Timing Belt - I am either Really Lucky Or SOL

Oh yeah, that's right. I never actually did the Volvo (RWD) but I did the head gasket and noticed how easy it would have been had it needed it.

The one on the Porsche is not that bad. The key is marking reference points in the balance shaft belt. AND having the thin wrenches for the belt adjusters. If I did not have to take the cam tower off it would have been a 3 hour job. But I have a triangulated strut tower brace as well as a custon ignition that added to the time.

I also found that goof off is the best gasket remover / parts cleaner on the planet! I really like it because it does not spray a boat load of product on to what you are cleaning compared to brake cleaner or carb cleaner. It also seems to really eat up the gum and varnish that others just don't seem to get. It also got that weird black sealant (almost looks like graphite) that is on the cam tower gasket of th Porsche off with ease. I used a scotch brite pad and a brass brush to get the really stubborn areas but even that was done with ease!

FOR THE WIN!!!!

dean1484 wrote: FOR THE WIN!!!!

Where did you find this miracle product?

Ford 2.3 is the simplest timing belt procedure I know of, 2 bolts on the tensioner, loosen and remove the other accessory belts by loosening their tensioners2-3 depending if you have AC, pop it off, put new on, retighten, align via marks and accessory wheel, done. And if you screw up it's a non-interference engine, so just move your teeth, retighten, try again

psychic_mechanic wrote:

dean1484 wrote: FOR THE WIN!!!!

Where did you find this miracle product?

I had a can of orange marking paint let go in the second seat of my expedition 5 years back. It was recommended I try it and it worked great. I keep a can around the house at all times. It also gets ink out of shirts, permanent marker is no longer permanent. You can get it at home depot.

I have been looking for a good solvent for gasket removal especially in the Porsche. The surfaces are aluminum and very soft. Combined with the gaskets being very thin. So if you scratch the mating surface you can easily get a leak. The cam tower mounting surface to the head is probably the worst I have found. The gasket is literally as thin as a piece of copier paper. One small divot or scratch, especially if it runs to the outside edge and it is an issue.

Going back to the original post, you said you did a compression check and it was 80 in each cylinder, then you added oil and it jumped to 150 in each cylinder. If this is purely a timing belt issue, why did the oil make a difference?

Bob

dean1484 wrote: I have been looking for a good solvent for gasket removal especially in the Porsche. The surfaces are aluminum and very soft. Combined with the gaskets being very thin. So if you scratch the mating surface you can easily get a leak. The cam tower mounting surface to the head is probably the worst I have found. The gasket is literally as thin as a piece of copier paper. One small divot or scratch, especially if it runs to the outside edge and it is an issue.

I'm doing a head gasket on my 960 Volvo and have the same type of concerns with the chemical gasket on the upper cam cover. I tried stopping by autozone to find gasket remover yesterday and they didn't have any. This sounds like it will work great.

Schmidlap wrote: Going back to the original post, you said you did a compression check and it was 80 in each cylinder, then you added oil and it jumped to 150 in each cylinder. If this is purely a timing belt issue, why did the oil make a difference? Bob

Combination of problems.

I had flooded the car and the timing belt had jumped. Adding oil got things to about 140-150 After running it this way It settled down to 120. I Will do another compression check this weekend and see where it is.

dean1484 wrote: Combination of problems. I had flooded the car and ...

That's what I was driving at - that you had washed the oil film off the cylinder walls and scored the walls, leading to your low compression. I wasn't sure if just washing off the oil film would drop your compression that much. Hopefully there's no damage. Good luck!

Bob

Schmidlap wrote:

dean1484 wrote: Combination of problems. I had flooded the car and ...

That's what I was driving at - that you had washed the oil film off the cylinder walls and scored the walls, leading to your low compression. I wasn't sure if just washing off the oil film would drop your compression that much. Hopefully there's no damage. Good luck! Bob

Actually it was not scored cylinder walls it was a jumped timing belt. It had advanced the cam by a tooth making the intake valve close later. The piston was actually starting to rise with the intake valve still open. This was reducing the compression in the cylinders as well as making the intake vacuum very low.

I got everything fixed over the weekend. It it running great. I am going to do a compression test this coming weekend just to see where it is now that everything is back to spec. I also have to install the plastic shields over the belts and I still have to put in the strut tower brace back in.

A new accurate compression test is needed. I don't trust the second set of compression #'s as they were taken as the belt was failing. It could be that I got the 150 number and then it had advanced the cam more after it ran some and then the second set of #'s at 120 were really with the cam more advanced and not a cylinder ware issue. (I hope)

Sweet, I'm glad it's running though!