Today coming back from Knockhill (cracking day as usual by the way) I was following Tut for a while on some backraods.
The trees have started to lose their leaves and Tut’s car was lifting them.
Temperature was around mid 20’s and suddenly the car felt hotter inside, steamy as well.
Looked at the dashboard and saw 123DegC !
Released the throttle immediately and coasted to a safe stop. While coasting I saw the temp starting to decrease. When stopped the temp now at 117. Came out of the car and saw the fan was working and moving hot air out.
Opened the hood and saw the water in the canister boiling, but the temp was still decreasing and so I left the engine on.
Though the worse, a HGF, but the oil was not foamy and neither was the water, they all looked clean.
Went to the front of the car and saw the grille completely plugged/covered with leaves!
They were still being held there by the force of the fan.
It turns out that the Exige’s aerodynamics are well thought, and really forces air through its mouth.
Took all the leaves off and the car cooled faster to and 78degC idle.
Started driving again and the temp stayed ok.
But the strange part happened now: while pulling a slight uphill on torque (3rd gear) at 2500 rpm (just wanted to pull it up on torque, not rev the engine) it started jerking, very much like when it does it on triffic at low speed. But on the last jerk something happened, becuase the car lost all power and suddenly was running on 2 cylinders only!
Managed to get to the top of the hill on a parking place, looked at the engine , confirmed cylinders 2 and 3 were not working (saliva on the exhaust manifold) and tuned off the engine to think how to call the AA.
The other 3 car were now with me and while we discussed 20 min (approx) passed and then I wanted to start it again to show them.
Surprise! the car started well and with no trace of the problem.
Revved it up and although it coughed once, it seemed fine, like a proper race car (so much that it woke up the old man sleeping in a car nearby)
Went home and both the temp and the cough are Ok.
Now, the questions:
-is it possible that the overheating caused any permanent damage? If so, what? (the car runs fine now)
-can the jerking of the engine have been the cause of losing 2 cylinders? Why?
-Why was it ok after resting/cooling off? Should I check something?
You may recall from the early days of 2001, quite a few people had an occassional misfire - my car included. Fitting the Magnecor leads seemed to cure the peoblem for most, however the misfire would sometimes happen again. Usually, this was when the engines got hot (eg happened to me whilst stationary for 5 mins, waiting in the paddock to get on the track at Cadwell). The cure was to switch the engine off, & leave it for 15 to 20 minutes, then all was okay again! The consensus of opinion was that the coil packs were getting too hot & not delivering consistant power to the spark plugs. A couple of people replaced the coil packs, but I’ve not had to change mine.
So, that could explain what happened to you today, or it could of course be absolute bollocks!
It sounds as if you’ve survived a HGF You should keep a check on the water level during the first hour you’re next out driving - perhaps stop & check every 15mins - unless the temp gauge tells you otherwise!!!
The coils… that makes sense.
The air was certainly very cool and windy where I stopped, so yes, it could have been that.
I will run the car tomorrow or the day after for a couple of hours and keep an eye on the temp, but this all happened about 1 hr from here, so I basically have driven it for 1 hr already and it was ok.
Amybody know the temp where things start to go wrong in the VHPD? is 123 DegC within the “safe” range?
Shocked and stunned… hope its all okay and I guess that if you have no other symptoms over the next few days when you drive around then all will be well. I assume that high temps like this are most likely to warp top end bits n bobs but if you don’t get any fluid/gas leaks then you probably escaped any lasting damage. The other thing would be expansion of the pistons/rings? and subsequent damage to the bores? but you know more about this kinda thing than me so you can make your own mind up on that score.
Other than that Pesky’s info sounds like the most likely (and simplest).
Also… why did you just want to pull it up the hill on torque and could this have induced misfires? How long after the overheat was this?
all power and suddenly was running on 2 cylinders only!
Managed to get to the top of the hill on a parking place, looked at the engine , confirmed cylinders 2 and 3 were not working (saliva on the exhaust manifold) and tuned off the engine to think how to call the AA.
Tell me please… what do you mean when you say saliva on exhaust manifold?.. I don’t understand how you confirmed 2&3 not working in this way…
Guessing like everybody else, but since cylinders 2 & 3 are innermost, they would have heated up first and cooled down last. Could have been a fuel vapourlock at the injector. Fuel coming down common rail would have been same temperature for all cylinders, but heat conducting from inlet manifold (hottest for 2 & 3) could have caused vapousisation of fuel ahead of injector. Gas under pressure rather than fuel would have meant a very weak mix getting into cylinder (causing a further localised increase of temperature). Just a thought.
After a good old warm-up, my engine lost a couple of cylinders a few months ago, and ground to a halt. Left it a few minutes and drove the 2 miles back I had got from home VERY slowly. The AA compresion tested it and no probs. Got it to the dealers and (yep you guessed it) no problem. It hasn’t repeated it since.
I would have thought if you were only at 123oC for a few moments you maybe lucky.
2 & 3 not working = no heat to 2 & 3 exhaust manifold = no evaporating of water based fluids placed on them = Uldis spit!
Exactly! simple method.
Ken, regarding the injectors, would you think that could happen even after driving like 20 min at 78 DegC?
I would have supposed it was cool by now.
Other than that, it’s also a valid option, as when I stopped the engine at the top of the mountain the car was rear against the wind, and with the hood open, lots of (very) cold air were being shoven down the engine bay.
That for about 20 min might have cooled everything.
And regarding pulling on torque (I know, what torque?) I just didn’t want to rev the thing up after the heating. It was just one of those things, don’t do it often, but I did it then.
Well, after it all started runing again, drove it fast to Aberdeen (another 40 miles or so and no problem whatsoever.
Didn’t even start it today, as was busy the whole day with the gurls birthday parties.
Will tomorrow.
Thanks for the answers guys, will keep you posted.
Tell me please… what do you mean when you say saliva on exhaust manifold?.. I don’t understand how you confirmed 2&3 not working in this way…
2 & 3 not working = no heat to 2 & 3 exhaust manifold = no evaporating of water based fluids placed on them = Uldis spit! [/quote]
Cheers Pesky, i kinda surmised this but wanted to check 'cause I thought bleedin heck the thing was running 123degrees and must take a long time to cool… so thought maybe the engine decided to spit at Uldis… … must be a mexican thing…