Today I did an oil change on my 1973 Beetle SP 1300. I found a piece of aluminium which has the shape of a piece of piston skirt. It is shaped like Tasmania, is about the size of a 10 cent coin, is battered and bruised on its edges, is rough cast on the inside of the curve and is machined on the outside of the curve. There were also several little bits of battered aluminium in the strainer as well.

I think that I have a broken piston. The engine goes OK, but it does seem to have a knock in it.

Is it likely to survive if I drive carefully, warm it up properly and keep the speed down?
Is it likely to fail with a bang, lots of smoke and embarrasment?
I need to travel about 150 km in the country soon. Should I not consider that?

pull it - reco heads, p&b's, gaskets, spend a little now rather than more later...

you'll be happier at the end of the day

nick

OMG.. time to visit the VW love doctor for some heart surgery before the big bang eventuates..

Thats a bit of bad luck...
Well its good luck that You found it...

You don't think its been there for a long time??

Anyone ever have a piece of piston fall/break off???

Its not a usual sort of thing....

But it looks like engine out...
and engine overhauled....

I wouldn't drive it with a knock....
they don't usually, get better.....

Lee

I always grumble at the need to take out the strainer to change the oil in a Beetle engine. Not now though. If I had just drained the oil instead of giving the whole works a good clean up, I wouln't have found the bits of piston.

The piece looks like it has been broken for a long time as the edges where it broke off are all dark with oil stains with a few small shiny patches where it was bouncing around in the sump.

I'm trying to track down the previous owner. It may be a bit of an old problem that they fixed.

Yes,

Many people just drained the oil thru the sump plug.....
Myself included years ago....

so, it may have been there for some time....

shame to pull everything down to find no problem...

Best of Luck

Lee

The knock is a BIG hint... no country drives for you, my laddie

There is good news and bad news about the engine.

The good news is that the previous owner's mechanic has told me thet he has rebuilt the engine and fished bits of piston skirt out of it more than once, so all seems well for the moment as it's odds on that it is an old bit of piston that I found.

The bad news is that I seem to have a suicidal engine that blows itself up occasionally, so I'll take it easy and drive the car with care and hope that the engine doesn't do anything untoward.

The knock that I mentioned was a small leak in the exhaust manifold. The engine is so dakdaky that it was hard to tell what sort of noise it was.

Single port 1300 engines should be OK...

Can't be over revved in normal driving....

VW engines don't like air leaks in the exhaust...

or anywhere really....

but they do seem to lose power with "large" exhaust leaks

Lee

I wouldn't recommend taking it on a long trip like that.

It's most likely that the car will fail when you are in the middle of nowhere and then you will not only have the repair bill, but a huge towing bill.

Just my five cents worth anyway.

i stand with my initial comment - take this from someone who has had to rebuild an engine once for doing something stupid and is going to have to again for a second time in 2 months for equally as stupid reasons hehe

admitedly i love it - but i dont like forking out coin willy nilly

nick

Hey Richard....

PIST'N BROKE....!!!

I know you are...

Hey.. I hear bits of rod have been pulled out of there on occasion too...!!!
Just drive it till it POPS and throw another one in...

For the price of that car, you shoud still have the original "GRIN OF PURCHASE" in place...!!!!!

Thanks for your help Danny.

Yes, it's only an old cheapie, but I have just sold my other car, the Camira, as I had to register them both soon and I decided to keep the Beetle, so if it blows up I will have no way to get to work until it's fixed. I have a 1600TP on the bench, so if the 1300SP gets a bit to clapped I have a back up.

Richard.