Chitty Chitty Bang Bang . . .

[tekenaar]

Highly appropriate reference to a 1968 "car" movie as the focal point of this thread, I think, seeing as it's about a '69 Kadett . . .

Knock, Knock! . . . not the start of a joke, I'm afraid, either!

On the way home in my Kadett several weeks ago, about a mile or so from my house actually, I experienced a sudden "Bang" followed closely by a continual "Knock, Knock, Knock" . . . you get the picture. Limped the car home, oil pressure was still good and parked it for further investigation later . . . the next day.

Checked the valve train first, no apparent problem there and didn't really expect to find any, thinking "rod knock", but it's easy to check quickly.

Removed all the plugs and ran a compression test on each cylinder, starting at the back. #4 - 136 and no "knock"! #3 - 132 and no "knock"! #2 -135 and no "knock"! . . . #1 - 140 and an urgent "knock! knock! knock"!, a request not to be denied!

Nothing to do but remove the engine to inspect and repair. Removing a 1.9 from an A/T Kadett is a real PITA, BTW, but that's another tale for another time! Put the engine on a stand and dropped the pan for a quick look-see . . . hmmm, several chunks of arced aluminum right there in the front end of the pan! . . . not a good sign!



Quickly removed the head and pulled the #1 piston for closer inspection . . . Holy Crap, Batman!, the entire skirt on one side below the oil ring is gone!



So much for the bad news! It appears there is at least some silver lining in that cloud.

First, the cylinder wall has ZERO ridge, still measures 93mm exactly at all the appropriate spots and the wall is smooth as a baby's you-know-what, i.e. no scoring whatsoever!

And, finally, the rod bearing and crank journal are equally unscored and journal still measures factory "standard 52mm" spec!

[Gumby]

Yikes!


How fast was the engine turning when this failure happened?!?

[BQS4]

OUCH!! Yet, what you're saying about the cylinder and the rest of the piston assembly is, that basically it's just a new piston needed, not everything else.

[Dennis Texas]

That's an impressive tale of woe, hard to believe that a skirt can blow off and you can still drive it home even though I'm sure you were milking it along and have a engine that still can be repaired with little machine work mostly deglaze wall and change parts. Picture may be deceiving but that break looks like all new fracture see no old breaks in cast wonder what gives, well it's obvious what gave, but why?

[tekenaar]

Yikes!


How fast was the engine turning when this failure happened?!?

. . . ~45MPH in D with a 3.18 rear end . . . maybe 21-2200RPM!

[tekenaar]

OUCH!! Yet, what you're saying about the cylinder and the rest of the piston assembly is, that basically it's just a new piston needed, not everything else.

. . . while basically true, Gene, all four piston/rod assemblies would have to be rebalanced as a set to re-establish rotating balance!

Basically, deglaze/hone cylinder walls, re-ring pistons, new con-rod bearings, replace piston, rebalance piston/rod set, replace necessary gaskets and reassemble.

What I'm actually going to do is this . . .

I have a used, balanced set of low-mileage, flat-top piston/rods (have already miked and fitted them for proper clearances, etc.) which I'll clean up a bit, re-ring and use instead of the current three good ones and a new one and then rebalanced as a set . . . less expensive option, zero-balancing a piston/rod set was about $175 three years ago, if I recall. End result of either is no better than the other, IMO, and I'm "cheap" when I can be!

[Gumby]

Defective product or maybe just age? Either way it is good that nothing else was damaged!

[tomking]

I cleaned up a set of 4 hi comp pistons I was hoping to salvage and found two of them cracked, barely visible just where yours went. Into the scrap aluminum pile they went.

[namba209 (R.I.P.)]

Otto, the Opel Gods were good to you on this one, must be your clean living.

With Murphy living here, I would have trashed my engine Big Time.

[Mike Preble]

Still covered under warranty, maybe? LOL

Wow, were you lucky. Sounds like an easy fix. And how is that screen on the oil pump pickup?

Mike

[tekenaar]

Just thought I'd post a quick update now that my 1.9 is back together and ready to go back in my '69 Kadett.

Deviated from my original plan to re-ring and use a used set of piston/rods, already balanced. It took me the better part of a day just to remove the existing rings from that used set without damaging the grooves and lands. I had to make a tool to break the second rings, the worst, from their grooves . . . breaking them was the only way it could be done!

