My engine died....

["Adriaan Loedolff" <aloedol@engfac.uct.ac.za>]

Hello to you all.

Lets all observe a moment of silence in honour of T 0 163 444 which 
expired unexpectedly after a brief period of illness.

...sniff....

The story goes like this: I was driving home after a night out and as 
I was going over the top of a rather steep rise the engine coughed, 
lost about 50% of its power and started making nasty clattering 
noises. I immediatly cut the ignition and, as I live near the bottom 
of the particular hill managed to coast home.

When inspecting the engine the next morning, I found slightly more 
oil than usual beneath it but no other visible damage. I turned the 
engine over by hand a few times and felt no unusual resistance so 
decided to start it up and see what it does. It started right away 
but it runs like sh#t. Sounds more like a box full of spanners being 
shaken. Compression is down on the left hand bank, way down on #3 and 
it feels as if this side of the engine runs hotter than the right 
hand side. The engine has done 95 000 miles and has already had one 
top end overhaul performed on it. There is some play on the 
crankshaft and the big-ends have been knocking slightly for the last 
year or so and it developed an appitite for oil as well.

I think it swallowed (sucked...) a valve or at least a piece of one, 
or maybe a piston broke. I only hope the case is not damaged.

I'll be stripping it down within the next few weeks so I'll keep you 
up to date as the work progresses. Meantime I'll be driving my "87 
Passat CLi (Gas guzzler).

(The Last Post being played here.....)

Regards

Adriaan Loedolff
'69 Squareback Automatic (out of commission at the moment.)