cinta asfaltatica

16:16 Feb 17, 2012 

ha! I love it, thank you Mike! I will definitely take that into account. All the best -

15:01 Feb 17, 2012 

I've been washing the dishes after lunch and I always think well while I'm washing dishes so...
I went back to the original post. Crankcases are usually made of aluminum alloy and are very tough. Sumps are usually made of sheet steel and are much easier to poke a hole in. So... if it was metal debris on the road that caused the problem in the first place it was more likely to be a sump than a crankcase.
As you know, a con-rod in Spanish is a biela, so desvielarse must be to "de-conrodify", hence "throw a rod"!!
This reminds me of endless trouble I once had with "vatería". It had a double typo, and should have been beatería, and it took a cleverer person than me to work it out...

14:12 Feb 17, 2012 

PS. I also think it is a particularly Mexican term, because the Spanish friends I consulted (I live in Spain) hadn't heard the term "desvielar"

14:11 Feb 17, 2012 

Mike, thanks so much! And don't apologize for getting geeky, the best Proz discussions are the geekiest ones!! (I have to say I felt rather shamefaced when I asked my father if he knew what a crankcase was, and he said "of course!" ha! ... seems like I am living up to my female gender stereotypes in this case!) :) All the best -

13:25 Feb 17, 2012 

Yes, Laura. On reflection it seems likely to me that desvielar is slangy, and I apologise for missing its register. This being so, your rendering of "throw a rod" is perfect. They really do throw them and they sometimes smash their way out of the engine, destroying it.
Don't worry about crankcase or sump or oil pan, they all effectively mean the same: they're the case that keeps the oil in and the muck out, underneath the crankshaft. The rods (British mechanics often call them con-rods, short for connecting rods) attach to the crankshaft. Getting seriously geeky now. Sorry!

13:02 Feb 17, 2012 

This really is like a whole new world for me, thanks so much everyone. (I've done lots of accounting and insurance stuff but have never had such technical stuff on the automobile.) Mike - would you consider "desvielar" to be slang as well? I gathered that it was more of a slangy term used mainly in Mexico to mean throw a rod or the engine seized up or the engine is shot or some such. If so, then I would want to keep the slangy nature in English, but if not, I would want to use the more technical phrase you suggested. Also, is "carter" then not "crankcase" (that´s what I had found it as)? but rather "oil pan" or "sump" ? In either case it sounds like the poor guy is without a car!! Thanks again everyone for the advice.

18:09 Feb 16, 2012 

that since you're not a specialist, Laura, you may not know that "throwing a rod" is slang and in your document you may be better off with the more po-faced "suffered connecting rod damage".
In the UK the oil pan is called the sump, but it's just as eski puts it. Sump damaged, oil lost, massive engine damage, huge repair bill. It can be enough to write an old car off.

17:58 Feb 16, 2012 

That's right-the damage to the oil pan (Carter) would cause the oil to leak and consequently, engine failure. Throwing a rod would be typical.
Hi from Acapulco,}
eski

17:49 Feb 16, 2012 

Thanks to everyone who has commented so far; I really appreciate it! I´ve also figured out that "se desviela el motor" actually means that the engine throws a rod (not that it was somehow uncovered - I was misreading "desvielar" as a typo for "desvelar"). Anyway - thanks again!