Ok, finished up the head and put it all back together and it ran great for about 3 months. Then out of nowhere one night about 3 weeks ago, the damn timing belt came off the cam gears and the car shutterd, dash lights flashed and then died. I checked the timing marks only to find out that they were 180 degrees off, both of them. I ordered the new mechanical style tensioner from PD... awesom btw, and put that on, redid the timing hoping that everything was ok. The car starts but sounds bad, almost like a clunking/camming sound. I am assuming the valves are bent, I just haven't had the time to pull the head yet. Is this a safe bet or is there something else I can check? If it is the valves, since the car has 120k miles, would it be a good idea to replace the springs and retainers, or would it just be a nice upgrade. Thanks for any info.

Sounds like bent valves. You could do a compression test to verify, but pull the head off anyway.

If you're replacing the valves, you might as well do the springs, they're cheap enough.

Yep, more than likely your valves. Springs and retainers are for upgraded cams because the stock springs can't handle the increased lift. If you plan on adding cams later on, sure go for it.

If you're going in there anyway, why not just upgrade to the PT stuff?


Brian

Not only bent valves, but probably damaged pistons and valve guides too.

Plus whatever caused the timing belt to come off, probably an idler pulley or tensioner bracket.

ok, I did a compression test last night and here are the numbers I got: 210 200 220 210. Numbers look good, and the car will run, it just has a wierd noise, it's not loud, but it's wierd and hard to explain. My timing belt is still trying to slip off even with the new tenioner and ilder pulley installed, but now the belt is trying to come off the gears away from the valve cover, unlike last time, it came off of the valve cover side. The belt goes off the gears about 1/4" then stays there, but as soon as I start it up after recentering the belt, it shoots off to the side. Any ideas?

are you sure your crank sprocket (harmonic dampener) is on all the way? It is suppose to be as close to the oil pump as possible WITHOUT touching it. Just a thought???

That's the thing, when I did the headgasket and light headwork, I never pulled the crank gear, just the crank pulley for an UDP. When my old timing belt slipped off, the old tensioner pulley was bent and the bolt that held the pulley to the bracket was bent as well, and broke when I dropped it on the ground! All that is good because the new mechanical tensioner from PD replaced all that.

damn man.. are you sure all the other pulleys are on right and torqued down properly, just so one isnt sticking out further than the others. and are you 100% sure you have the right belt? if it is too big, it could slide off.. I'm not sure but I think our belts have 150 teeth, but I may be wrong..

Is the belt actually hanging off the cam gears or are you just seeing the 1/4" or so that the timing belt cant cover on the VC side? The reason I ask is because if this is what you see, as far as I know this is normal. My timing belt has never sat in the center of the gears it always sits to the farthest point of the pass. side of the gears, where the side of the belt sits flush with the side of the gears.

Ok guys, a little reminder when working on the car, make sure that all bolts and brackets are in place before starting!! Having said that, the problem was that I forgot/ didn't think about putting in the plate that holds the motor mount and that has two bolts that go through the plate into the block, securing the timing belt tensioner bracket.... someone smack me!
Anyway, everything is good now, thanks for the help guys!

glad to hear you got it straight. I'll see you on Saturday.

the almighty pita engine mount bracket :shrug