do these look right? i pulled the valve cover off to see if the valves were sticking. i tried to drain the gas yesterday and the engine was grinding like crazy. i am getting oil pressure. my buddy came over to listen to it, listened for a split second and said turn it off quick. looking at the head, it looks like there are some holes. he said they were probably drain holes for oil but the edges of the holes are rubbing off. stuck my finger in there and small metal pieces were coming off in my hand. thinking maybe it rusted its way out but it is an aluminum head right? anyway, here are the pics, let me know what you think. i will be relieved if the engine is blown becuase this car has been down so long that i will be glad to know what the problem is to fix it. havent done a compression test yet because i dont have a tester, working on it though. also havent pulled the oil pan to look for shards yet. i havent driven this car in almost 9 months. the car started idling funny, wouldnt build boost. alright, had some buddies over about 25 days ago to look at it and they determined that it wasnt spark issues, no boost leaks, no ignition issues, etc. it wasnt making all the grinding noise then. havent touched it since that day, turned it on last night to drain the gas, all of the sudden it is grinding like two horny love birds on a saturday night.



about the center of the head, exhaust side of head




same hole but a different angle




this hole is hard to see but it is on the passenger side of the head on the intake side

Those holes are how the oil gets from the top of the engine down to the oil pan. If you didn't have those, you would put oil in the valve cover and it would just sit in the head :)

However, there should not be any metal shavings there. What kind of shavings are they? How big? etc.

id get one of those magnet oil plugs. i think im going to also, just to see whats in there

Originally posted by Jeff_99gs
Those holes are how the oil gets from the top of the engine down to the oil pan. If you didn't have those, you would put oil in the valve cover and it would just sit in the head :) However, there should not be any metal shavings there. What kind of shavings are they? How big? etc.

i dont know if i would call them shavings, it was more like i rubbed the side of the hole, and small pieces of metal was coming off on my finger. it is like the hole is wearing away if i rub it. if you have a car with a rusted body, go hit the middle of the rust and watch it break apart, all the real small pieces is roughly generically what i had on my finger when i pulled it out of the hole.

When you drained the oil, did it have a metallic color in it? When you swirled the oil does it have a very metallic element that is easy to see?

The shavings (if present) would be plainly obvious in that scenario. Do you have a compressed air gun that you might be able to use to blow the head a little cleaner so we could get a better look at it?

It also just may be build up of old stuff since the car hasn't been running altogether that often.

havent drained it yet because i have been working the last three days. i am gonna get into it here in a few days once i am off again.

its probably just metal from the castings. I pulled my head off of my 1g and had the same thing. I went thru and cleaned up all the areas like that.

Originally posted by Pitchblack98
its probably just metal from the castings. I pulled my head off of my 1g and had the same thing. I went thru and cleaned up all the areas like that.

lets all hope so. i am hoping to get a compression tester here in day or two and that will tell me the news, good or bad. if i do have to rebuild, i am building it right, i am gonna do everything i can to it including getting a shep tranny with all the fixins, cams, remove all the crap i dont want, battery to the back, forged internals, IC, IC piping, etc etc etc. it will be a completely different car if i have to rebuild it, if not, one step at a time. ;-)

^^^^^ You are saying exaclty what I said when I blew my engine. If it's broken, fix it once and fix it right. I love hearing that.

Just sell it to me.
I :love blue 1G's.

well everyone, good news, bad news, and more good news in relation to the bad news.
:-)


compression.......*drumroll*......
from the passenger side to driver side
180 185 180 190

that is a completely cold engine. seems kinda high to me for being cold but i wont argue with what the good book says.(chiltons. LOL)

bad news, my TT wasnt turning off with the handbrake. :-(

good news in relation to the bad news, i think it is because the ecu wasnt in the car. *shrug*


so now, i think maybe bad ecu or some type of timing issue, i am leaning towards ecu because the idle sounds more like an ignition issue, but ignition working fine. i am thinking timing belt because of late, the grindage and such that i heard. i dont know. more troubleshooting on saturday hopefully. ideas?

bump.......freakin replies please.
read above post for new info.

You're going to have to swap ECU's with a known good one to find out if thats the culprit and go from there...
Did you ever drian the oil to see what it looked like?

Originally posted by eclipzGST
You're going to have to swap ECU's with a known good one to find out if thats the culprit and go from there... Did you ever drian the oil to see what it looked like?

nopers. ;-) i am on the look out for an ECU right now. my buddy has a 90 ecu with the same MD number, but it has a little bit of a burnt board. if it is fixable by our local "electrician", he said he is willing to trade me straight up if mine aint messed up. his is eprom BTW. ;-) still looking though. MD145903 if anyone wants to go out on a limb and ship me one they have. :D