Some engines have gone with even less mileage

MR Brum, It was MR T that mentioned the problems a while back.
Something to do with no oil getting through to the top end and the engine blowing on quite a few, all down they thought to an oil filter, but it could have been something else as well as the VM Motori factory was still investigating it
They are also prone to overheating
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-snSQfLLjs0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B06AaFgI ... re=related

PS, I don't think MR T could answer your long list either

My point was your statement, 'Some engines have gone with even less mileage.'

And you all take me too seriously when I'm 'extracting the urine'.

I do have a quite jovial, although very dry, side to my character.

Back to the point in question; TX4 engines failing prematurely.

I'm not a mechanic, although I am mechanically minded & until my newly acquired Renault of 6 months ago, I did a lot of my own basic vehicle maintenance; mostly everything that did not involve engines, gearboxes & diffs.

To me it's quite obvious what the problems are likely to be with these engines.

IMO they are two-fold; negligence in the removal of water & oil gallery forming materials in the engine manufacturing process & incorrect oil specification by the manufacturer.

I will deal with the second of these problem first as it is easier.

Recently I had to investigate oil specifications because my wife had just bought a ‘56 plate Citroen C4 & three different Citroen garages recommended three different oils for the car. No change there then.

Previously, I had thought that a 0W/30 oil for instance could not be used in say a five-year-old vehicle which had a 10W/40 oil specification at birth. I had thought that the 0W/30 would be too thin.

WRONG!!

I found an excellent website on oils (car, bike, marine etc.) called Opie Oils, a family business since 1925.

Here are some interesting pages from their website, which has masses of articles on oil & everything to do with oil for the very serious mechanical enthusiasts;

http://www.opieoils.co.uk/pdfs/common-misconception.pdf
http://www.opieoils.co.uk/pdfs/Lubrican ... ations.pdf
http://www.opieoils.co.uk/t-does-using- ... ranty.aspx
http://www.opieoils.co.uk/

A guy form Opie Oils posts on many car websites under the pseudonym ‘The Oilman’ & here is an excellent article from one of them; it’s the first post;

http://www.ek9.org/forum/engine/26779-o ... dvice.html

My point on the TX4 engines is that perhaps they should be using & recommending a more recently developed oil as the above info clearly shows that the newer the specification of oil the better qualities it has for protecting, lubricating, cleaning & cooling the engine & lasting longer before losing viscosity.

But I think the main problem with the TX4 engines (& we’ve seen this so many times through the decades with other engine manufacturers having the same problems), is that the water & oil gallery forming materials used in the engine manufacture are not properly & carefully cleaned out of these galleries when the metal has cooled in the engine manufacturing process. And that’s just sheer negligence.

As far as I know, sand was, & probably still is, used to form water & oil galleries in the engine manufacturing process. After casting when the metal has cooled, it is imperative to get ALL the sand out of these galleries, for very obvious reasons. Any sand remaining, or if they use a different material now, must be entirely removed & this is where I speculate that the problem of premature engine failure is born; sloppy manufacturing techniques & negligence in this part of the engine’s manufacture.

The TX4 engine problems all point to this as being a likely cause of the premature engine failures that are being experienced. Sand or other water & oil gallery forming materials left in situ in varying quantities would give differing grades of the same problem as we are seeing.

A partly blocked water gallery or galleries would cause engine overheating in varying degrees, depending on the level of obstruction & could cause blockages in the radiator. It may also do nasty things like warping the head or in uneven extreme zonal overheating could render the engine scrap.

A partly blocked oil gallery or galleries would obviously cause lack of lubrication & also overheating in varying degrees, depending on the magnitude of the blockage or blockages, partial or full. Also, the lack of lubrication may not be evident for varying mileages, until perhaps a portion of the gallery forming material that might have been left in situ, breaks away to form the blockage. The same scenario is possible in the water galleries.

And I seem to recall one of the old British Leyland models from years gone by suffering the same catastrophic engine failures for this very reason.

And to me it seems very likely that history is repeating itself. This theory, in my mind , would certainly explain the differing degrees of the same problem.

And those are my theories.

Now someone like Mr T will likely tell me that I’m writing bullsh*t!!

The Italians do make damm good gearboxes though, 1 forward 6 reverse

And they are nearly 70 years old & were originally built for Mussolini's tanks.

If you speak to the people selling new TX4's they will tell you there is no problem....But.. if you speak to the people in the workshop.. they will tell you there's one or two a month that are having to have new engines..... and as for what may be happening... I do not know... and in all truth.... do not want to know.... I'll be sticking to the Nissan 27.. for many years to come...

The Italians cannot make engines that work for any period of time without having to get the tool kit out