right... i'll get to the point.... LILY BLEW UP!

was driving down the dual carriage way, my dad was behind me taking it steady in a zafira that he had just put back together after a head gasket jobby.... so i was crusing along at about 55-60... all of a sudden everything upfront started getting very VERY noisy.... then she lost power, when i tried accelerating it was all knocking and banging and at that point i realised something was very f..ked! basically she can turn over and start... but very slowly and a couple of times it basically just seized on the starter... i guess this has been waiting to happen for some time... shes had 2 partial seizures and now it was the full monty....

not too sure exactly whats happened yet... but we're going to get the engine out and put the D*lly engine in her for abit untill we can figure out what todo with the old one... rebuild time me thinks!

but yes... had been happily buzzing down the country roads, only thing i noticed was that she wasnt charging the whole time... which leads me to think the fan may have been loose and she overheated...

but dad said when i turned her over at the side of the road the fan was turning fine and didnt seem loose.... so im unsure really and wont know untill we strip her down sometime this weekend or next week....

but yes, that was my birthday present from her.... KABOOM halfway down the dualcarriageway!....

any thoughts anyone?

very sad ending to a good day :'(

Lets see, the yoof on this forum have bollocksed 4 engines this year so far then, two by me and two this week by you and Luke!

We need a thread showing in reasonable detail rebuilding an engine with pics etc, or maybe in the tech section, some stickies showing pics of regular jobs and usual suspect type work, kingpins, pistons/barrels etc.

would be helpful

alot more helpful than a haynes manual... a full ground up rebuild it says.... but theres not a single mention of how to take the body of the chassis..... hmmm

i think something like that would be great for us youngun's

i just kinda cant believe how i went from happily plodding down the road to a seized engine and me and dad pushing her onto the grass verge...

Although the Haynes manual mightn't explain how to remove the body, as with many jobs on a 2CV, just start undoing things and work it out as you go. Armed with an 11mm socket and 11mm ring/open ender, most of the body can be disassembled. Start with the obvious - remove the mudguards. pull off the doors bonnet and bootlid. You just got rid of half the weight so that you can more easily lift off the body. You've also opened up the car so you can see what to do. Remove the seats and you will see two rows of 7mm bolts with 11mm heads. they hold the body to the chassis. There are a couple in the spare wheel well as well. Everything that pokes through the firewall has to be undone within the engine compartment. The clamp holding the steering to the rack needs to be undone and the bolt removed completely. You are now well on the way to being able to remove the body. You will be reminded of anything you have forgotten to undo, so don't worry.

Engine/gearbox removal follows the same principal. Two people can lift an engine/gearbox assembly.

Don't worry, they are simple cars and at the worst you are near help (eg this forum). I was 200km north of Alice Springs in the centre of Australia, driving by myself. The gearbox made a horrible noise as I stopped to pick up petrol at Barrow Creek. This is where the Englishman Pater Falconio and his girlfriend were taken hostage (he was killed). Not a good place to break down. I just kept driving to Alice Springs. A few days later I had a second hand gearbox flown in at huge expense and the following day a friend (who was 2 days behind me) helped swap the gearbox (took about 5 hours for the complete job). Never give up. Its a bloody long walk. Alice Springs is the furthest place from every beach in Australia.

Daffy Duck

I'll take photos when I strip Lukes old engine if that helps at all?

Do it! I'd love to know, Having (and this should make you feel better Joe) got through 4 engines (before I lost count) I would love to know how to fix one rather than bang another "unknown" in. Back when I had the problems, I couldn't afford to wait, it was my everyday car and I still had to go to work the following day, but with less reliance on the car I'd love to fix it properly. In fact if I had somewhere to do it, I wouldn't mind taking one apart for nothing.

I'm doing the clutch on the Dyane later-does anybody want me to photograph the process for the tech section?

Are the engine "blow-up's" pistions/barrels or crank-shaft related??

Joe's sounds to be piston/barrel, not least because of the seizures.

I've heard of cranks snapping, but if it was the case here, the fan wouldn't be going round...

Geoff did a very decent series of engine rebuild demos at last year's Int'l. Very educational watching a true pro at work, spanner in one hand, Magners in t'other...

Jon, if you can do a step-by-step guide to removing/refitting an engine with lots of pics of everything that needs undoiong wtc, that would be ace! Maybe Max can frame them like the Deuches special pics and we can create a 'How-to' section?