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View Full Version : Think a mate has possibly stuffed my car up! help


1fast6
10-07-2005, 21:33
I needed the headgasket doing on my clio so i had arranged for a mechanic to come out to mine and do it. Unfortunately got let down but one of my mates who works for a body shop but knows his stuff on cars volunteered to do it for me.

Anyway i assumed he knew what he has doing and let him get on with it. He got so far as trying to remove the timing cover and couldnt get the top cover off. So it seems he has cut the cambelt so he can just pull the head off that way. Likely i have another belt.But i think he has made a big mistake doing that as he not only did not align the engine to TDC before doing so but we have no timing marks now either.

Current state is, the belt has been snipped, the crank pulley is off and the engine is locked with a screwdriver on the flywheel.

Is it possible the timing is wrecked now? How can we proceed?

Thanks for any advice, the engine is a 1.4 energy e7j lump
Rich
10-07-2005, 23:41
first of all i'd kick his ****ing arse for being so stupid the cowboy! and secondly you time the belt by the marks which are on the cams so if you cant find them you mush have ground the faces of the cams off which is unlikely! they line up with marks on the block so clean it off and find them and await someone who knows what they are doing! its no good relacing the gasket if the head wants skimming first and if he cant even take a belt cover off i doubt he will be able to tell!
Slithers
10-07-2005, 23:44
first of all i'd kick his ****ing arse for being so stupid the cowboy! and secondly you time the belt by the marks which are on the cams so if you cant find them you mush have ground the faces of the cams off which is unlikely! they line up with marks on the block so clean it off and find them and await someone who knows what they are doing! its no good relacing the gasket if the head wants skimming first and if he cant even take a belt cover off i doubt he will be able to tell!

agreed

for deffo, just get in a decent garage and let them sort it
BenR
11-07-2005, 00:38
dont worry about timing till it comes to putting it back togther.

On the gearbox there is a slot with a TDC reference on it, you can find TDC that way, just line up the slot on the flywheel to the 0 mark on the gearbox.

Rip the head off

replace the gasket after cleaning/checking all is flat.

Then line up tdc, and line up the pulley's timing mark, tension....done.
northy
11-07-2005, 08:15
cheers ben :D
1fast6
11-07-2005, 16:05
Cheers ben, does it matter if we take the head off before locating TDC?

Now the belt is cut the camshaft pulley will need to be rotated too.

This may sound like a stupid question but when the engine is at TDC, does the camshaft pulley need to be alignment with the top timing mark? i.e. is that the mark that matches up with tdc of the engine?

I wish i hadnt started this now.
VIPERONE
11-07-2005, 18:25
no u can set top dead centre at any stage, providing the belts are not on..

fly wheel only goes on one way
there is a blanking plug to set the bottom end to tdc.. remove plug and turn engine by hand until u can see the recess in the hole, then insert an allen bolt.

i would:

remove old belts , replace head gasket, set bottom end so all pistons about 1/2 way down their bores then replace head tigtening in sequence.
set cam pulleys aas close to 12 oclock as you can.

put cam belt on ensure that that the lines on cam belt line up ith the mark on the crank pulley and the cam pullies.
you will have to apply spanner pressure on the inlet cam to ensure it can be moved on to the line.
check every thing over 4 times. manually turn the engine over to listen and feel for grinding noises.
BenR
11-07-2005, 22:54
you sound like your worried about bending somehting, or damaging the valves/pistons. Dont worry, even if they touch or hit, its such low speed that no damage can occur.
VIPERONE
11-07-2005, 23:45
Apprehension negates overconfidence :-)
1fast6
12-07-2005, 12:14
Well the situation is alot worse now.

Removed the top timing cover and both gaskets last night. The head just would not come off no matter how hard we pulled. I spoke to a mechnaic and he thinks the wet liners of the cylinders have stuck to the head and it is siezed on. Furthermore if we remove the head it is likely to pull the liners out.

What a waste of time and money now i need a new car :(

Is there any hope?
Rich
12-07-2005, 12:25
i'll have a complete 1.2 engine for sale soon chief ;) well if the conversion goes to plan this weekend :P
kj16v
13-07-2005, 20:42
1fast6 First of all you and your spanner-bashing cowboy mate need to get a Haynes Manual! :roll: When you remove the head off an engine with wet liners, you leave in one of the middle head bolts but loosen it. Next you twist the head to loosen it from the liners. If that doesn't work, you knock it round with a soft-faced mallet. Then you should be able to lift it off.
1fast6
14-07-2005, 10:07
well we have now got the head off. We do have a haynes it is not that helpfull. The liners did not move when the head was removed and we did leave a bolt in thankyou. I would not attempt this if we were totally clueless.

The only problem now is the temp sensor that has been snapped in the head will not turn out.If i cant get it out i may need to get a new head.