Hello, I already post this on the European forum, and 1 of the guys there told me to post this also here.

It was Sunday morning 9am I was driving on the 61 in Germany on my way to the NurburgRing, I was driving +/- 190 / 200 Km per hour when my engine said PLOEFFFFFF a lot off smoke behind the car, I directly drove it to the side of the highway, when I looked under the hood, the full engine was under the oil also under the car oil.
I checked in the morning before I was leaving, my oil and it was 3/4 full so that was ok, by 28000 KM two modifications were done, the clutch and the oil bolts, also new oil was done
( car has now 31000km )

The Adac ( ANWB in the Netherlands ) told me that the "Crank-shaft gasketring ( I don't know if this is correct spelled ) was blown out, he could not tell me if there was more damaged in the engine.

My car will be picked-up this weekend and probably delivered Thursday or Friday.

I hope that this problem will be a warranty story and will be paid by Honda, my car is two years old so I have still 1 year warranty. ( MY 2000 )

Does anybody know if there are more problems like this??

I will keep you guys informed..

Rgds Danny

 

Danny,

I am sorry to hear of your problem. Maybe it's lucky that it happened before you got to the 'ring. 200kph is not particularly fast, so I'm sure Honda can't hold that against you.

There are two oil seals on the crank shaft:

Chain case oil seal This is in the timing chain cover at the front of the engine. This is behind the big pulley wheel at the bottom front of the engine, which drives the alternator.

Crankshaft oil seal This is at the back of the engine, where the crankshaft exits. It is behind the flywheel. If this is where the oil leak was, I would not expect the oil to cover the whole engine bay so suddenly. It would be likely to get on the clutch quickly and leave you with a slipping clutch and loss of drive.

Both these oil seals are hidden, so it is unlikely that the work caused physical damage to them. On the F20C there is a lower engine block, which holds the main bearings, instead of individual main bearing caps. The sump oil pan (sump) bolts to this lower block, so the mating surfaces are flat. There is no gasket for the oil pan, liguid gasket should be used. IIRC this must be left to cure, before refilling the oil.

Changing the clutch should not affect the oil seals, as the rear seal is protected by the flywheel. It could only be damaged if the flywheel was removed. The only other possibility is that the main bearings or thrust washers have been damaged allowing the crankshaft to move fore/aft. I would imagine that this would require a significant blow to cause any damage.

What I find unusual is that you had a sudden blow out. Do you know how much oil was left in the engine when you stopped? If it lost the lot, the lack of oil could have damaged the bearings. Did the low oil pressure light come on? In my experience, oil seals can leak but only a few drips overnight. Your failure must have been caused by either a fracture of the seal, or a build up of oil pressure beyond the limits of the seal. This is rather worrying, if it is an indirect effect of the modification. We do not know if the oil feed modification is to increase the flow of oil through the feed, or to change the oil pressure by regulating the flow. Possibly the change has caused less oil flow elsewhere, which may have led to local heating and distortion of the rubber. Could it be that the improved lubrication of the cylinder walls has changed the crankshaft pressure? I would be very surprised, but I guess it can't be ruled out.

I don't think we can understand what caused this, unless you can see the failed part. Unfortunately, if it's an oil seal, it will probably be destroyed when removing it from the engine. If you get the chance, look to see if it has a piece broken, or if it warped out of shape. I haven't heard of any other problems. My car has the modification, but I have not tried any extended high speed driving since it was performed.

What really irritates me about all these engine problems, is that we could know much more about the condition of the engine and possible imminent failure, had Honda have fitted an oil guage. This was designed as a performance engine, but they seem to have neglected the most basic of instruments. I'm sure it would have been very easy to incorporate one into the dash at the design stage.

 

Hello again,

My car is brought to my dealer on Monday ( finally), today the mechanic called me and told me that the connecting-Rod in the #1 cylinder was broken, tomorrow there will be a inspector from Honda NL to check my engine, the mechanic has spoken to the inspector and he told directly that this was happened (very strange in my opinion, are there more engine problems like this?)
and that this probably was caused due to a low oil level in the engine!!
Bullshit in my opinion, on the dipstick,the oil level was minimum told the mechanic, so oil level must be OK during this failure,(a lot of oil is on the highway) the mechanic told me that the modification has noting to do with this failure, so my question.. what is the problem what is causing this problem.

I have some foto's and Video but I have no idea to import this in this message, if you want them send me a e-mail.

I'll keep you updated.

Rgds Danny

 

Danny,

To have broken a con-rod, something pretty violent must have happened in the engine. The ususal problem is over-revving, ie. if you change from 6th to 3rd gear and the revs go well over 9000.
I would find it unlikely that oil level was to blame for this - also the modifications shouldn't have caused it either.
The sudden loss of oil due to a faulty gasket could cause it I guess, but I would doubt that the first thing to go would be a con-rod if the engine just didn't have enough oil in the first place.

 

Catastrophic failure of a connecting rod can be due to many things but it's usually due to piston siezure. The sudden 'jamming' of the piston as the crank is rotating is often enough for a ductile failure of the connecting rod to take place.

 

Danny, did they find damage to the oil seal? Was this the cause of the leak, or did the con rod go through the cylinder wall? I would find it hard to believe that a broken con rod would cause a seal to blow, but I think the reverse is feasible.

I don't understand how the dealer can conclude that the failure was caused by a lack of oil, or even that it is unrelated to the engine update. I think the dealer know as little as we do about the reasons for the update, or the layout of the engine. The official Honda manuals do not provide any detail of the inner workings of the engine. If the con rod snapped because the piston seized, I would suspect the oil feed. Another potential cause for snapping the con rod would be if the big end bearing seized. This is also force lubricated, so a failure of the lubrication system could have caused it.

I would be very interested to see the photographs. If you enter your VIN number, you will be registered on here as an owner, so you can add the pictures to your photo album. You need to go to MY2000 and press the start button. Once you've uploaded the photos, you can insert them into your reply.

 

Update....

I just received a voicemail from the dealer, Honda NL will repair this under warranty

The mechanic told me that the short-block will be replaced and also the valves will be replaced, Tomorrow I will take pictures when the head is off.

I'm so happy...

Rgds Danny

i'll will try to put the foto in a message.

 

That is great news Danny! I'm really happy that this work will be covered by your warranty

Tif

 

Yes good news for you...I`ve been reading the thread.

Tif have you heard the new update (oil/plug) will result in an extra 1 yr engine only warranty as a show of good will?

Honda has told me this.

 

Here some pictures,