Crack in concrete or minor damage?

Hi there,

I'm having the following problem:
After my engine suffered a crack in the cylinder head, I caused water hammer damage by towing (see my previous posts), which resulted in damage to the connecting rod. Now...
1. Installing a new head.
Installed a new piston including the connecting rod.
3. All connecting rod bearings and piston rings have been replaced.
4. new cylinder head gasket, etc.

Okay, so last night things got interesting. I started the engine, and it fired up immediately, running smoothly and evenly. After having a beer out of excitement, I started the engine again and let it warm up, and then this happened:

After the engine has been running for a while, it suddenly starts to rev slightly higher and begins to run unevenly. At the same time, the coolant warning light flashes (the temperature gauge shows a normal reading), and the heater doesn't get properly warm.
'Since this all happened very similarly before my engine failure, I'm now afraid that not only was the cylinder head damaged, but also that the engine block has a crack. Such cracks can be quite small and easy to overlook. However, I can't observe any white exhaust smoke...'

Does anyone else have a different diagnosis?

Maybe it could be something small after all.

Markus.

Hi, I forgot to mention this: the engine is a 1.9 TD (ABL).

Markus.

Are exhaust gases measurable or detectable in the cooling system?

Is the Vapu working properly and is it correctly vented?

Otherwise, maybe you should have the cooling system flushed somewhere; it has to be working somehow!

If you let it idle for ten minutes and then start the engine, it shouldn't be producing white smoke or running on only three cylinders.
Otherwise, thumbs up – it seems the block is clean.