Well driving home around the M25 last night car gets horrid missfire so I pulled over. On road side inspection, a spark lead had come off (ok so I can cope with that) but it sounded much to than that) , even when reconnected the engine would not idle, and the turbo was much much hotter than I would have expected (I had not even been thrashing it as it was to wet to mess about). First ideas are headgasket or piston failure. Most likely to be the first one. The cause most likely 2 and a half years of abuse and lots of turbo pressure. But that aside, something certaintly didnt sound in good shape and I'm worried that unburnt fuel and air passing into the turbo was ignited by the heat and has possibly damaged the bearings of the turbo as well, it would have in effect been working as a jet turbine does, thats the only reason I can see it being that hot. I have seen it hotter, but not when I was being as easy on the car.
I guess first of all I shall do compression test, but I may not even bother depending on how the spark plugs look like. Then turbo removal followed by top end strip down and inspection. This should be fun, its the only part of the engine that I have never had to go into. I cant wait.. :(
Oh well, may the fun commence. I may keep a basic progress report here. Ill see how it goes. If it turns out it will cost me a total fortune to fix, then I may just put it in the garage untill I can afford to fix it and get this other K10 I have sitting here on the road.
So once again, if you ever consider getting a march - dont. They are fun fast and origional but they are not suitable as a main car
ed