Head gasket replacement turned complete rebuild
It all started with a slight hesitation/stutter at top end and an invisible coolant leak. You'll see another post from me wondering about fuel flow rate and then a day later finding that my oil started to show signs of coolant mixing. So i decided to do the right thing and replace the head gasket, timing belt, timing belt tensioner pulley, water pump and all other belts. Well, pulled off the valve cover and found one of the heads of a head bolt snapped off and no where to be found. Not to mention the top end got so starved from oil mixing with coolant, the rockers were grinding into the cam....... cam was toast as were the majority of the rockers.
Pulled a head off of a car at the local pick and pull for $20. That engine had 250,000 versus my 133,000 miles so i decided to try and use my head and just replace the rockers and cam. Well, i scored the rockers pulling out the rocker shaft from the head because of that sharp edge where the rocker retaining clips seat. That toasted the rest of my good rockers from my original head. Wanting to keep my valves which were for all practical purposes spotless and my original springs with over 100,000 miles less on them than the one from the pick and pull, I swapped valves and valve springs into the old head.
Threw it all back together, with all new gaskets and the parts list above, adjusted the valves and it was so quiet it was running like it only had 50 thousand on it. Two days later (today) on the way to work I got shafted by the guy next to me who would let me over before the light. So I goosed it off the light got in front of him, looked down saw I was at 5500 rpms, went to shift and the engine fell off HARD.
Now the engine is pretty weak sounds like its on 5.5 cylinders and knocks kinda loud. I just got done pulling the valve cover off and checking all rockers, the cam, and the valve springs. From what I can tell the valve-train is still in proper working order.... still quiet, everything is still rotating.
So, what is it now? Did I throw a con-rod bearing? Its entirely plausible that the bottom end could have been some what oil starved just like the top end was from the oil/coolant mixing. Well I just decided to loosening all the oil pan bolts before coming in for some dinner and a beer.
I might have to look for another pick and pull closer to Detroit than that other one. Anyone have any advice on things to check.... i didn't think about checking spark wires..... i guess that could somewhat cause the rough running at low rpms and low power but that wouldn't explain the click/knock that is present. My mind went to the next worse thing than bent valves..... burned up con-rod bearings.
Pulled a head off of a car at the local pick and pull for $20. That engine had 250,000 versus my 133,000 miles so i decided to try and use my head and just replace the rockers and cam. Well, i scored the rockers pulling out the rocker shaft from the head because of that sharp edge where the rocker retaining clips seat. That toasted the rest of my good rockers from my original head. Wanting to keep my valves which were for all practical purposes spotless and my original springs with over 100,000 miles less on them than the one from the pick and pull, I swapped valves and valve springs into the old head.
Threw it all back together, with all new gaskets and the parts list above, adjusted the valves and it was so quiet it was running like it only had 50 thousand on it. Two days later (today) on the way to work I got shafted by the guy next to me who would let me over before the light. So I goosed it off the light got in front of him, looked down saw I was at 5500 rpms, went to shift and the engine fell off HARD.
Now the engine is pretty weak sounds like its on 5.5 cylinders and knocks kinda loud. I just got done pulling the valve cover off and checking all rockers, the cam, and the valve springs. From what I can tell the valve-train is still in proper working order.... still quiet, everything is still rotating.
So, what is it now? Did I throw a con-rod bearing? Its entirely plausible that the bottom end could have been some what oil starved just like the top end was from the oil/coolant mixing. Well I just decided to loosening all the oil pan bolts before coming in for some dinner and a beer.
I might have to look for another pick and pull closer to Detroit than that other one. Anyone have any advice on things to check.... i didn't think about checking spark wires..... i guess that could somewhat cause the rough running at low rpms and low power but that wouldn't explain the click/knock that is present. My mind went to the next worse thing than bent valves..... burned up con-rod bearings.
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