16V (nice and tidy valves) no more troubles
Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 12:13 am
Hi dr. Nick
Hi everybody!
Yesterday I've purchased a MK1 16V with some troubles:
This car has been property of the previous owner for four years.
Around 40K KM's he changed the distributionbelt, together with the two tensioners and the waterpump.
About a month ago his girlfriend was driving it and had to make a sudden stop, apparently she braked hard without using the clutch so the engine stopped running and hasn't ran since....
They tried to start the engine a couple of times after that, the engine turned as it should (no weird noises) but wouldn't start.
He checked the distribution belt and found out that it was too loose and could remove it by hand without too much effort, and as such expected that the timing went wrong and he didn't want to invest in this car anymore.
So yesterday I picked it up by ambulance and today I started working on it.
Because the timingbelt was already removed I needed to set the sprockets right in order to block them with the designated materials (e.g. a drill and 2 inbuswrenches carefully carved into the right demensions since I allready have a 16V) I had to turn the camsprockets about a third of a stroke, and the driveshaftsprocket about twice that. All this went without strange tensions in the engine and felt as it should (I've got a spare cilinderhead in my attick and fiddled with that for a bit and the cams feels pretty good, the same as my spare head as for the tensions provided by the valve-springs.
So I placed a new timingbelt, turned the engine a couple of times by hand to make sure there were no pistons touching the valves, and all went well, exept for the fact that I misplaced the belt so the camsprockets where off by one tooth of the belt. Reinstalled the belt again and now after a couple of turns the blockingholes where perfectly aligned.
I then tried to start the engine, it turnes nicely but it won't start.
Ofcourse I do have to check the compression, but I won't be able to check that until monday nor will I be able to do anything on the car for that matter until monday.
But I do have a couple of questions about this phenomenon:
When the timingbelt would have failed, and the pistons collided with the valves, and some of them would have been bended. Would it still be possible to turn the engine by hand without any restrictions or noises? I know the XU9J4 has pistons with spaces in them for the valves otherwise under normal conditions they would hit eachother.
So my theorie is that when I'm able to turn the engine with the timingbelt in place let alone with the cams off, the valves would be in order, right?
This because I have a cilinderhead as well with 6 bended valves, on this head the valves keep sticking out because they're bent and won't fit in the head anymore.
If anywone could confirm that?
Then, while starting, and I did that for a couple of times and several times well more then a couple of seconds with and withoud full throttle. I can't sence the least bit of fuel fumes. I would suspect that it would smell badly of unburned fuel wilst drowning my engine.
I've tested all the plugcables, every cilinder has a spark. Also I detached the fuel hose that's connected to the fuelrail and there is fuelpressure.
So my guess (and mainly hope) is that the fact that the engine stopped turning is not due to a malfunctioning timingbelt but due to something else..... but what? is there anything that could have happened while stamping on the break paddle without using the clutch that could be responsible for this? I'm suspecting that the injectors don't open, but I've cleaned the connectors (to the point where the cables go into the carrosserie) but that didn't help a bit. I should as well measure the signal that's being sent to the injectors (if any) but again, not untill monday.
I hope that someone here has some answers to my questions. I've bought this car for 300 euro's and it has ran just 220K KM's which is well under my MK2 (but my MK2 is my sweetheart, that'll never go!) I'm hoping to fix this black MK1 for a friend of mine.
Well...... thanks!!
Hi everybody!
Yesterday I've purchased a MK1 16V with some troubles:
This car has been property of the previous owner for four years.
Around 40K KM's he changed the distributionbelt, together with the two tensioners and the waterpump.
About a month ago his girlfriend was driving it and had to make a sudden stop, apparently she braked hard without using the clutch so the engine stopped running and hasn't ran since....
They tried to start the engine a couple of times after that, the engine turned as it should (no weird noises) but wouldn't start.
He checked the distribution belt and found out that it was too loose and could remove it by hand without too much effort, and as such expected that the timing went wrong and he didn't want to invest in this car anymore.
So yesterday I picked it up by ambulance and today I started working on it.
Because the timingbelt was already removed I needed to set the sprockets right in order to block them with the designated materials (e.g. a drill and 2 inbuswrenches carefully carved into the right demensions since I allready have a 16V) I had to turn the camsprockets about a third of a stroke, and the driveshaftsprocket about twice that. All this went without strange tensions in the engine and felt as it should (I've got a spare cilinderhead in my attick and fiddled with that for a bit and the cams feels pretty good, the same as my spare head as for the tensions provided by the valve-springs.
So I placed a new timingbelt, turned the engine a couple of times by hand to make sure there were no pistons touching the valves, and all went well, exept for the fact that I misplaced the belt so the camsprockets where off by one tooth of the belt. Reinstalled the belt again and now after a couple of turns the blockingholes where perfectly aligned.
I then tried to start the engine, it turnes nicely but it won't start.
Ofcourse I do have to check the compression, but I won't be able to check that until monday nor will I be able to do anything on the car for that matter until monday.
But I do have a couple of questions about this phenomenon:
When the timingbelt would have failed, and the pistons collided with the valves, and some of them would have been bended. Would it still be possible to turn the engine by hand without any restrictions or noises? I know the XU9J4 has pistons with spaces in them for the valves otherwise under normal conditions they would hit eachother.
So my theorie is that when I'm able to turn the engine with the timingbelt in place let alone with the cams off, the valves would be in order, right?
This because I have a cilinderhead as well with 6 bended valves, on this head the valves keep sticking out because they're bent and won't fit in the head anymore.
If anywone could confirm that?
Then, while starting, and I did that for a couple of times and several times well more then a couple of seconds with and withoud full throttle. I can't sence the least bit of fuel fumes. I would suspect that it would smell badly of unburned fuel wilst drowning my engine.
I've tested all the plugcables, every cilinder has a spark. Also I detached the fuel hose that's connected to the fuelrail and there is fuelpressure.
So my guess (and mainly hope) is that the fact that the engine stopped turning is not due to a malfunctioning timingbelt but due to something else..... but what? is there anything that could have happened while stamping on the break paddle without using the clutch that could be responsible for this? I'm suspecting that the injectors don't open, but I've cleaned the connectors (to the point where the cables go into the carrosserie) but that didn't help a bit. I should as well measure the signal that's being sent to the injectors (if any) but again, not untill monday.
I hope that someone here has some answers to my questions. I've bought this car for 300 euro's and it has ran just 220K KM's which is well under my MK2 (but my MK2 is my sweetheart, that'll never go!) I'm hoping to fix this black MK1 for a friend of mine.
Well...... thanks!!