Unlucky Jon... maybe it was something to do with those diesel Furbys you were trying to get away from on the national

i think the engine has done really well considering the abuse its had! i remember the days when engines only lasted 70k if they were looked after, and even then they would need new valve seals

Sorry to hear of yor engines untimely demise , hope your S3 engine can put a smile back on your face!!

Now' date=' the weird thing is, the conrod has snapped from top to bottom along the oil channel. The mechanics said they have never seen one go like that before, they usually either buckle or split width ways. I have spoken to 2 motor engineers who said that the probable cause of this is either metal fatigue or a manufacturing fault.[/quote']

Sorry to hear the sad tale!

My money's on a manufacturing fault. Metal fatigue would start from a manufacturing fault - a crack propagating from a sharp corner or inclusion. I've had no experience of con rod failures, but I can't imagine a rod splitting lengthwise under any running conditions unless it was faulty.

I'd be interested to see a photo of the rod. What material is the rod? I take it it split down the middle of the 'I' section, from the big to the little end. Try and get hold of the rod - it's vital evidence. The more I think about it, the more I get the gut feeling that the rod was faulty - it would deform horribly before it split from end to end! With fatigue failure as a result of a fault, you'd see at the start of the failure surface a sharp notch (maybe very small), possibly from poor machining or a dirty crease or bubble from an inclusion or similar. The crack would propagate from this fault progressively in a number of cycles, with the developing crack opening up and closing. In doing so, the surfaces would show evidence of rubbing against each other by being shiny, possibly with a series of ridges at right angles to the crack - each ridge corresponding to a cycle. The crack would continue to develop in this way until the rod failed catastophically, this last part of the failure would show a smooth, matt, granular surface with no evidence of rubbing.

Like I said earlier - try to get hold of the rod and put some photos on this forum.

Regards: Jim Ford

Taking the engine down to Bristol today ready for the transplant. I'll be getting the old engine, and will take some pictures, which I'll post next week as I'm off to watch the Rally of A Teensy Weensy Bit of South Wales for the next 3 days.

Jon

Taking the engine down to Bristol today ready for the transplant. I'll be getting the old engine' date=' and will take some pictures, which I'll post next week as I'm off to watch the Rally of A Teensy Weensy Bit of South Wales for the next 3 days.

Jon[/quote']

Watch out for the "safety" cameras - they're out in force again this year

http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/1300icmotors/0100news/content_objectid=13574751_method=full_siteid=50082_headline=-Speed-camera-blitz-for-duration-of-rally--name_page.html

the Rally of A Teensy Weensy Bit of South Wales

Well, the conrod has gone off to be looked at. Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to photograph it or examine it in great detail. Rather enlightening that everyone who has seen it or heard about it has had the same reaction, namely "What the **** happenned to that? I have never ever seen one do that before! Bent yes, snapped widthways but never a longditudinal break". It was noticed that the cylinder had been running hot, took one of the others out and it was fine. Spoke to a motor engineer who said that this pointed to the conrod splitting down the oil channel which meant that oil wasn't reaching the top which would cause overheating of the cylinder which in turn would lead to an increase in the split and so on until it just fractured and exploded. Interestingly, they showed me one of the shells from the crank. Didn't look odd to me, just a bit of metal less than 1mm thick. It was then pointed out that it should be about 5mm thick :shocked:

Should find out more today, although someone from Skoda is going to look at the firetrucked conrod on Wednesday, here's hoping that he agrees with the guy on Friday that it was just a catastrophic failure, that in all probability wasn't caused by the CAI, exhaust and remap.

[fingers crossed smiley]

I had a little chat with my mechanic mate (the one who did my springs, helped with the sub etc etc) and he was equally surprised at the failure (after laughing when I told him a skoda had thrown a rod) - He's seen a lot of blown engines in his time and he has said any damage to rods was always of the bending/snapping width ways, but never "longitudinal" (that's a big word for 9.15 on a monday...) He agrees it sounds like a dodgy metal failure type thing and is not normal. (how un-techie does that sound!!!?)

Here's hoping Skoda UK realise the problem with that cylinder and at least try and help toward the replacement. The ins & outs of that is beyond me, so I'll keep out of those dealings.

:cheers:

sounds like a fault with the engine to me rather than a result of your 'ahem' improvements take it all the way and good luck to you

that in all probability wasn't caused by the CAI, exhaust and remap.

I think it was the 1.4 16v badge myself

Any more news, Jon?

Yes, but I can't say. Will post later today or maybe tomorrow.