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141 Posts
Hi everybody
Yesterday my australian V6 alfa 164 1990 (150,000kms) broke down with a terrible oil burning smell coming from oil bleeding onto the back exhaust manifold. Prior to this she had no leaks as I just spent about 1200AUD getting the cam seals done. I reckon its the head gasket, as there seems to be oil leaking out of it. However the cause I think is low oil level, which I foolishly did not keep topped up, and therefore caused the head to warp due to excessive heat. Is this plausible, that due to foolishness I destroyed a perfectly good engine?
The lead up was that I was distracted by the observation that at low fuel levels the vehicle would run a little rough, which was consistent with other accounts on this forum, so that when she refused to start I filled up the tank with a jerry-can and after spluttering for about a minute she started up and limped home. The low oil light underneath the gauge (gauge wasn't working) was on intermittently, but not the "dipstick" light on the warning panel. Temperature was low as it was just a short trip. I ignored the oil light as I didn't think the gauge was connected, as it always shows zero. Finally she stopped completely.
What was the oil level? I don't know as I hadn't checked for about 500 km's and that time she was half full. But she hardly used any oil since I had the seals replaced about 2000 km's back. In hindsight the faltering and stumbling could have been due to the oil collector at the sump sucking in air, which feeds back into the ECU as low oil pressure, causing some sort of system cut-out.
And maybe the extra fuel changes the ride attitude of the car ever so slightly, enough to stop the oil collector from sucking in air.
This is not the first time, randomly a couple of months ago she also refused to start, just once, but I waited a few minutes and then she started and ran normally.
Now my question is: Should I just take off the head in situ, and hope to replace the head gasket? Or should I immediately pull the whole engine out and expect a total overhaul with machining required due to warping? Any support appreciated as I'm feeling pretty depressed.
-VARIS
Yesterday my australian V6 alfa 164 1990 (150,000kms) broke down with a terrible oil burning smell coming from oil bleeding onto the back exhaust manifold. Prior to this she had no leaks as I just spent about 1200AUD getting the cam seals done. I reckon its the head gasket, as there seems to be oil leaking out of it. However the cause I think is low oil level, which I foolishly did not keep topped up, and therefore caused the head to warp due to excessive heat. Is this plausible, that due to foolishness I destroyed a perfectly good engine?
The lead up was that I was distracted by the observation that at low fuel levels the vehicle would run a little rough, which was consistent with other accounts on this forum, so that when she refused to start I filled up the tank with a jerry-can and after spluttering for about a minute she started up and limped home. The low oil light underneath the gauge (gauge wasn't working) was on intermittently, but not the "dipstick" light on the warning panel. Temperature was low as it was just a short trip. I ignored the oil light as I didn't think the gauge was connected, as it always shows zero. Finally she stopped completely.
What was the oil level? I don't know as I hadn't checked for about 500 km's and that time she was half full. But she hardly used any oil since I had the seals replaced about 2000 km's back. In hindsight the faltering and stumbling could have been due to the oil collector at the sump sucking in air, which feeds back into the ECU as low oil pressure, causing some sort of system cut-out.
And maybe the extra fuel changes the ride attitude of the car ever so slightly, enough to stop the oil collector from sucking in air.
This is not the first time, randomly a couple of months ago she also refused to start, just once, but I waited a few minutes and then she started and ran normally.
Now my question is: Should I just take off the head in situ, and hope to replace the head gasket? Or should I immediately pull the whole engine out and expect a total overhaul with machining required due to warping? Any support appreciated as I'm feeling pretty depressed.
-VARIS