobs and of course they come undone when you are drilling, so you grip it lightly as its going round thus tightening it up again. I did it the other day while drilliing a hole in the Zook but it wasn't my battery drill. It was my mains one. I had a huge great big blister in the palm of my left hand and one on my thumb.

I said, "Oh dear, bother, that hurt."

The blister has dried out and gone all scabby, so bits of my hand are falling off!

[da SLUG man]

This is not very spectacular or expensive, but recently I have been doing a lot of work with my little 18V battery drill. The chuck is one of those hand tightening jobs and of course they come undone when you are drilling, so you grip it lightly as its going round thus tightening it up again. I did it the other day while drilliing a hole in the Zook but it wasn't my battery drill. It was my mains one. I had a huge great big blister in the palm of my left hand and one on my thumb.

I said, "Oh dear, bother, that hurt."

The blister has dried out and gone all scabby, so bits of my hand are falling off!

yeah yeah, excuses!... now tell us how you really got a blister there!!

had similar on a mini once... tight tappet, valve burned out leaving a little hole so it miss fired if i didn't keep the revs up!.... still drove to chester and back to see bird went really well if i kept it above 90!... which is a feat for a 998cc mini!

i'm so lazy that things are always going wrong with my cars just cos i couldn't be arsed doing a little job!

[TonyN]

Not dropped a battery, but blew one up once! Quite spectacular, if a little ichy for a few days after.

Don't spray grinder sparks near a battery thats on charge!

[sparkyaj]

My employer (Electrician) managed to jump a car in our local garage with his new jump leads the wrong way around.

Needless to say neither the battery or the leads were any good afterwards.

[Chillitt]

long time ago..

i was in a spitfire one fine day.. (triumph....) when there was a strange tappety noise, it still ran - rough, but whats new?so we carried on. got it home and no3 piston had split just on the bottom ring, rest of the piston just pushed it to the top of the bore and on we went. stuck new piston and rings in reused the old head gasket! and off it went again.. made a lovely ashtray

[kitesurf_phil]

Not dropped a battery, but blew one up once! Quite spectacular, if a little ichy for a few days after.

Don't spray grinder sparks near a battery thats on charge!

My brother Nick dropped an extension bar across the terminals of a 24V lorry battery. It blew to smithereens. He hosed down the workshop and carried on working. My sister in law put his overalls in the washing machine and they came out like lace. Funnily enough he said his legs were itchy and he had arc eye from the flash.