been offered a caldina as a swap for one of my cars

problem is the caldina popped something at about 60mph and now has something similar to oil starvation death rattle

am i looking at rings, or head or worse

Big ends and possible main bearing.. I've suffered this too.
I had to swap out the crank and mains as I spun the bearing. (and change the big ends too)
Check oil pump and change oil filter before doing the above and starting up. (that's if you have the same problem)

I've also blown the ring lands (separate occasion) but didn't rattle, just sounded like a poobaru, was down on power, more smoke and drinking oil.
Anything coming out of the dipstick pipe (lift the dipstick about an inch)

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St205 WRC - Running sweet.

If it sounds like big end rattle it probably is.

Was it short of oil when it went ? Did the oil light come on ?

Is it a manual, if so do you notice a bit of variation in the height of the clutch bite point ?

Big ends usually fail as a result of no oil, but I have known a couple with worn (or missing) thrust washers which then allow endfloat leading to the big ends snagging and spinning the shells in the rod - writing off crank & rod. I suspect the wear is caused by people riding the clutch.

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If at first you don't suck seed, try drier grain.

you mean smoke from dipstick?

its definatley a rattle and not a rumble, so may have spun a bearing, guy has told me there is receipts for turbo upgrade etc, so sound like more power and nothing to back it up.

could a rattle be a blown turbo as that would have spewed oil too

aren't all caldinas automatics?

Not all. Manual are very rare though I gather.

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If at first you don't suck seed, try drier grain.

just double checked and this one is an auto, going to see it on sunday and will judge how bad when i get there. worst case im rebuilding or fitting another 3sgte

Could be blown turbo thrown bits into engine which are now rattling round in cylinders, in which case bottom end would probably be ok.

If it's big end, then probably curable with a crank & rods kepping pistons & block as they were. at 100K miles, they shouldn't be too worn. (see my MR2 thread)

Worth trying to keep the caldina block as I gather they are stronger.

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If at first you don't suck seed, try drier grain.

Done deal on this yesterday, turned up and as soon as i opened the bonnet i could see oil all around the turbo and underneath. so all points to turbo explosion.

seen the receipts for the custom manifold and c20b hybrid turbo obviously a *bleep* turbo was used. car does hunt for idle and i can hear the turbo rattle.

picking it up tonight