[Vwdiesel] Banana Rabbit--Bad news...

[Dave Cook]

The car struggled to start back up today without having the block heater in.  I tested and it doesn't seem that the installed relay is providing power to the plugs, so I need to do some testing with it to see if the relay is bad or what.  In the mean time, I don't want to buy plugs until I know which relay I will end up using.

But I got it started.  It was having a hard time idling, so I purchased a new air filter as the one in there looked pretty bad, and I got a couple different bottles of diesel treatment stuff and some fresh fuel.  Added the new air filter, treatment, diesel fuel and jumped on the rear bumper to mix.  The car started fine and was idling fine.  

To let the mixture work its way through the fuel system thoroughly, I let the car idle while I vacuumed it out.  Some mice had taken up residence and I didn't want mouse poo flying around as I drove.  The car sat there and idled happily for probably 30-45 minutes or so.  Was warmed up but never seemed to get hot, etc.  I was pleased.

So I decided to take it around the neighborhood to see what would happen.  I was about 2-3 blocks away and about 25-30 mph and the engine made a bang and stopped!  

I pushed it home a did a little inspecting. 

Timing belt is intact.  There doesn't appear to be anything poking through the block (and it wasn't, in my imagination, a loud enough bang for that) and no fluids had leaked.

There is still oil in the pan, and coolant in the tank. 

I didn't immediately feel the engine, but I did lift the hood when it stopped and didn't notice signs of severe heat.  It took 10-15 minutes to push it back to the garage, and at that point it was cool enough to touch with no discomfort.  (Was just warm.)

I cannot turn the engine in either direction at the camshaft.

Awesome.  Just awesome.

So where do I go from here?
Dave Cook