1994-2002 [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
If you really like the car, repairing is worth it, but you may not come out ahead economically.
Especially if the timing chain tensioner is at its limit also (mine was). Takes a half-hour to check this. If the balance chain is shot because of poor oil circulation, the timing chain and guides are probably not far behind.
At an absolute minimum, the balance chain has to be removed and the oil screen cleaned out if you intend to drive the car, but that still leaves you with the timing chain and an engine full of sludge.
I pretty much went through the same thing over a year ago, on a '96 SE turbo. Trying to clean the sludge out using chemical cleaners and Auto-Rx did little or nothing. The oil pan and oil screen were removed and cleaned out, that cost around $200.
The bearings started to fail a few months later. I had the balance chain removed and the bearings replaced (about $500). That extended the life of the engine by maybe 15k miles, now starting to make some fairly serious noises, and has to be rebuilt or replaced. That should run around $2-2.5k either way, depending on the cost of a used engine, or parts and labor for the rebuild (based on actual quotes).
The engine and oilpan may look like mine inside (it may be worth pulling the valve cover to check (another half, to one hour max):
http://www.geocities.com/ng900set/Engine/eng.html
http://www.geocities.com/ng900set/Sludge/Sludge.html
http://www.geocities.com/ng900set/Oilpan/oilpan.html
Timing chain tensioner:
http://www.geocities.com/ng900set/TC_tensioner/tc_tensioner.html
Good luck, feel free to pm me if you need more info.
posted by 69.210.146.10...
, Wed, 21 Jun 2006 16:40:00
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