Carl7051
New Member
I decided to open this thread and share this story that makes me look like a fool, but its funny and it definitely taught me a lesson. I know that a lot of us have done similar things and I think to share some of the stories would both enlighten us and give us some comedic relief.
My Story:
I posted a week ago or so about a my issue, but to quickly recap the issues my water pump seized, breaking the timing belt. I put in a new water pump and replaced the timing belt, but (due to a lack of knowledge and looking to line up the timing mark on the head) had to tow it an hour and a half away to have by brother in law help me get it in time. As soon as we got it timed, it fired up and I thought we were cocked, locked and ready to rock.
I took it for a test drive when it overheated, starting the puzzling loss of compression and the real nightmare. I had, the next morning, 4 guys, ALL with a great deal of automotive knowledge look at it and couldn't figure out why it won't start. Searching on-line and finding no answer to my questions (why and how to fix it), I had no choice but to go home and bum rides to work for over a month.
After a few more weeks, I towed it back toward my house to a diesel mechanic's shop. During the wait, I decided that I would buy a new motor, because after having to tear the motor apart to check the heads and pistons it would have cost me the same amount for machining the heads, and parts to reassemble.
The second day the car was in the diesel mechanics shop, I stopped by to see if he had looked at it for me and told me that I had very good compression in all 4 cylinders....This puzzled me further.
Now if you read my previous post, you will see that we did not, even remotely, check the compression in a professional manner. The guy (with the most experience mind you) removed a spark plug, turned a Pepsi bottle cap upside down, and had me crank the motor. Unbeknownst to me, this is not an effective way of doing this.
The diesel mechanic asked me why all of the valve cover bolts were loose. Through my stress and aggravation I guess I had forgotten to tighten all of the nuts on the valve cover and apparently, during my test drive, they rattled loose enough to separate the valve cover from the head, allowing any compression (when the plugs were removed) to escape through the seal. And the overheating was due to an air bubble in the cooling system because I didn't burp it.
Needless to say that I was a little distraught, I went over 2 months without my car, spend a boat load of money on things that I thought might fix it including a motor and it was totally fixed by 40 seconds of tightening a few nuts.
Morals of the story - (there are 2)
1.) Just because someone has been doing something for a long time, DOES NOT mean they know what they are doing or can do it well
2.) Use the right tool for the job or you will PAY for it.
(motor+parts+book+frustration+gas money for rides+feeling stupid+stress=NOT WORTH IT)
My Story:
I posted a week ago or so about a my issue, but to quickly recap the issues my water pump seized, breaking the timing belt. I put in a new water pump and replaced the timing belt, but (due to a lack of knowledge and looking to line up the timing mark on the head) had to tow it an hour and a half away to have by brother in law help me get it in time. As soon as we got it timed, it fired up and I thought we were cocked, locked and ready to rock.
I took it for a test drive when it overheated, starting the puzzling loss of compression and the real nightmare. I had, the next morning, 4 guys, ALL with a great deal of automotive knowledge look at it and couldn't figure out why it won't start. Searching on-line and finding no answer to my questions (why and how to fix it), I had no choice but to go home and bum rides to work for over a month.
After a few more weeks, I towed it back toward my house to a diesel mechanic's shop. During the wait, I decided that I would buy a new motor, because after having to tear the motor apart to check the heads and pistons it would have cost me the same amount for machining the heads, and parts to reassemble.
The second day the car was in the diesel mechanics shop, I stopped by to see if he had looked at it for me and told me that I had very good compression in all 4 cylinders....This puzzled me further.
Now if you read my previous post, you will see that we did not, even remotely, check the compression in a professional manner. The guy (with the most experience mind you) removed a spark plug, turned a Pepsi bottle cap upside down, and had me crank the motor. Unbeknownst to me, this is not an effective way of doing this.
The diesel mechanic asked me why all of the valve cover bolts were loose. Through my stress and aggravation I guess I had forgotten to tighten all of the nuts on the valve cover and apparently, during my test drive, they rattled loose enough to separate the valve cover from the head, allowing any compression (when the plugs were removed) to escape through the seal. And the overheating was due to an air bubble in the cooling system because I didn't burp it.
Needless to say that I was a little distraught, I went over 2 months without my car, spend a boat load of money on things that I thought might fix it including a motor and it was totally fixed by 40 seconds of tightening a few nuts.
Morals of the story - (there are 2)
1.) Just because someone has been doing something for a long time, DOES NOT mean they know what they are doing or can do it well
2.) Use the right tool for the job or you will PAY for it.
(motor+parts+book+frustration+gas money for rides+feeling stupid+stress=NOT WORTH IT)
