Unknown type of engine failure

[mreid]

Glad to hear it was a fairly easy fix.

Coincidentally, I have a 78 3.0 that I am converting to dual plug. I'll sell you the distributor with cap and wires for $400 including shipping if interested.

[bugstrider]

Pm sent


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[bugstrider]

Is there an option to entirely bypass the distributor on these cars with a digital ignition system?

[johnsjmc]

It is rare for a distributer to fall apart . Glad it is not more serious. Clewett engineering makes a crank fire kit,but it,s about $1500 . Others here have used a coil pack from a 6 cyl Ford and I think Megasquirt now supports an ignition coil .
Lots of tinkering . I have no experience with either.

[bugstrider]

Thanks,

My buddy said he had never seen one come apart like ours did. And he has 40 years of Porsche experience....go figure.


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[bugstrider]

Originally Posted by cfhnxzcxiao

I understand this may be a little odd as far as my initial approach to diagnosing an engine problem but I'll give it a try anyway. I am in the beginning phase of trying to understand what has occurred so bare with me.

???

[rwest]

Bugstrider,

That guy is a spammer, we see them all the time, they make a handful of randomly quoted posts and link to whatever their selling, I reported them to the mods by using the little red triangle that is on every response window.

Glad your problem was relatively easy, better hundreds than thousands!

Best,
Rutager

[Vereeken]

Originally Posted by bugstrider

Thanks for checking in,

Well, I just talked with a good friend who is helping me with the engine problem. I can honestly say that I am surprised as to the cause of the chaos. It would explain the intermittent whirring sound, engine shutdown, then it to run enough to get home while running on less than six cylinders.

As it turns out, I wasn't too far off my initial thoughts of it being fuel or ignition related. I guess my distributor grenaded internally. Literally fragmented into shards of internals. My friend who has 40 years of Porsche experience said he has never seen one come part like this one did. Welcome to my wold, my first dog's name was Murphy. This was because the unusually seemed to follow my A$$ around at all times.

I honestly was preparing myself for the news of a needed overhaul. Now the challenge is going to find a replacement or check into a digital unit. I am not sure if these things are made on unobtanium on the 78-79SC.

Cheers Trevor

Fairly uncommon, but not exceptional. I have had it happen on my race car (not porsche). Internally something worked loose and was launched through the distributor housing fragmenting the body.
This happend at start-up so not when revving.
I have seen one more occasion of this over the last years.

[bugstrider]

Thinking back, about two weeks ago a loud sound came from the engine bay that lasted about 15 seconds. Long enough for me to get out and pop the engine lid. It sounded like a failing bearing, but never reoccurred.

I guess that was my warning and due to inexperience, I didn't recognize the signs.

Bummer


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[mreid]

Trevor, I sent you a PM, but couldn't attach pictures to it. Here are some pics. I bought the engine from a guy on this forum and I'm going to start converting it to higher compression, better cams, and dual plug. It is a 78 3.0 according to him. I just pulled the distributor out so I could take these pictures and it looks great. There is dust and some paint flakes on it that blew under the tarp covering the engine. I'm having my kitchen remodeled and they're not the cleanest bunch!

[47silver]

do not panic:
i had similar symptoms and it was the coil wire from the coil to the distributor. barely made it home, open the hood with it running and could see the spark jumping to the ground of the coil.
so check for spark. if you have good spark
check for proper fuel pressures. if you have good fuel pressure
check for timing..
could as simple as a distributor cap.

[bugstrider]

YEOUCH!









Throw in some major shaft wobble......good times!!

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[MBAtarga]

I'd say of possible causes - that is probably one of the the most isolated and relatively inexpensive issues you could run into. Should be a quick 5 minute and maybe a few hundred $$ fixes!

[porsche930dude]

do you think it was the shaft wobble that caused the failure? those prongs rubbing on stuff

[bugstrider]

Originally Posted by porsche930dude

do you think it was the shaft wobble that caused the failure? those prongs rubbing on stuff

Not too sure on that. It might have just timed out. Who knows, as these things age, things are starting to show up as failures.

Had a good long talk with the Porsche Klassik shop on overhaul possibilities and the disk under the reductor is what is made of unobtainium and no longer available.

I may need to put a call into Tony Stark and see if he has some palladium I could make another disk out of. It seems that this component is nearly as hard to locate.

Still researching options at this point.


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[bugstrider]

Originally Posted by MBAtarga

I'd say of possible causes - that is probably one of the the most isolated and relatively inexpensive issues you could run into. Should be a quick 5 minute and maybe a few hundred $$ fixes!

True on the timed repair. Although the hard part is locating a good solution. This is yet another little example of the two year only item.

Need to get a working unit into the car to run it. There still seems to be an unusual noise that will require additional research.


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[TCracingCA]

Paint it all nice, with some interesting stuff pasted to it, and mount your engine, car wall art! I have a few really interesting items (broken parts) from my own over enthusiasm or inconvenient mishaps while traveling, and have even acquired some other neat stuff from other enthusiasts that have had a whole list of ailments!

When someones project really goes wrong! I also like to take the ruined parts and weld together animals using bent connecting rods, blown pistons and such! I would like to make a Porsche parts critter with really really high end 904, 906, 907, 908, 917 stuff if anyone damages such! Just keep me in mind please!

[bugstrider]

I guess the moral to the story is to be sure to pull you dust cover off your distributor and visually inspect it from time to time and always lube your shaft as a part of "routine maintenance"


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[bugstrider]

Ok,

So the obvious reason the engine shut down is the fragged distributor. A working distributor was installed temporarily to move the car and to see if it would get spark. The temp dizzy was removed from a running car so we know it is functioning.

So my question to the group is there something hidden in the system that the fragmenting distributor can take out or effect the cars ability to creat spark? The CDI is functioning as designed so I kinda at a loss.

Ideas?

[timmy2]

Green wire in good condition or replaced after distributor failure?