So, When The Top End's Not Connected To The Bottom End

[dobbo]

It's gonna be expensive

 

 

 

 

Again :angry:

[Martin R]

Chris, just replied / seen this on SELOC I presume its cam belt again. Mines nearly back together. If you need a hand taking apart or removing engine etc etc to save a few quid, give me a shout.

[dobbo]

Cheers Martin, but with two little ones I simply don't have the time at the moment. I'd love to actually do it myself but I have no idea how bad it is inside yet.

 

The pistons go up and down but the cams don't move, and there was a tinkling noise just before the engine died.

 

When I turn the crank, I can hear the belt teeth rubbing the crank pulley.

 

I don't think the belt's snapped as I can't remove it, and it doesn't seem to have stripped the teeth like it did last time - I think the tensioner has slipped.

 

I might be lucky, then again I might not. I was driving harder this time. On the plus side, I still have all the undamaged valves from last time, so I might be able to cobble together a full set of non-bent ones and fingers crossed the pistons / crank aren't damaged. Spark plugs look fine, so I don't think anything has broken off (valve head) and got mashed up in there.

 

 

[Martin R]

Bugger, i presume you have checked the crank pulley is not loose ? If not it does sound like its lost the tension somehow.

[dobbo]

Given that I could hear the pulley rubbing the teeth, I think the pulley is probably tight. Couple of photos showing slack in belt ...

 

and clean witness mark under tensioner back-plate

[Martin R]

Chris, hard to tell from the pic but the tensioner looks virtually at full adjustment to me ( ie tight setting ) Time to check the bottom crank pulley bolt etc. I would first get a small rod in each spark plug hole and get it to 90 DBTDC. That is when all the pistons are half way in the bores.

[dobbo]

Right then - borrowed a video probe and had a look in tonight.

 

 

There's been valve / piston contact on at least 3 cylinders (enough to dent the piston crown), which is bad news

The exhaust cam won't budge - I take that to mean that a valve with a bent stem has been jammed into the head, which is bad news

Inlet cam seems fine

Belt has stripped 18 teeth and the leading edge of most remaining teeth seems to be starting to part company from the belt (both pretty much the same as last time)

 

 

So I guess this means a bunch of new valves (luckily I still have the old ones and most of them were OK. Fingers crossed I can get a full set out of the old ones and these ones), valve guides, pistons.

 

Well, it needed stripping to investigate the oil burning issue, so labour wise it's near enough the same, but there's some parts there that I wasn't planning on.

[russelld]

Sorry to hear this Chris.

 

I hope you get it sorted without too much expense and down time.

[chorton_1]

Ouch, sorry to hear this Chris. Hope you get it all sorted out ASAP.

[PeterField]

Bugger!

 

Hope it turns out ok mate and you're back running soon.

[steve-n]

oh dear..... bet your glad you have a big garage now

 

if you need a hand give me a shout, i make good coffee LOL

[Stumason10]

Sorry to hear this Chris, saw a post on seloc briefly but thought that was last time.

 

Mike PMC seems pretty up to speed on heads and has set up I seem to have read somewhere. If you need a hand pulling it apart in the meantime I know a man that can in Barrow on Trent. Pretty cheap and works on my race elise and a couple of others. Has access to trailer too as I am guessing its not mobile.

 

Drop me a pm if you need any help. Blooming bad luck.

[dobbo]

Oooh, look what's now in my garage....

 

S160 VVC and CR box.

 

With my Jenvey TBs, EP big-bore exhaust, Emerald, 285H cams, verniers, a little porting and a re-map, it should be good for 180-190 according to DVA. Coupled to the CR box (and a few nice bits and bobs from my engine) it'll be as quick as my current one. I might lose a bit of top-end speed, but my current one pulled 140 in 4th, so I'm not really worried about that !

 

(actually, it'll be a lot quicker than my current one, given that it's dead )

[Stumason10]

Ah great!!! Good action.

[dobbo]

I sooooo want to get back in the seat and drive it !