PDA

View Full Version : Damnit... hole in the valve cover...


AadosX
11-17-2004, 01:23 AM
Aight so I picked up a 93 hatchback for my little brother to drive around... it's about 150k miles and a 5 speed. It looked clean so I got it.

Anyways, it had the obvious timing chain rattle, and I was planning on fixing it soon... but I get a call from him today and he (btw he knows nothing about cars) said there was a hole in the top of the engine!

He said he was driving it normally about a week ago and didn't notice anything at all, then parked and hasn't driven for a week. Then he went out there this morning and found it like this. Now I have no idea if what he's telling me is what happened, etc... but that's what I'm told.

I got him to send me pictures and here they are:

http://www.auburn.edu/~lockejc/pictures/1.jpg

http://www.auburn.edu/~lockejc/pictures/2.jpg

Son of a... looks like the timing chain snapped? or could the guide have shot through? Either way I figure that the engine is screwed much like when a timing belt snaps. You don't suppose there's any chance that just replacing the valve cover, and fishing out the timing chain guard could fix it do you? I haven't been able to look at it anymore than those pictures yet so I have no idea what to expect... but it's interesting that he said he was driving it normally and then he just found it like this. If thats the case then it might have been running fine for at least a few minutes (despite spilling oil) with the hole there.

I'm going to look at it this weekend and see if the chain looks ok, etc... but I don't have any experience with KA's.

What should I look for? Should I definitely just replace the whole motor? What do you guys think?

Thanks!
John

-usmd-180sx
11-17-2004, 01:30 AM
thats a heffty hole u got there.. hope for the best :x: :x:

s13silady
11-17-2004, 01:33 AM
i dont think you have to replace the whole motor... but from the last picture..
http://www.auburn.edu/~lockejc/pictures/2.jpg if you look through the hole, it looks like the timeing chain is still in place and snug... but pull the valve cover off and inspect for obvious things first... and if the guide did snap off and flew out, hope that a piece didnt get stuck in there...

if you drain the oil, you could take off the timing chain cover and you could see deeper in there...

your bro's story sounds iffy... but hey. wierd ass shit does happen sometimes..

AadosX
11-17-2004, 01:42 AM
I agree that his story sounds like BS lol, and I wouldn't be surprised, but can you blame him hehe. I'm gonna take a look at it and update this thread this weekend, but please keep the advice coming and continue to get my hopes up! haha.

idlafie
11-17-2004, 02:24 AM
With a hole like that, I'm sure he would have lost some oil. And judging from the pictures it sure looks like he did!!....Don't be surprised when you look at the hood above the valve cover to see if it's been wiped of oil. Your brother might have cleaned it to cover up his little faux pais!!
The thing that cracks me up though is it's kinda hard to ignore the LOW OIL warning light on the dashboard along with the dripping fluids from the underneath of the car and the white smoke waifing up from underneath the hood, (splashing oil & a hot exhaust manifold cover don't mix), but being that your brother is mechanically challenged, it wouldn't surprise me if he didn't notice any of this.
Pull the valve cover, check the camshafts & the valves for any damage or metal in the pathways, then drop the oil pan & see what's in there. Do a quick compression test while you're at it. If your brother's lucky, it'll just be the tensioner or the guide that's crapped out. All you would have to do is remove what's left of the broken pieces & replace the valve cover & gaskets.
Keep your fingers crossed....
ID

97DubTruck
11-17-2004, 09:46 AM
You know those valve covers aren't very heavy duty. I played with a spare one I had a couple months ago and just ended up painting it for no reason and to make a long story short I got bored and hit it with a hammer. Not very hard at all and he damn thing near shattered. Now I've never heard of a guide shooting through it but if it did I think it would have been a bigger mess that that. A huge vacuum leak making it damn near impossible to drive with oil shooting out everywhere and how would the hole get there with nobody driving it?

That was really nice of you to buy an s13 for your brother by the way.

Maybe he was thinking about getting an SR out of this deal too.

Good luck.

s14 blacktop
11-17-2004, 12:03 PM
I think he took a hammer to it!!!

knghtryde
11-17-2004, 12:39 PM
Somthing is not right here at all. If the timeing chain snapped the car would have died where it stood. He would not have been able to drive it and park it. There's just no way. If the timeing chain snapped or a valve shot out or anything like that the car would not have been drivable. If the tensioner would have shot through it would still run, but you would start skipping teeth.

I don't know you're brothers story really does sound like it's full of it.

AadosX
11-17-2004, 01:16 PM
I'm thinking the only way the motor isn't shot is a) he took a hammer to it, or b) one of the chain guides that rattles that everyone removes broke off and SOMEHOW shot through AS he parked the car in the driveway.

sykikchimp
11-17-2004, 01:56 PM
b) one of the chain guides that rattles that everyone removes broke off and SOMEHOW shot the valvecover

I believe this is the most likely scenario. If he's not lieing, it's very possibly the upper guide (that was already rattling) just broke off while he was driving home. Oil would shoot out, but I bet he could go 5 miles before enough would have been lost to cause the engine to start making all kinds of noise. and it's hard to see smoke when your driving, but he should have at least seen smoke when he got home. But we all know how kids are with paying attention to stuff like smoke/rattling, etc... especially when the tunes are bumpin' BIATCH!

the low oil pressure warning light is more of an "YOUR ENGINE IS DEAD" light.. as it only comes on at like 5psi.


Good luck. A lot of time when the upper guide comes off, it will bounce around in the timing chain cover, and can cause other problems with the chain, etc. I would pull the front cover too to be sure there wasnt anything left in there that could destroy other stuff.

-Charles

AadosX
11-17-2004, 04:23 PM
Thanks a ton for the advice!

And yeah about that oil pressure light. It came on in my old Accord and it was already too late lol.

AadosX
12-01-2004, 02:10 AM
Well I went home over Thanksgiving and looked at it. Turns out that part of the guide broke off and shot through the cover. Another part of it was just sitting in the top of the motor, and yet another was lodged down near the chain. SOMEHOW they were stategically placed so that the engine is ok! Despite my brother running the car for who knows how long w/out oil... it all seems ok. I took off the valve cover and fished out the two other peices... then put my car's valve cover on. Added oil (it was bone dry lol... not even 1 drop) and cranked it up. To my surprise it cranked up and ran fine. I even drove it around and it seemed ok... not the best in the world but ran decently at least.

I bought him a new valve cover and flushed the engine a few times... so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. There's another lower guide that I need to take out some day, and the chain is kind of loose, so I need to get him a new tensioner and install that as well.

More pictures of it all are here (everyone that starts with IMG):

http://www.auburn.edu/~lockejc/car/

sr240mike
12-01-2004, 11:59 AM
A similar thing just happened to my sr. the guide broke and rattled around but didnt break through the cover. The chain is kinda loose too so Im changing the chain and tensioner.

Pancor
12-02-2004, 03:11 PM
Lol, I thought the "710" cap was going to be missing....