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This a follow up to all the work I have done and problems run into.
The main purpose of the work was to get my engine running again after a blown head gasket which put a lot of coolant in my #4 cylinder and oil pan. While doing this I was able to see the wear on my timing chain guides so I also decided to take the timing chain cover off. I did a lot of incidental renewing of other parts which have to come off to get the head/timing cover off.
Incidental stuff I replaced.
Crankshaft seal
Oil pump o-ring
2 o-rings for the engine block coolant adapter (btwn pump and block)- these are prone to seeping after a while.
All water hoses except upper and lower rad hoses (recently replaced)
PVC nipple and bushing (I broke this while taking the VC off)
All exhaust studs, spacer, nuts. (only one was broken but a whole set is $20 from eeuroparts)
Other stuff.
Balance shaft chain, 2 guides (top and tensioner)
Timing chain, 2 guides (top and tensioner), crank sprocket
Problems I ran into.
Timing cover removal - managed to grind down the sides of a torx socket so that it would fit in my 17mm wrench (ratchet won't fit) - this worked quite well. A lot of people mention prying/jacking the engine over to get the time cover out - I managed to work mine out down and to the left and out of the wheel well. I have the short belt mod on my car so I ground off the mount for the unused pulley, this made replacement a fair bit easier. This R&R is a puzzle that took 5-10 minutes of jiggling to figure out - I wish I could explain it but really can't - down and to the left is my best shot.
Timing component replacement.
I wanted to replace the worn (exhaust) sprocket of the balance system. Attempting to get the existing one off only left me in frustration and I never did replace it. I cut the old chain and put a section of it on the sprocket, held tightly with vise grips. As I tried to loosen the mounting bolt, I couldn't get enough inward pressure to stop the torx from stripping out. Having said that, I probably had 100 ft-lb on the torx bolt. The idler pulley was the same. The torque setting on these bolts, is not too high, I don't know why they were so tough. Anyway I left the exhaust balance sprocket.
The new balance chain was shorter (not stretched) so putting it one without the idler pulley removed was done by the old bike trick - grab the chain with a couple of teeth of the crank sprocket and turn the crank (using the crank shaft bolt) - worked for me but this probably not a good practice.
Outlying issues
1. I did not drop the oil pan for this procedure. Its a pain, so I decided to clean and goop up the timing cover flange (with loctite 518) and hope for the best - seems to be ok right now but only time will tell.
2. I am hearing a fairly high pitched whirring sound from the timing cover area. The sound is like a loud super-charger. Just audible in the cabin, but quite annoying outside. I expect that this is just the chain settling into, and rubbing on the new guides, and am hoping it goes away soon - again, time will tell.
posted by 70.59.22...
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