Hey there all,

Well I've read all the horror stories of what's happened to me. I can't believe ONE lousy nut can cause such a headache!

The nut that holds the oil pump pulley on let go on me a few months back, which in turn caused many belts to slip and let go, one of which was the all important timing belt. This in turn caused the engine to stop.

Today I have finally gotten the head off, and what did I find? No surprise, bent valves and in fact rockers rolling around inside with the cams. However one thing I did find which troubles me is that the tops of the pistons are now dented from hitting the valves.

I have a block with pistons and a head from that same block as well, so my question is do I replace the pistons, or rebuild the engine with the head that contains non-damaged valves and see what happens?

I can only afford Fridays to work on this with my schedule, so it's taken me a long time to get to this point. Any ideas on how much extra work's involved at the point I'm at now to remove the pistons and install the other block's pistons? I presume I'll need new rings as well right, anything else? I've already got a FelPro gasket set ready to go in.

You can go here to see images of what I\'m talking about. (Click Me)

Thanks in advance,

Dan

Dude, those grooves you are referring to are always there. Youd see metal if it was piston pieces. Looks like you just need a rebuilt head.

Yup those are normal.

When I pulled my head

Pistons cleaned up and back in the block

HOLY CRAP! No kidding, that is SUCH great news! I just ran outside and looked at the tops of the pistons of the other block I have, and low and behold those half moons are there!

Wicked, now I just have to reassemble!

Is there a way to clean up the pistons without removing them?

Ciao and thanks again,

Dan

You could soak them in MCCC, but they wont come out as clean as mine.

What's MCCC? Can I do that without removing them? Is it imparative that I clean them, or what?

Dan

Dan, MCCC = Mopar Combustion Chamber Cleaner. It cleans out the carbon buildup. Go and grab a new tbelt, tensioner, headgasket and find a head for around 100-150 to toss on. Total repair should be under 300 if you source parts out correctly.

Cool.

I actually got a block with a head on it that came out of a wrecked car that had only about 60000Kms on it for $100, have already gotten the tbelt as well as a full engine gasket set (FelPro) so I'm set!

This MCCC stuff; so you do leave the pistons in then? Is the procedure pretty straight forward?

Awesome! This is actually pretty fun, I'm enjoying playing mechanic! I just wish I had more time to do it, and could have it all done in a few days rather than months (at one day a week).

Dan

pfft.. you guys got nothing on me!

http://www.trancetraffic.com/6bolt/DSC00345.html

Wow, that's pretty........but my goal's to simply get it running again!

Ciao,

Dan

Well crap,

So I've got it all put back together now, and it won't start. It did backfire twice, but no go.

Could this simply be a timing issue? Could it be something much more? Any takers?

Any Ottawa area guys eager to come to the rescue, and help me make it go?!

Dan

Did you do a compression check first?

Well, that's yet another issue. I'm not sure that my compression tester is wokring correctly. It did cross my mind that that could be a problem, but I crossed my fingers that it wasn't! I've got a new head gasket installed, and the head and block are both cleaned and looked good. I'm getting so frustrated, it's been about 3 months of work, 1 day a week!

Dan

sounds like timing , make sure you have the lines on the cam pullys lined up, also the dowel pins have to be facing up, go and check that, thats my guess. You lined up the marks but had the pins facing down.

I'm pretty sure I got all the timing marks on all the gears and pulleys correct. I did have to remove the cam angle sensor off of the old head and install it onto this one. Could that affect iginition?

Also, I'm not 100% sure I have the ignition wires in the distributor (not the right word on my car a 1990 N/T 2.0L, what's it really called?) so that for sure could be it right?

Dan

Yes you will have to have the CAS oriented properly (it could be 180 degrees out of phase), and also the wires would have to be in the right order on the coil pack. 4-1-2-3 when looking at it from the driver side.

Cool, okay......I'll double check those things then.

Which cylinder is considered #1? Driver's side? I'd need to know that as well to ensure that the plugs are going to the right cylinder.

Dan

#1 is always at the front of the engine.
That's the driver side on all 1G DSMs.

Is it 1-2-3-4 from driver's to passenger or does it do anything crazy like 1-3-4-2?

Dan

.........3
.........2 <-- coil pack
.........1
.........4
|4-3-2-1&#0124;&#0124;<-- timing belt
^-- engine

Nice, good little schematic.

Thanks,

Dan

Spark/fuel/compression find out which one you are missing.

Hey all,

I have no idea what's wrong with it, it seems to have spark (it backfires) and fuel's flowing. I've got no time to work on this damn car, I just wish it would RUN again! I'm so frustrated I've even listed it for sale but see now I'll likely never get what I'm hoping for it.

What would be the worst case scenario at this point? If there's no compression, would that mean the rings are foobarred, and I'd need to do a full engine rebuild. I have no time, or clue on how to do that very well.

I don't imagine there's anyone in the greater Ottawa area who just loves mucking around in these cars and would like to fix mine for peanuts and help out a poor starving student!? I dream.

Fark!

Dan