Sorry to hear about your engine loss. I had something like that happen years ago. I was driving a VW Beetle at 1:00 in the morning on a dark, windy highway along the Pacific coast. As I neared the top of a long hill and shifted from 3rd to 4th, the engine gave a loud thumping sound. I immediately turned off the engine and rolled to the side of the road. On trying to resart, I got the same sound so I gave that up.

To make this story short, when I eventually got the car into Eureka, CA to a VW dealer, they took the head off one side of the engine and found a valve head had broken off and was being pounded between the piston and head. The shop replaced the piston and rod and valve and we were good to go. We got off lucky. It was a long, miserable night though.

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1986 300E
1993 Volvo 940 Wagon
1984 Volvo 240 (daughter's)
1976 Dodge 1/2T pickup, gas hog