Thread: pretty sure i need a new engine-now with pics

So tonight I was heading down to ft lauderdale on I95 from my house in west palm beach, fl in my 1996 200sx se-r and I was going about 80mph and started hearing a noise somewhat like an exhaust leak but different and a few seconds later I lost all power from the engine and white smoke started pouring out from under the hood and up through the dash I quick pulled over (5 lanes of rush hour traffic coasting) not fun by the way, but I grabbed my fire extinguisher thinking it was a fire, jumped out opened the hood and let the smoke clear some and find the top radiator hose blew off and nothing was left in the radiator just steam (gauge in dash stayed normal temp the whole time).

so I let it cool a little and then I checked the engine over to see if I could figure out what happened, it kinda melted the rad outlet(now on an angle instead of straight),checked the oil same level as when I checked it last, I then took off the oil cap and it smelled just like what was coming out of the radiator but the oil felt different (use synthetic oil with synthetic lucas usually change every 4000 miles, there is 2000 on it now).

I tried to crank it over and it turns over like the spark plugs are out and doesent catch or run, fuel pump runs and you can hear it poping sorta like a 2step but without the backfires, a road ranger pulled up and tried to help (this was like 20 mins after I've been sitting there) he put some water in (about a gallon) and about 30 seconds later it started boiling out almost all of it, let it sit for 10 mins and then topped it off again and then a minute later it boiled out again, it was really wiered the lag time on that.

so I ended up getting it towed to my house, when it was home, almost an hour later I put another gallon of water in and it was still hot enough to boil, I got my other car sorta working 1995 200sx se(been parked in the garage since november)(its a ga16, needs timing chain adjuster still, and rear brake swap, rear drums leak really bad and the whole beam is rusted, but got the brakes to stop leaking for now but pedal goes to floor, even after bleeding 2 times).

after I got the 1.6 fixed I pushed the se-r into the garage and took off the thermostat housing to see if thermostat got stuck (tested and works fine), tried to take the spark plugs out but the boots are melted into the head, ripped the wires out of the boots and took the valve cover off, everything under the valve cover is dark and smells bad, there is a black stain on the bottom underneath the valve cover, tried to pull the spark plug boots out with pliers but they just crumbled and broke (bought new last april), I'm going to drain the oil out in the morning and drop the oil pan, and then ill go from there, right now there is a white film all over the front of the engine & headers and drops of melted plastic on the valve cover and underneath the hood from whatever came out of the radiator, weirdest part of all since I reconnected the hose on the radiator nothing has leaked out of the engine onto the ground.

I installed new water pump in November because the old one was leaking (weep hole), I bought the car last april from a forum member in tampa and now has 197,000 (was 180,000ish when I bought it), I think its the original engine, it has gspec crank pulley, increased timing, wai, maf reground, 93 octane gas, 2.5 vrs exhaust. I've only been getting 21-24mpg all highway since I got the car (I drive 600-1200 miles a week for work.

I really have no idea what happened to cause all of that so fast. Would a head gasket do that? But I'm pretty sure I need a new engine either way. My dslr broke so all I have is blackberry pics (sorry)


rad hose outlet melted


underneath of valve cover- was a nice golden color when i replaced the valve cover gasket 3 months ago


valves & cams


closeup


black burnt oil thats stained on there


cylinder #4 through spark plug hole

Hit enter a few times.

Sounds like your engine, for whatever reason, overheated and blew the head gasket, possibly warped the head as well. If the oil seems thin, it's likely got coolant in it from the blown head gasket.

Check what the oil looks like, this will give you a big indicator.

Also, formatting helps a lot when typing your issues. As B14 said, please use 'enter' and separate your thoughts into paragraphs. You know, one for what happened, one for what you did, one for symptoms, and one for what you will do, etc.

Unfortunately I did hit enter more than a few times but I'm typing this on a blackberry and none of the formatting ever carries over even like between this line and the next I hit enter and tried pushing space a few times to "hold the line empty", it probably didn't work, ill have to turn my computer on in the morning and try to edit it (my computer it 10 years old, my blackberry is faster), from just pulling out the dipstick and feeling the oil it didn't feel very slick or viscous, like you said probably full of coolant

Gotcha, makes sense.

BTW, you never got back to me on that spec-v cluster

Sorry, yeah I still have the cluster

check to see if your oil looks like Yoohoo, if it does then your HG is fubared.

time to call Dre happened to me a few years back

Yah it sounds like the head gasket failed, allowing compression and combustion to enter the coolant system quickly overheating the engine and melting a bunch of stuff.
How or why the HG failed is a mystery to me. It might have been the cause, or a symptom of some other problem.

I wouldn't trust the head to be straight anymore but you might get lucky. Cheapest safe option seems to be a new engine.

Drained the oil earlier and let it for a few hours in a clear container and no separation and it looks just like any other oil I've pulled out of the engine, but smells really bad, I've already got an engine in mind

I ended up getting the spark plugs out of cylinder #2 and #4 out both cylinders are at the top #4 is clean looking and #2 has small black droplets on top of the piston but both plugs are clean, I'm still trying to get the rest of the melted plastic out of #1 and #3 but its not going so well, i haven't dropped the oil pan yet