1.8 k engine signs of big end fowling oil ladder

geavsie · 15th November 2019, 07:36

First let me say I have had years of experience with k series engines 1.4, 1.6 & 1.8 including turbo & vvc and have never seen anything quite like the problem I am facing.
The K series 1.8 is in a car I have had for 15 years, and which I bought with about 20k on the clock. So I took this to be the original engine, it showed no problems for 40k miles then the hgf occurred, (slight water loss & smell) so I stored the car (2013). I have now started to repair it and modify the car e.g gasket, cooling, bolts and oil ladder.
During the process I noticed that the block had been painted silver which I thought odd if it was original.
Then when replacing the oil ladder with a strengthened one I found the old ladder had gouges in it where the big ends had been hitting it!
All the big ends are tight & well bolted up. The crank has no play on it.
So what is going on?
The question I ask is, is the crankshaft support casting not standard, ie a smaller capacity model. This would be an explanation as all other k series engines have a shorter stroke than the 1.8.
So does any one know if all k series engines had the same depth of crankshaft support casting. That being the bit of the sandwich between block & oil ladder.

15th November 2019, 07:36	#1
geavsie Newbie Rover 75 saloon CDTi, 1.8t saloon, cdti tourer, mg ztt, mgf,mitsubishi l400,daimler 250v8 Join Date: May 2015 Location: Ipswich Posts: 17 Thanks: 1 Thanked 3 Times in 2 Posts	1.8 k engine signs of big end fowling oil ladder First let me say I have had years of experience with k series engines 1.4, 1.6 & 1.8 including turbo & vvc and have never seen anything quite like the problem I am facing. The K series 1.8 is in a car I have had for 15 years, and which I bought with about 20k on the clock. So I took this to be the original engine, it showed no problems for 40k miles then the hgf occurred, (slight water loss & smell) so I stored the car (2013). I have now started to repair it and modify the car e.g gasket, cooling, bolts and oil ladder. During the process I noticed that the block had been painted silver which I thought odd if it was original. Then when replacing the oil ladder with a strengthened one I found the old ladder had gouges in it where the big ends had been hitting it! All the big ends are tight & well bolted up. The crank has no play on it. So what is going on? The question I ask is, is the crankshaft support casting not standard, ie a smaller capacity model. This would be an explanation as all other k series engines have a shorter stroke than the 1.8. So does any one know if all k series engines had the same depth of crankshaft support casting. That being the bit of the sandwich between block & oil ladder.