It was a rough week. Work has been hell. Then, driving home from work I noticed the car seemed a little sluggish. By the time I got off the freeway there was a loud noise coming from the car. NOt sure if it's a bad "knock" or what... but it appears my car is painfully wounded. I will probably have to start looking at rebuilt alternatives.

What a sad day, indeed.

C.

Think in terms of valves......I'm on #3

Thanks,

I'm gonna pop the valve covers tomorrow. I'm waiting for a frickin' Adelphia tech in the meantime, and I have to go to work today and tonight. HOwever, I will definitely check the valves. Thanks for your suggestion. Let's hope it's not a "BIG" issue.

C.

While it is a pain in the ass, dropping the engine and pulling the heads is not the worst. As long as the seat or valve head did not seperate and destroy the piston / barrel / head (in other words...don't drive it), it can be a reasonable fix. ( I just did one and will have to do another soon )

Is it worth to do all that, or is it usually better/easier to replace the engine?

"Loud noise"? Describe the loud noise. Could be (and often is!) a blown out spark plug, something that could be repaired in the car. The Cap'n

My stupid question....

Can you take the valve covers off in the car or do you have to drop the engine to do that?

there's a little knock i want to investigate too!

Yep, the valve covers will come off with the engine in the car.

Good luck on this carlos!

Thanks for the good wishes guys.

I'll be taking the valve covers off tomorrow. I took off the spark plugs earlier today from the right sid. So far, the spark plugs don't look TOO bad. The one in the rear is a little oil fouled, but nothing major. Will check the valve train tomorrow. let's hope it's nothing serious.

I'll keep you posted!!!

Well... it's worse than I thought. I have ZERO compression in the #3 cylinder. No major oil puddles to speak of, and the cylinder appears to be in one piece. The valves apepared to be really loose, so I was hoping maybe it was a matter of them having rocked loose. No such chance. Guess this is gonna require a definite drop of the engine.

sorry to hear. But after a valve job and putting the heads back on (AKA top end rebuild), if the job is done well, the improvements will be quite apparent- no smoky start-up, smooth valve train noise, generally overall smoother performance. The engine will have to come down, not "out" really. Lower the engine on a floor jack till you have fulll accss the valve covers, put a little more blocking under the engine so it wont be tippy, and take thosse heads off right there in the living room!

Sounds like the seat dropped, if there is not damage to the piston it will be a quick and relatively easy fix. I had a valve snap off the stem while driving down the freeway. Talk about a mess holed piston and a ruined engine. At least the mutha freckle who was tailgaiting me got a little surprise - piston chunks flying out of the muffler all over his car, heh heh.

QUOTE (Travis Neff @ Aug 20 2005, 09:20 PM)

Sounds like the seat dropped, if there is not damage to the piston it will be a quick and relatively easy fix. I had a valve snap off the stem while driving down the freeway. Talk about a mess holed piston and a ruined engine. At least the mutha freckle who was tailgaiting me got a little surprise - piston chunks flying out of the muffler all over his car, heh heh.

IT never happens to me when I have an asshole behind me.