Henny

OK, I've just been speaking to John (16VG60) who I actually got this block from who was as boggled by this as I am (along, it seems, with everyone else) He made several very good and valid observations (after he'd stopped swearing! ;) :lol: ) which made a lot of sense... The bolt can't of been hidden inside the head, as there's nowhere in a G60 head for a bolt to hide where it could then get into the cylinders... If you look into the inlet or exhaust ports on the back of my head, you can actually see the valves as it's been somewhat ported... so there's nowhere a bolt like this could have hidden there.... :| So, that only leaves one option of were this bolt has come from... The intercooler... :? One thing John did point out (laughingly) is that it proves the strength of the bottom end and pistons if they can take having a bolt dropped in there with the engine running! :lol: I'm gonna see if I can get the piston x-rayed to check it for cracks by a mate who works in the aerospace industry and if all's OK then I'll just bolt her back together and it should be fine... 8) If not, I'll have to get hold of some new pistons... :? J-DUB WILL return, and will be as good as she was before, if not slightly better... 8) :mrgreen:

white smoke is normally water vapour... sounds like you've blown the head gasket... :| When it's cooled down a bit, check the expansion tank to see if there's any coolant in it... if it's empty, you've definately blown the head gasket... :(

nice one Jim, can't wait to see your motor on these wheels... 8)

more fun too... Campers which wheelie are sooooo much fun at traffic lights... scares the local Chavs in their Novas something chronic... ;) :lol: Roundabouts get a little hairy though, especially when wet... :| :roll: :mrgreen:

hammer in an T8 Torx socket and replace 'em once they're out... 8)

rear axles and stub axles actually bend remarkably easily... :| I bent the one on my old 16V when I wrote it off and was only doing 30 when I span it... :?

mine's running Eurocarparts supplied belt and tensioner... I change the tensioner every time I do a belt anyway, so it's not like it's gotta be able to last 100,000 miles or anything silly! ;) :lol: OK, I was slightly out on the prices for a 16V... Belt = £11.75 Tensioner = £17.95 (both from Euro)

how wide a spacer do you need? If you need ones that are hubcentric for the front, the minimum thickness you can get is 12mm due to the design of the front hubs on the Corrado... I had my 10mm hubcentric ones custom made by JMR which will ONLY fit my Borbet C's due to them incorporating the spiggot ring to make them hubcentric... Drop 16VG60 a PM and ask if he's got anything similar available at the moment, or if he can get any made up for you... 8)

yeah, I've been mega paranoid with this engine since I first built it, so any sign of a different noise, and I'll pull her off the road and investigate ASAP... I reckon the bolt's only been in the cylinder for about 2 minutes of running time in total, I just dread to think what would have happened if it had got in there during one of my 140mph runs the day before... :|

if you pay over £20 for the pair, you've been done... ;) :lol:

most 1.8 16Vs had a plastic handbrake handgrip... it was only when the G60 came in that the leather steering wheel and handbrake grip came in... :roll:

I've been thinking about this overnight... (as you would if it were your engine ;) ) I am now 100% certain that this bolt HAS come in through a valve... it's the only way. It DEFINATELY wasn't there when I bolted the head back on last time (I took photos of the block, so I can tell! ;) ) and it's not a bolt from my engine... which leaves 4 options... 1) Sabotage... not likely at all... I've not annoyed anyone in a long while and the alarm would have told me if anyone had messed with the enginebay 2) The bolt got into the new pipework when I fitted it the saturday before and then got sucked into the engine as I was driving... Again, unlikely 'cos it's not a bolt from this engine, so wouldn't have been lying around in the enginebay/my garage to fall in, and the pipes were all cleaned through with a towel to get all of the polystyrene packing out of them... 3) The bolt was in the intercooler and has finally worked its way through into the head during the group thrash at Bruntingthorpe the day before... Possible, but seriously unlikely seeing as the car had done 7,000 miles with that intercooler on including 2 rolling road sessions, 4 1/4mile runs and several laps of Curborough... 4) The bolt got in the head while it got machined at a local engineering shop when the headgasket went and has been floating around in there since... it's just finally dropped in through the valve and could have done it at any time... 4 is the theory on where the bolt came from I'm going with... It explains everything including why the bolt is not from this engine, where it came from, how it got there and why I'd not seen it before... It also explains the swarf in the sump as I don't think the workshop blew the head out properly with an air-line once they'd machined it as the guy did it as a rush job... :roll: I'm gonna be stripping the valves out in the next couple of nights to check for damage which will prove that it's come in that way... All in all, I think I've got away VERY lightly with this, as if the bolt had of hit one of the valves I could be looking at a new head, pistons, rods etc etc etc... :| As it is, I'm pretty certain that I can re-use the head as it is (Gonna get it checked this weekend anyway) and also re-use the piston too! :D Just need to re-shell the bottom end which I think needed doing anyway from when the water got into the oil 'cos of the headgasket going... 8)

WHO?!? :? I have a theory on what happened with this, but I need to check out a few things first... but I'm going to bed now, so I'll leave this alone until tomorrow now... 8)

yeah, mine's normally a daily driver and gets about 21K miles a year thrown at her... when she works anyway... :roll: I do have a second car (golf driver) which I keep for when the Corrado lets me down so I can still get about... :lol:

I actually think that this may well have come in through a valve... I'm gonna have a play tomorrow and see if it'll go through or not... 8)

dunno, gonna get a non-squished bolt the same tomorrow and see if it'll go through the valves easily enough or not... That'll rule out if it came in via the head from the intercooler/throttlebody or anything daft like that... I'm totally stumped, as is Darren, as this ISN'T a bolt from a G60 engine that either of us can think of... :|

Nope, I'd not done ANY work to the car since the weekend when I fitted new boost pipes... AND: Monday I'd been at Bruntingthorpe doing 7second 0 to 60s, timed (13.57s!) 1/4miles and 140mph runs around the test track with no problems at all... I'd also driven the 30 miles to work in the morning and was 20miles into my journey home when I noticed the noise... :| Odd doesn't even come close... :?

I love that photo... looks soooo good... :) 8)

slot, eh? I found a bolt in the engine... the valves are all fine... 8)

I'm blaming it on Aliens... they teleported it into the engine to make me stop so they could keep up with me and then adbucted me while I waited for the AA to turn up... ;) :lol: :mrgreen:

the bolt is similar to a 6mm hex headed bolt, only it's allen cap headed... it's thread is 4mm diameter and 7mm long... and I have NO idea where the hell it's come from or what it's off... only that it's not one of my bolts as it's NOT stainless steel, and ALL the bolts I used were... :| It's not damaged the bore, or the valves (from what I can see, gonna have a better look at the valves tomorrow...) and it's not damaged the piston other than the nice bolt shaped dent... :? It DEFINATELY wasn't there when I did the last headgasket, as the engine was assembled at TDC on 1,so 4 was also at TDC, and it's not on the photos... :| I'm completely stumped as to where it's come from... oh, and the supercharger is in perfect condition too, so it's not been sucked through either... :|

OK, so I've just taken the head off my engine to have a look... got that job down to 45 mins now! :roll: :lol: What I found inside WAS NOT what I EVER expected... :crazyeyes: Have a look see yourself... :|

it's a pearl colour... it's gonna need just about all of the front wing and front bumper painting else it'll stand out a mile off... £280's not a bad quote IMHO, possibly a little high, but £408's well steep...

..and remember, self defence CAN be getting the first strike in... ;) :lol:

8) YAY! I got it right! :D 8) Oooh, that looks well interesting... can't wait to see it finished and in the flesh... 8)