hey guys, well i feel completely stupid about this, but i recently did a headgasket job on my evo. i made sure to resurface the head also. everything turned out perfect and car ran good for about 150 miles.

but during the time when i was loosening the tensioner with the tool. i might have tightened the tensioner too much, so when i was backing it out to create tension on the timing belt i felt a snap. it was so weak of a snap i couldnt tell if i really snapped the rod off. so after i took out the rod i looked at the bottom of the rod and it was rounded off. so i thought that it didnt snap...

well driving around i felt a little hesitation and all of the sudden my car just completely died in gear, gas pedal didnt work or anything, so i let the coast down in gear intill i let go of the clutch and ovcourse the car died.

i am planning on ordering a new complete timing belt set but i want to make sure that the valves werent hit so i started to check the timing to see if it skipped. but the weird thing was that the crank pulley seemed to be more at the left then it used to. i am getting a borescope to see if any valves were hit. but since my crank skipped to the left wouldnt that mean that my timing retarted itself? i cranked the car and i didnt hear any weird noises when cranking, please help and thanks

 

also i would like to add that i did infact see a piece of the rod sitting next to the head when i checked the timing belt!!!

and the timing belt had a weird smelling oil which leaves me to believe that the tensioner oil came out on top of the timing belt.

but really now when i turn over the car by hand it doesnt feel like before, i hope it is just because the timing skipped.

or maybe the rod came down the timing belt and ruined my crank sensor?? its weird that my car would want to shut off right away.

 

put the new belt on then do a compression test.how many teeth is it off.

 

it honestly looked like it was about 3 teeth to the left. the cams were in spec they lined up, just the crank was off. i was going to just put the new timing belt on but i at least wanted to see if maybe anyone can confirm if the crank retarted itself or advanced, im thinking that since the crank moved to the left it retarted, im just confused also why the car just shut off. maybe it slipped so much that there would be no compression? i have no idea!

 

Damn I just got finished doing the exact same job and have 1600 miles with no issues...first time doing it. Sounds like you didnt get the eccentric pulley tight in the right spot. You just gonna have to tear into it and redo the timing job and hope the valves arent bent. Definitely a new auto tnesioner and tensioner pulley would be in order if it were me. I actually did the timing job with zero specialty tools. It must have really been loose because I thought mine was on the loose side and I'm turning 8700rpm on a stroker with no issues. Did you pry the eccentric pulley up and towards the front of the car?

 

When doing the timing belt, make sure that there is no slack in the belt. I had a hard time doing this without help to make sure that the cams didnt move when tightening the tensioner.

If there is slack, the cams or crank will be 1 to 3 teeth off depengin on where the extra slack is.

 

thats the thing, when i backed out the rod the timing belt tightened up just fine, but whAt happened was while i was driving the piece of leftover rod backed out and went into my timing belt. shredding one part of it.

i ordered jays racing timing belt kit. and also a completely new timing belt kit. i cant believe that the rod snapped.

but when the car shut off i didnt hear anything valves hitting or anything like that. on friday im gonna rent a borescope and try and see if the valves are bent. i would hate to take off a head that i just put back on.

 

So what you are saying is that the tool that compresses the tensioner broke and left a piece in the engine. This piece then came out and fell into the timing belt?

Anyway, I know many people use that tool, and I had one once. When I was screwing it into the engine I had a bad feeling about what I was doing. So, I removed the tool and threw it away. Since then I've always pulled the tensioner and pinned it at the work bench (or installed a new tensioner) and reset the tension with the little tool with two pins. When you do this you need the tool that fits between the cam sprockets or the belt will jump at the crank sprocket.

BTW, back in the time of DSMs it wasn't unusual for a timing belt to snap and the valves survived. I never heard of the same thing happening with the more aggressive Evo engine cams. But, try a new belt, maybe you will be the lucky one.

 

yeah thanks alot man, im gonna just put a new timing belt with new tensioner and turn on the car and see if it runs good. when i cranked the car i didnt hear anything weird or even when the car shut off on me. im hoping that peaking into the combustion chamber and looking at the top of the pistons should tell me if the valves made contact or not.

 

If you can look into the bore with a torch or something you will soon see if the valves have touched as there should be a nice clean mark in the carbon on the piston.

 

that a good suggestion, but i pulled the spark plug and i think its too small for me to look into. i need to get that borescope!