HELP! I Hope I Did Not Fry My Engine!

[t6dpilot]

Last night I broke my fan belt close to home. I was only a couple of miles away and decided to risk continuing. I drove the car another 5 minutes or so before I shut it off. The temps got to just a hair above the 210 degree hash mark, but were not there while the car was running for very long - maybe 2 or 3 minutes. I was not timing this exactly, so I could be slightly over/understating my times. Please tell me I did not damage my engine - please! I would welcome any and all opinions. Thanks.

Also, when I pulled the engine release lever, the damn handle came off the cable release. When it friggin' rains, it pours! At least it popped the lid before it separated. Can anyone give me the procedure for getting that cable back out so I can thread the handle back on? Thank you.

[dhrcr911s]

In my own humble opinion, you are fine... I've seen way higher than that on my car on the track with the fan blowing, oil rushing through it, etc...

[t6dpilot]

Cool, thanks. No pun intended. I am just a nervous nelly. What conditions would it take to burn up the engine?

[beepbeep]

Naah...it takes more than couple of miles of easy driving to fry it. It's a tough little car. Engine is probably OK. It was a bit unwise to continue though.

Now you shold apologize to your car by changing oil! Overheated oil isn't good stuff.

[t6dpilot]

I know, I know - my bad. I just have not had a belt break before and did not realize how quickly things heat up. I should get 100 lashes with a wet noodle...

[ruf-porsche]

1000 lashes with a broken fan belt according to ALLAH

[coldstart]

Hey, watch the Allah comments. Someone might take offence and blow the Geater Chicago Area up. Have some sensitivity, please.

[jkarolyi]

I would have done what you did, keeping a close eye on my temp guage. As long as your car didn't get into the overheating range on your guage, what harm is there?

As to fixing your hood release, have someone else manually move back the latch release at the engine lid, while you screw on a new release handle. You can see where the release cable moves the release lever by looking under the engine lid latch.

[88911coupe]

One thing I think some others have mentioned regarding this type situation is that parts of the engine are probably heating up far faster than the temp guage will actually show, in particular cylinder heads I think. The point being is if this happens it's critical to drive as SHORT a distance as possible...if you have to drive it at all. A bigger problem, IHO, is that it's really hard to even see the alt light come on so you could be blissfully tooling down the highway and not even know the belt had broken. There's threads on setting up some sort of warning buzzer or big idiot light for just this problem but I've never done anything about it...other than worry about it.

[dhrcr911s]

Dad did just that in one of his 356 racers two years ago... Little red light on the dash wasn't seen for over 20 mins of racing in July heat in CO. Pulled into the pits, and started to notice the smell and engine going tight.. TOOO LATEEEEE...

I do have a remote warning buzzer for my car for just the reason above, but haven't put it on yet. I;m not sure I will hear it with the megaphones (yes, I can still run them in the great open lands on MT) and the helmet. I bought a big red warnign light for the dash also for the same reason..

[Carl83911]

Originally posted by coldstart
Hey, watch the Allah comments. Someone might take offence and blow the Geater Chicago Area up. Have some sensitivity, please.

__________

You will insult someone with your comments. Remember "Salman Rushdie".....

May a thousand camel fleas infest your armpits.

[Formerly Steve Wilkinson]

Steve Weiner told me about one of his customers who lost a fan belt during a club race at Portland. He knew it, because the big red racer's light went off--hard to miss--but kept racing, because he was leading. Ran for some ungodly amount of time, 20 or 30 minutes, and came in with the engine just about incandescent. (He won, though.) Weiner tore the engine down, expecting the worst, but said everything was just fine. He attributes a lot of that to Mobil 1, but in any case, it does mean that the engine won't even notice two or three minutes of cautious driving with a belt gone.

Stephan

[bkreigsr]

you know you're cooked when you can see pools of molten aluminum on the garage floor after shut-down.

[t6dpilot]

Thanks for all your comments guys - I appreciate it. I will have my wife beat me with the broken fan belt tonight. Regarding driving the car after the belt broke, I was not sure that was the issue, but I still watched the gauges VERY CLOSELY on my way home. As soon as the temp started to rise noticeably (just under 210), I started to look for a good place to get the car off the road. I only pressed on another 30 seconds or so. Based on what everyone is saying, I should be OK. Thank you.

[t6dpilot]

OH hey, one more question... What do you guys think of going to Mobil 1 on a high mileage 1971 T? When I change the oil, should I switch to that for better protection? Just curious.

[dhrcr911s]

most likely, you will find out if you did ANY damage the day you tear it down.. Until that time, enjoy.....

[Rot 911]

Originally posted by t6dpilot
OH hey, one more question... What do you guys think of going to Mobil 1 on a high mileage 1971 T? When I change the oil, should I switch to that for better protection? Just curious.

I wouldn't too much chance of starting new oil leaks or exacerbating old leaks.

[svb]

your probably ok....I remember my e36 M3...blew the H20 pump and shut the car down immediately....still warped the head from overheat though

[tsuter]

It got up to 210F??? for how long??? 2-3 minutes??? You may really be pooched!!!

[rs6er]

[ Can anyone give me the procedure for getting that cable back out so I can thread the handle back on? Thank you. [/B]

Simple. Pull the black handle that you use to release the engine lid. The whole cable should come out. Unscrew the handle and attach it to a new cable from our host. Make sure that the catch mechanism is cocked so that the plate inside the catch is about half way across the hole when you attach the new cable. There is a very good thread on this somewhere in the forum.