At the end of part 6 I dealt with the question of whether I would do this again and said that at the time I would. Well since then things have changed somewhat dramatically. Things were working rather well apart from the intermittent reset on the infotainment system coming back, the new cam belt seemed to have made the engine even smoother, it was happy days. Mrs decided that the freezer needed restocking so we set off to go to our usual stockist but sadly didn't make it. About 10 miles in to our journey we both heard a funny noise - not a loud one but loud enough to suggest something was not right.
I pulled in to a very conveniently located lay by and turned the car off double quick. I got the bonnet open, had a quick look in the oil filler and did a quick scout around, couldn't see anything obvious or worrying. So I restarted the car, it was slow to turn over and the noise was now much louder - shit - something really bad has happened.
I gave Malc a ring and he said it was ok to ask Russ to come out with the transporter, he was there half an hour later and another hour later the car was on the lift with the bottom cover removed. First job was too drain the oil and have a look for any metallic particles, these engines are known to suffer from spun bearings and they always leave the oil looking like it's full of glitter - there was no such thing in my case, the oil I had taken out last week had looked good too so that's that one ruled out. I refilled the oil and gave it another try, this time the engine was solid, very strange indeed, it had been running until I turned the ignition off, I really don't think it's a cam belt slip or failure, it sounded like just one cylinder when it was running.
After much research I have concluded the most likely thing is a stuck open injector that is pouring diesel in to one cylinder causing a hydrostatic lock. It got worse each time I tried to start it which would be the case as more and more fuel got added - with a 500cc cylinder and 16 to 1 compression 31.5cc of diesel would cause a complete lock up, which is what I have now. This is only a theory at this point, I am pretty sure that as it happened when the car was driven and doing 1500 revs if it had been the newly fitted cam belt the sound would have been much more frequent as it would have destroyed cylinder after cylinder.
it's on the transporter again now ready to go back to the garage for investigation, the plan is to get them to take out the injectors and see if the engine then turns and if one of the cylinders spits diesel all over the place. If it does the theory is confirmed. That isn't the end of the story though as serious damage may have been caused, so it needs a really good check out with a DTI to make sure the con rod isn't bent. At absolute best I need a new injector, at worst a new engine. I will hopefully know more tomorrow. If it does need a new engine there is no point going any further, I haven't sold the mini yet, I will have to go back to that and break the Jag, which will be a real shame but spare engines are being sold for more than the price of a complete running car. It's ridiculous but true.
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