My oil's turned to a solid, what? why? how? hu?

I know a mates VW needs "special" oil - I was told any VW motors after approx 2000 can't use your normal oils.

2 minutes on Google found a few mentions, you might want to see below

from www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=59137
"I read here and on the VW official bulletin that the standard is a PD approved 5W40 and not the above, would the fact that the dealer used it with 10W40 can do any harm? or should we change the oil now to 5W40 before we start driving it?"

Hope you get it sorted, would like to know if you find what caused it.

Nomad: In the PD engine there is an individual high pressure fuel pump for each injector. This is driven by the camshaft, and the forces are so incredibly high that most oils can't cope with the result that the cam lobes and followers for the pump get damaged.

This engine is not a PD engine so that's not the problem here. Even if it was a PD with the wrong oil, it's unlikely to cause the symptoms here.

Robin, did you have a temperature gauge connected? If so did you notice what it was reading before and after the loss of power?

There's a bit on Sludge in oil here:
www.carbibles.com/engineoil_bible.html

But it doesn't sound as though that's what you're seeing.

My thoughts are that it went something like this:

- Loss of coolant
- Engine starts to run extremely hot, especially in the cylinder head
- Oil burns and bakes into hard substance
- Engine stops

I would imagine that the oil feed drilling in the head is full with the same stuff as the cam area. That would stop the oil flow to the cams, causing tapping noises - especially if that engine uses hydraulic tappets.

Another possibility is that the deposits cause the camshaft to partially seize, the belt to jump a few teeth, and the tapping noise was the valves and pistons colliding.

TBH, with a locked camshaft I wouldn't expect the engine to be able to turn more than a degree or so. I wouldn't be surprised if the bottom end was ok - if it were seized I wouldn't expect to be able to turn it at all.

Either way, I don't think you'll find out much more without taking the head off.

The gauge wasn't connected yet, well it was connected, but the sender and gauge didn't match, so the readings were irrelevant, so no, I don't know what the temperature was doing unfortunately. There was plenty of water in it at the start of the drive, and I've done the same drive twice at higher speeds than I was doing, as well as plenty of sitting stationary in heavy traffic, so the cooling system was working fine before this drive.

I think the stuff on the camshaft is as Dude says, a very melted splash guard rather than anything to do with the oil.

I meant to say, when I say the bottom end wont budge more than a degree or 2, that's with the cambelt off, so it's not trying to turn the camshaft too, it is literally 1 deg of movement, it's just a tiny rock, which in my mind could be play in the bearings if it's lost oil pressure and a pistons melted/seized to one of the bores.

I checked the timing marks and they were all still in line, and the belt looked fine, as like you said, I was suspicious that the camshaft might have caused it to slip.

The head does look completely bone dry and oil-free, and the cam lobes look like they've run dry, which would suggest that it was lacking oil before I stopped.

My thoughts/guesses at this moment are:

Option 1, the head gasket went, causing the engine to overheat and seize, but this wouldn't really explain the tapping noise.

Option 2, the oil-pump went, causing the engine to overheat and seize, popping the head gasket in the process, this would explain the tapping, as the lack of pressure would cause the tappets to get very noisy, and would explain the complete lack of oil in the head.

I'm not an expert on this stuff by any means though, I've never had big engine issues like this in the past.

Edit: Rev. Dick Deluxe, I don't see how leaking injector seals could have got carbon inside the cam assembly? I'd be interested to hear more, though, I'm googling the black death thing now.

Even if your going to replace the engine which seems pretty likely. It would be very interesting to strip it down and see whats happened.

Ive seen a car come into the garage complaining of a seized engine and that had a sump full of jelly. Owner said he had had it 20years and not once changed the oil!

As others have said I reckon the hard stuff on your camshaft is a plastic guard or similar that has got so hot it has melted.

Did you not get any funny smells or anything before it happened id expect to be able to smell an engine thats got that hot

Cheers Russ, yeah, that's done the same thing, only mines a whole lot messier than that, and his cams look like they've actually seen oil recently.

Running on cooking oil by any chance?
If so google 'polymerisation'

Veg oil? when vegoil and your oil mix bad things happen.

www.vegetableoildiesel.com