And there she blows!
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I was on the side of the road and I'm pretty sure the engine was off by that time but at this point nothing would surprise me. However, I was too distracted by the rising temp and pulling over safely (and probably my rage) to notice that side of the dash.
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No there not. There is a brass bleed screw on top or the intake.
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The tach is reading 1000+ rpm so I assume the engine was idling when the photo was taken. An s4 can heat up that hot quickly at idle on a hot day if the engine fans aren't working. At that point oil pressure at idle might register near zero since the oil is hot too. Alfa oil pressure gauges aren't all that accurate anyway.
It's possible the 30 amp engine fan fuse is blown, wiring to the fans is not connected or the radiator was not filled properly. None of these issues would be too serious but would tell me that the shop you had it in was negligent in letting the car go out that way.
It's possible the 30 amp engine fan fuse is blown, wiring to the fans is not connected or the radiator was not filled properly. None of these issues would be too serious but would tell me that the shop you had it in was negligent in letting the car go out that way.
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Sounds right. About 190 degrees.
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I'm pretty sure the OP is right. The S4 is self bleeding, whereas the S3 has the brass bleed screw by the throttle body.
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About the only other thing I can think of is that the thermostat is stuck closed or there is some kind of obstruction in the radiator hoses or water pump. What kind of engine rebuild did you have done?
I know things are different on planet California but in the wilds of the northeast, after any rebuild the car is allowed to idle with the rad cap off while the system is manually bled ( no matter WHAT kind of bleeder it has,) and it sits there until the t stat opens and all the heater hoses get warm with the heater valve open and visable flow is seen in the rad ... then the rad is topped up ( not the overflow tank the actual rad... ) and then and ONLY then is the cap put on and a short test drive done and the installation rechecked for leaks and std temps and pressures and then a longer and slightly more demanding test drive... and if its perfect then its delivered. if you had a rebuild done and that procedure was followed and then you were then stuck by the side of the road , then you got screwed. nothing happens for no reason and a rebuild on one of these motors is not exactly rocket science. its simple VERY basic mechanics and problems like this will always turn out to be someones complete lack of knowledge or negligence. as the paying customer its your job to find out which it is.
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Richard,
It's a little more complicated than that. There was a full rebuild abt 10K miles ago. The works, new pistons included. ( I bought the motronic piston set from IAP, rings included) However the car cont. to burn oil so it went back in last week to deal with the oil consumption and gradual loss of power I'd been noticing. Shop installed new hastings rings, and while it was at machine shop I was told they discovered a small crack in the head by a valve guide. At this point I was told to buy oversize guides which I did and those were installed, allegedly the crack issue was addressed. This whole scenario made me very uneasy - I wanted to buy a new IAP(refurb) head but was assured that wasn't necessary. Picked up car yesterday, drove it home, all was well for the 1st 15 minutes or so and then I watched the temp slowly rise.
Currently waiting on flatbed tow truck to come get the car ;( I sure hope its the thermostat but that part too was replaced during initial rebuild.
It's a little more complicated than that. There was a full rebuild abt 10K miles ago. The works, new pistons included. ( I bought the motronic piston set from IAP, rings included) However the car cont. to burn oil so it went back in last week to deal with the oil consumption and gradual loss of power I'd been noticing. Shop installed new hastings rings, and while it was at machine shop I was told they discovered a small crack in the head by a valve guide. At this point I was told to buy oversize guides which I did and those were installed, allegedly the crack issue was addressed. This whole scenario made me very uneasy - I wanted to buy a new IAP(refurb) head but was assured that wasn't necessary. Picked up car yesterday, drove it home, all was well for the 1st 15 minutes or so and then I watched the temp slowly rise.
Currently waiting on flatbed tow truck to come get the car ;( I sure hope its the thermostat but that part too was replaced during initial rebuild.
well... I would suggest that your " unease" was well founded ... and should probably still be. I can appreciate you giving these guys another whack at it but I have to say that , reading your narrative, I don't think these guys are very good at what they do.
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Great memory!
It wasnt as bad as yours though.
Mine was bad ratio of water to coolant.
Really sorry to see this for you. I know how excited you get to have the rebuilt engine and you just want to drive!
Good luck,
Vin
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158 Posts
This does not sound right. A crack in any alloy casting is a huge red flag to me and makes the part highly suspect.
I hesitate to cast aspersions about any shop I do not know but all shops are certainly not equal in either skill or honesty. I'm not saying your shop is a bad one, not at all, but when I hear something that doesn't sound right I remember my short life as a mechanic many years ago.
I was a VW/Porsche line mechanic at a dealership back in the 1980s and saw a lot bad examples of both bad work and unethical practices. It was not unheard of for a service manager on commission to build up the work load by taking a defective but easily swappable part off of one customer's car and putting it on another, then calling the 2nd customer and telling him: "Oh, we found that your generator (or oil cap, or whatever) is going bad and needs to be replaced." That way they got two jobs out of one bad part. If the 2nd customer questioned it and said it was working fine when he brought it in, the shop could show him the part. Often he was so thankful that a problem had been caught early that he might even tell his friends: "Yeah, so-an-so is a really great shop. They even found that my generator was going out before I even noticed a problem".
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