Vannette diesel, broken camshaft

Hi, It finally happened.

Our Vannette diesel oil warning light came up a couple of times. I checked the oil and water and all was fine.
I check the oil pressure switch over the weekend, that was my plan but I didn't need to wait long.
about 40 km's later, a few short trips to school car broke down.
Thursday my wife got stuck, engine stalled, grinding noise. Oops.

I have only myself to blame, my wife told me that the oil pressure was low.

Today i visted the garage, a section of the camshaft has broken away completely from the second bearing to the third.

Is that common to fail in this way ?

I have some photo's to share and see if i can attach these to this forum.

Cheers
Raymond

I have to get a reco engine now, my stupidity will cost me a couple of grand.

Lesson learnt. Oil light on in a Japper, do something about it now.
Not like as in the old Ford Falcon days, top it up when light stays on permanently.

Here are the photo's

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o298/RODALCO/DSC00577a.jpg



http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o298/RODALCO/DSC00575a.jpg



http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o298/RODALCO/DSC00574a.jpg

Sounds like you seized the motor and cylinder 2 piston hit the valves, which is what broke the camshaft. Based on the amount of oil under the inlet manifold, I would say it has been losing pressure for a very long time.

I seen a few Fords do this as well. Diesels are just a little more prone to it due to the extreme loads on the pistons, crankshaft bearings and rods from trying to combust diesel.

I would say an easy $4000 to replace the motor

Thanks for your reply mmcleo11.

Yep you are right, never thought about that, but it makes perfect sense now.
Second cylinder valve down, piston up. bang, rocker crack camshaft in half.

In New Zealand we import a lot of second hand Japanese cars and parts, so these diesel engines are available for about NZ$ 1200 or US$ 900.
Then the additional cost of fitting of course.

Kind regards
Raymond

We import a few of them to Australia but not seen a diesel motor for under $2000 recently. Good to see you guys get them cheap.

While the new motor is out of the car, I would get a new waterpump and thermostat fitted.

With the motor under the seat, it would have given your wife a fright when the camshaft finally went bang ;)

Got the car back yesterday with a reco diesel engine which runs fine.
Engine, NZ$ 1000, new cambelt, new idler wheel, NZ$ 160 and waterpump NZ$ 180 total NZ$ 1340.- ± AU$ 1150.-

Labour NZ$ 1100.-

All up nearly NZ$ 2500.- I learnt my lesson from that allright.

Car goes fine, I will keep an eye out for leaks and within 2 weeks the garage will do a recheck on seals etc.
I will check oil usage daily over the next few days, just in case. You never know the full history of an other engine. But the engine starts easy which is a good sign of healthy compression anyway.

Actually the bang wasn't too bad when the old engine blew up, misses told me that it was more a grinding type of noise.