Based on this experience, let me offer a word of advice to all who want to store used pistons for possible future use . . . remove all rings from the pistons BEFORE you put them "on the shelf." As they "dry out" on the shelf over time, any oil residue, carbon, etc. left in the ring grooves will "cake up" and seize the rings. Trust me on this and make it easy on yourself later!

So I decided finally to use the engine's existing rods with an NOS set of Rekord 1.9 "standard" (92.96mm) pistons purchased on e-Bay from Gene's house around midnight on that "Rainy Night in Georgia" in my just-purchased Bitter on the way back to Texas, remember Gene?

Had those piston mounted and balanced over the weekend and installed them in my freshly honed block with new standard-size bearings, Monday and yesterday. Prepped new headgasket with two extra center cylinders coolant holes and assembled with original head.

Had received GT-style alu pan from Corey at the end of the week, as I wanted dipstick on the driver-side . . . stock Kadett pan has it at the pan rail directly behind and below the exhaust manifold . . . very, VERY hot when trying to check oil level during a trip, especially here in Texas.

Just need to find a dipstick now, 11.75" from top of tube to tip of dipstick where you measure oil level, if you're curious. Minor detail at the moment. Torqued everything necessary and prelubed engine with my home-built Opel oiler . . . as assembled, ITDC #4 - 1 min, 90°CW - 1 min, 90°CW - 1 min, ITDC #1 - 1 min . . . perfect for timing the engine ignition after installation!



. . . now a quick question about the A/T coolant line spring-steel brackets that mount in the middle of the engine at the oil pan rail . . . I can't remember how they went, hanging down, like pic below, or up?!



Too eager to find out what happened to my engine when I dropped the pan . . . didn't pay attention to orientation, I'm afraid! . . . a little help please . . . more over the next few days.

[BQS4]

So I decided finally to use the engine's existing rods with an NOS set of Rekord 1.9 "standard" (92.96mm) pistons purchased on e-Bay from Gene's house on that "Rainy Night in Georgia" around midnight in my just-purchased Bitter on the way back to Texas, remember Gene?

Yep, remember it well, like it happened just yesterday As for your clips, I can't help, but, thinking like Opel would, bringing the line beside the motor, it would have a tendency to want to drop down. I think Opel would have had the clips on, open side up, that way the natural direction of the line wanting to drop down would force them to stay in the clips. But, this is just my thinking.


P.S. I have the offending oil filter sitting on my desk in the garage, where I can see it and remember that night all the time.

[tomking]

Otto what kind of tool did you use to break and remove the stuck rings? I am trying to do the same thing. Thanks.

[tekenaar]

Otto what kind of tool did you use to break and remove the stuck rings? I am trying to do the same thing. Thanks.

I bent a small flat-blade screwdriver tip up about 30° and then ground the round sides of the shaft enough to fit in the grooves.

Then inserted the tip under the stuck ring at the gap and used the tip as a fulcrum to wedge out the ring from the groove.

[tekenaar]

Yep, remember it well, like it happened just yesterday As for your clips, I can't help, but, thinking like Opel would, bringing the line beside the motor, it would have a tendency to want to drop down. I think Opel would have had the clips on, open side up, that way the natural direction of the line wanting to drop down would force them to stay in the clips. But, this is just my thinking.

P.S. I have the offending oil filter sitting on my desk in the garage, where I can see it and remember that night all the time.

. . . turns out that those A/T cooler line clips at the oil pan are mounted open-side down . . . it is a formed steel hard line, so gravity doesn't really come into play here.

Anyway, I had noticed some time ago that the left side cooler line must have had some sort of mishap over time, as a section along the oil pan rail was replaced by a length of hose. I had wanted to replace this "Gerry-rigged" piece for some time and this presented a good time to do it.

Now the story gets a bit more interesting . . . when I removed that section of hose and the hard line on the other side to remove the radiator, I inspected that section of hose a bit more closely and couldn't believe my eyes! Whoever did that patch job in the past used a length of 5/16" "FUEL/VAPOR" hose . . . ordinary, low pressure hose!

Anyway, it's fixed correctly now . . .



. . . and here's a shot of those NOS Rekord pistons I got off e-Bay and used in my rebuild . . .