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Old June 25th 05, 01:03 AM
Nobody
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At the suggestion of a friend, I ran another compression test - it's within
spec. I also checked the plugs - couldn't be burning better. Now for the bad
news. I listened carefully while it was idling. It seemed to be coming from
the head directly above the number one cylinder. I took the valve cover
gasket off just to take a look. Start with the easy stuff, I thought. At
first I couldn't see anything wrong, but then I noticed one of the bolts
holding the timing chain guide was broken. Coincidently, these bolts hold
the first cam shaft bearing cap on. When I tried to remove the other bolt,
it broke as soon as I put a wrench on it. Must of been cracked.

Any suggestions for removing broken bolts from an aluminum head? I drilled
one and tried to use a bolt extractor. It won't even budge. I'm afraid I'm
going to twist off the extractor. Should I just get a new or rebuilt head?
Maybe reuse the cam shafts? Any suggestions are welcome.

Thanks
"Nobody" > wrote in message
...
> Hello:
>
> I have a 1996 SW2 that had low compression and high oil consumption. Last
> summer, I pulled the engine, tore it down and sent the block, crank, head,
> etc off to a machine shop. It came back with a rebuild kit, bored out
> block, rebuilt head, turned crank, etc. It took a few nights to put it
> back together, but it when I put it back in, it started on the first try.
> It had good compression and the oil consumption stopped. As a side note, I
> replaced every sensor, gasket, etc. that I could find on the engine before
> reinstalling it.
>
> A few weeks later, I noticed the head gasket leaking antifreeze most of
> the way around. I took the head off again and went to the dealer and
> bought head gasket and new head bolts. I noticed the dealer gasket was
> thicker than the rebuild kit one and seemed to have an orange "rubber
> band" running through it. I reinstalled the head and other stuff and the
> leaks were fixed. It was running as good as new.
>
> Now, its a year later and my wife mentioned a "knocking" noise. I took it
> for a drive the other day and sure enough, I thought the engine was
> falling apart. It has good performance, good milage, isn't using any oil,
> no antifreeze missing from the coolant tank and no trouble codes set. But,
> when cruising, it knocks so loud I think it's falling apart. Under load,
> the noise completely disappears. Under idle it's fine, but rev the engine
> to about 1200 rpm and it shows up.
>
> Should I be worried? Any suggestions on where to start? Is it possible the
> head gasket is leaking again?
>
> A friend suggested a problem with the lifters. Another said the pistons
> were loose. How would I know? By the way, I bought a new torque wrench for
> this project and carefully observed the specs and procedures in two
> different manuals.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> You can email me directly at
>
>



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