Broken rod?

[InferiorWang]

Last night I was out with a friend in his fairly new 95 Tsi AWD. We were crusing along, not ever hitting much boost, 5 or 6 pounds max throughout the whole drive. After a while, we started hearing an odd knocking noise and my friend said it felt like he was only driving on 3 cylinders. Most of the time he shifted the car nearly died, and did just about every time he down shifted. The thing has a pushbutton starter so if it didn't keep going when he popped the clutch, it was quick and easy to restart.

I noticed much less vacuum than normal on the boost guage and at first thought he had blown of a vacuum hose. We stopped at a gas station and looked for the missing hose for a while and couldn't find it or a spot where one would have belonged. Then, he started the car again, and the noise was much much worse. It sounded like several decent sized metal pieces clanging around in the block. I was reluctant to tell him that I think he might have busted a rod, but I think that may be what it is.

We called AAA and he's going to have it brought to a mechanic, but I was wondering what you guys thought. Busted rod? Maybe a piston? Something else I haven't thought of?

It's got several mods on it, but we aren't sure about everything it has. We know it has a new turbo (I'm guessing T28), 3" exhaust starting at the DP, boost controller, to name the major things that we know.

 

[BISHILVR]

maybe the timing belt skipped and you bent a couple valves???...

 

[InferiorWang]

that would suck even worse

 

[InferiorWang]

confirmed cylinder 4 not firing and has a broken rod. their mechanic is gonna take the oil pan off monday and see how bad the damage is.

 

[Defiant]

It's seldom you break a rod without grenading the engine. The bits left on the big end usually make a couple of laps through the sides of the block. Perhaps a broken piston.