MOT gone wrong - Advice please

[rory_pamphilon]

Hi all,

I have owned my 2.8 QS for a year and a half now and it has been superb,very few issues even at 101k. MOT time so booked it in, new rear discs/pads as expected but I also got the mechanic to do an engine oil/filter change.

Picked car up everything seemed fine, drove to a meeting 60miles away, as I was pulling in to meeting car park steam started pouring out of engine bay. Had a look, coolant everywhere. Went into meeting, came back out, called mechanic, he said keep checking coolant level and try to get back to garage. 5 miles down the road, coolant temp went to 120c+ so pulled over on hard shoulder and got breakdown truck to take me back to garage. Whilst waiting for pickup I noticed one of the rubber radiator pipes (next to oil filter) had moved slightly somehow and had been rubbing up against fan belt pulley wheel which must have caused coolant leak once it wore through.

Anyway over the weekend mechanic replaced rubber pipe and topped up with coolant, then came to pick me up last night so I could drop him off, pretty much as soon as I started driving it became very lumpy, rough idle, very tractor like. Pulled into service station, radiator top up tank was boiling and took quite some time to open and top up. we suspected vapour lock so bled out some air using the two screw/nipples at back of engine bay, topped up with water and carried on. He said it wasnt lumpy when he set off but that I should leave it over night to see if lumpy in the morning (if it wasnt lumpy on cold startup he suspected it may be spark plugs). This morning, even worse, struggled to get to work and had to abandon it at side of the road. sounds like its running on 4-5 cylinders, alot of vibration esp at low revs/idle, mechanical tapping noise when reving past 2k, down on alot of power, stalled on slight hill on way to work and doesnt have enough power to move forwards. no real smoke that I could see but could smell hot oil from engine bay.

So, any idea what is going on? Have I cooked my engine? Has he cooked my engine by setting off to pick me up with vapour locked radiator? Was it vapour locked? Whats the mechanical tapping noise?

Mechanic is coming to pick it up a third time later to see if he can identify the issue. Im preparing myself for the worst though as if this is a new engine required I may have to get rid of the car.

Thanks in advance