Good Sunday all,

97 TF Magna, V6 Manual.

On friday I was crossing the westgate when my engine seized. turns out that i had no oil, after having just serviced it 3 months prior. So i was able to roll down the other side into the Shell servo at which point i discovered the oil problem. i filled up with some oil from the servo, and just now changed the spark plugs to both banks, but now i have the following problems.

1. Major tapping from under the cover to the front bank. (sounds like a rattle as if something is broken also)
2. will not rev past 3100 rpm. when it gets to 3100 it wont just sit there, it fluctuates up and down.

any help my Aussie Magna friends could give would be much appreciated. any ideas as to what is going on, or even a fix would help...i'm sure i'm up for a new engine...which i cant afford right now.

Usually when an engine seizes its best to strip it right down and check/repair any damage. Rattles and down on power in a previously seized engine could be anything from run big end bearings, broken piston rings, scuffed pistons, disrupted oil flow to the rockers and lifters, to name a few. That's why most of us check the oil regularly, once or twice a week, depending on how many Km you do in that time - especially since some Mitsu engines can go from using no oil to using lots without notice or reason. Even a newish car driven mostly around town should have its oil checked after a country run, just in case the different driving conditions has dropped the oil level unexpectedly. I'm totally paranoid about checking oil level on a weekly basis, as the cams run on the bare metal of the heads and oil starvation at the top might mean a new set of heads.

How many Km did you do in the three months, and how many times did you check the oil level? Oil is cheap, engines aren't.

Lady at work complained that the oil light in her Magna wagon stayed on, took 4 L of oil to bring it back on the stick. She later suggested the car was for sale, and would I like to buy it? I declined. Wonder why? lol Didn't feel like doing an engine rebuild/replace, that's why.

Anyway, enough of a lecture. Drive the thing sedately until you can afford time or money to do some stripping down to see what is wrong under the rocker covers.

One of my sons had a Pulsar N13 that used a lot of oil which eventually blocked the catalytic converter sufficiently to stop it revving over about 2500....if you've lost all your oil then you may have the same problem with the cat. The bad tapping is another matter.

i would look into another engine. will most likely be cheaper, and better in the long term

I'm super technical, mechanically, but I have always used Nulon long-life Teflon oil treatment in my cars after an incident where an old Holden I owned had its sump run almost dry. My mechanic at the time (gone to God now...great bloke) had treated the car with Nulon "just in case" as it was a heavy oil user. Well...after not checking the oil level for a week (I was young and dumb) that car ran for a whole day with virtually zero oil in the crankcase, as far as I could tell and the darned thing just kept going! All I did was re-fill the sump! From that day forward I have used the long-life Teflon treatment in all my cars. Just a hint to help safeguard against any incidents like this in future.

Instead of guessing, I would bring over the car and let me have a look at it

I am guessing the tapping is a lash adjuster, if the engine has actually locked up and then freed up once cool, I would say definate big end and main bearing damage but then again, if you are not getting big end rattle you may just be lucky

As for the teflon stuff, I would not use it, it was banned in aviation for a good reason, it combustion temps the teflon can come out of the solution and turn into chunks that can do severe damage. Personalyl I do use Wynns but not Nulon for this reason.

In the case of the OP, neither will help now as damage has been done, I am more than happy to have a look, running out of oil will not damage spark plugs but may have damaged the bottom end of the engine, have seen this happen in the past where the bottom end is badly damaged and the engine lost a lot of power

Instead of guessing, I would bring over the car and let me have a look at it

I am guessing the tapping is a lash adjuster, if the engine has actually locked up and then freed up once cool, I would say definate big end and main bearing damage but then again, if you are not getting big end rattle you may just be lucky

As for the teflon stuff, I would not use it, it was banned in aviation for a good reason, it combustion temps the teflon can come out of the solution and turn into chunks that can do severe damage. Personalyl I do use Wynns but not Nulon for this reason.

In the case of the OP, neither will help now as damage has been done, I am more than happy to have a look, running out of oil will not damage spark plugs but may have damaged the bottom end of the engine, have seen this happen in the past where the bottom end is badly damaged and the engine lost a lot of power

lol.....

I was thinking that I will need a new motor. I’ve had the baby now for 13 years and I don’t want to give her up. Never had an issue before; never had oil problems, which is why I wasn’t checking it weekly as was suggested by MadMax. The only problem I’ve had over 13years has been a leak in the power steering. I’ve only ever used Shell oils, never had a problem, and always been good to me. Anyways I need to get a price on repairs quick as it is my daily commuter and I can’t be without it (if i was, id never get paid to fix it.).