Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

I've had it in my head that I wanted to impress all comers at the NDSOC show and shine this year (in 3 days time). I built an sexy looking L28, sprayed my engine bay, and recently had the body sorted an resprayed as well.

Unfortunately, driving home from the painters on the highway tonight the throttle caught on some plastic under the dash and jammed open on full for about 5 seconds. Nothing seemed amiss till I reached my first red light 30kms later and the car stalled. Attempts to restart resulted in a very unhappy noise - the engine turning over, with the utter absence of a compression note.

I have been towed home and will have a look tomorrow. It seems the pistons and the valve train have got a divorce somehow, possibly in the form of a thrice dead harmonic balancer, or a stripped timing chain gear, or... I don't even want to know what.

BUMMER!

If I can't make the show and shine my feelings are definitely going to be hurt. Deeply hurt.

At least my car looks friggen' unreal, maybe Ill just push the damn thing to the show!

Anyway... off to see how quickly I can get, like, seriously drunk.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/246724-catastrophic-loss-of-compression/
Share on other sites

It took me months to build that bloody L28 - its coming out over my dead body! Hopefully its something fairly minor and stupid... maybe I got the timing chain to jump half a dozen teeth... err... somehow.

Hopefully its something fairly minor and stupid... maybe I got the timing chain to jump half a dozen teeth... err... somehow.

Well then you would have bent valves, and a lot of work on your hands..

sorry to hear that your work on the engine may have been for nothing.

Nigel

I didn't hear smashing crunching valves, the car just stalled and wouldn't start again - really odd seeing I had been booting along the freeway only minutes before. The exhaust is new, but say, just for example, someone shoved a banana up it, would that result in the car not being able to generate enough compression to fire?

The first thing that I'll do when I get home is have a look to see if the timing chain is actually turning the crank and pistons.

Cheers for the offer on the E88 J, Ill let you know.

D

Anyway... off to see how quickly I can get, like, seriously drunk.

"Son, its no about winning and losing, its about how drunk you get" - Homer Simpson :ninja:

Maybe RB20det in there? Cheap option, and its well documented how much punishment they take :)

Removed head today. The pistons have made contact with the valves, and the timing was miles out, chain must have jumped a few teeth. The valves look pretty good, but there is minor scoring on the pistons. Ill throw on my old E88 head, reset the timing and hope that there aren't any hairline cracks in the pistons.

Removed head today. The pistons have made contact with the valves, and the timing was miles out, chain must have jumped a few teeth. The valves look pretty good, but there is minor scoring on the pistons. Ill throw on my old E88 head, reset the timing and hope that there aren't any hairline cracks in the pistons.

Standard L-blocks don't jump timing teeth until way beyond the far-side of 8000rpm. Might I suggest that you may have a chain guide or tensioner issue?

Aside from this, a rev-limiter is a wonderful invention...

Actually, when the throttle jammed on I panicked and put the clutch in for a couple of seconds (rather than... you know, just switching off the bloody ignition). My lovely new engine saw w-a-y the wrong side of 8,000 rpm. I suck. Cam timing was miles off.

Who'd have thought I'd ever need a rev-limiter... I'm so careful and all.

Also hang onto those calipers for me Mags, Ill make a time to come get them soon.

D

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • Surely somebody has one in VIC. Have you asked at any shops?  Is this the yearly inspection or did you get a canary?
    • This is where I share pain with you, @Duncan. The move to change so many cooling system pieces to plastic is a killer! Plastic end tanks and a few plastic hose flanges on my car's fail after so little time.  Curious about the need for a bigger rad, is that just for long sessions in the summer or because the car generally needs more cooling?
    • So, that is it! It is a pretty expensive process with the ATF costing 50-100 per 5 litres, and a mechanic will probably charge plenty because they don't want to do it. Still, considering how dirty my fluid was at 120,000klm I think it would be worth doing more like every 80,000 to keep the trans happy, they are very expensive to replace. The job is not that hard if you have the specialist tools so you can save a bit of money and do it yourself!
    • OK, onto filling. So I don't really have any pics, but will describe the process as best I can. The USDM workshop manual also covers it from TM-285 onwards. First, make sure the drain plug (17mm) is snug. Not too tight yet because it is coming off again. Note it does have a copper washer that you could replace or anneal (heat up with a blow torch) to seal nicely. Remove the fill plug, which has an inhex (I think it was 6mm but didn't check). Then, screw in the fill fitting, making sure it has a suitable o-ring (mine came without but I think it is meant to be supplied). It is important that you only screw it in hand tight. I didn't get a good pic of it, but the fill plug leads to a tube about 70mm long inside the transmission. This sets the factory level for fluid in the trans (above the join line for the pan!) and will take about 3l to fill. You then need to connect your fluid pump to the fitting via a hose, and pump in whatever amount of fluid you removed (maybe 3 litres, in my case 7 litres). If you put in more than 3l, it will spill out when you remove the fitting, so do quickly and with a drain pan underneath. Once you have pumped in the required amount of clean ATF, you start the engine and run it for 3 minutes to let the fluid circulate. Don't run it longer and if possible check the fluid temp is under 40oC (Ecutek shows Auto Trans Fluid temp now, or you could use an infrared temp gun on the bottom of the pan). The manual stresses the bit about fluid temperature because it expands when hot an might result in an underfil. So from here, the factory manual says to do the "spill and fill" again, and I did. That is, put an oil pan under the drain plug and undo it with a 17mm spanner, then watch your expensive fluid fall back out again, you should get about 3 litres.  Then, put the drain plug back in, pump 3 litres back in through the fill plug with the fitting and pump, disconnect the fill fitting and replace the fill plug, start the car and run for another 3 minutes (making sure the temp is still under 40oC). The manual then asks for a 3rd "spill and fill" just like above. I also did that and so had put 13l in by now.  This time they want you to keep the engine running and run the transmission through R and D (I hope the wheels are still off the ground!) for a while, and allow the trans temp to get to 40oC, then engine off. Finally, back under the car and undo the fill plug to let the overfill drain out; it will stop running when fluid is at the top of the levelling tube. According to the factory, that is job done! Post that, I reconnected the fill fitting and pumped in an extra 0.5l. AMS says 1.5l overfill is safe, but I started with less to see how it goes, I will add another 1.0 litres later if I'm still not happy with the hot shifts.
    • OK, so regardless of whether you did Step 1 - Spill Step 2 - Trans pan removal Step 3 - TCM removal we are on to the clean and refill. First, have a good look at the oil pan. While you might see dirty oil and some carbony build up (I did), what you don't want to see is any metal particles on the magnets, or sparkles in the oil (thankfully not). Give it all a good clean, particularly the magnets, and put the new gasket on if you have one (or, just cross your fingers) Replacement of the Valve body (if you removed it) is the "reverse of assembly". Thread the electrical socket back up through the trans case, hold the valve body up and put in the bolts you removed, with the correct lengths in the correct locations Torque for the bolts in 8Nm only so I hope you have that torque wrench handy (it feels really loose). Plug the output speed sensor back in and clip the wiring into the 2 clips, replace the spring clip on the TCM socket and plug it back into the car loom. For the pan, the workshop manual states the following order: Again, the torque is 8Nm only.
×
×
  • Create New...