Monday, May 01, 2006
Ain't It Cool
So this weekend I was working on my 1990 Isuzu Trooper with the 2.8L V6 engine. This is not the greatest engine in the world. Not even close. This is GM's first attempt at a metric engine. Mind you it's been in production for a very long time ( about 20 years), and it is used still I think.
I had this engine put in brand new three years ago by Braley-Graham Isuzu in Beaverton Oregon for the cost of $3700. As I was driving along about eighteen months after it was put in I felt a thump and all of sudden it was running horribly. It finally died about ten miles later. I had it towed home and then just left it setting. Recently, I decided to fix the damn thing so my twenty year old son Jon ( say hi Jon), can drive it and Jon could help me fix it so he could get a really good education on engine internals. So I surmised that one or more lufters were bad, and took the engine apart to check it out. Sure enough I one bad lifter. I replaced all of the lifters, and against popular opinion, put it back together. Several friends and mechanics said that I should replace the camshaft also, because it is probably damaged also. I didn't do this. So after putting it all back together with the new lifters it ran really good, but still sounded horrible. Damn!
Camshaft must be bad. Jon and I started taking the engine apart, and got to the lifters and sure enough the old bad one's slot had a new bad lifter. Not as bad, but pretty bad. Yes, indeed the camshaft must be bad. So onward, we started taking the rest of the engine apart to replace the camshaft. Not too bad, until we got to the crankshaft pulley/harmonic balancer bolt. I tried to loosen it and the engine turned. Advice from the internet and parts store said to try to wedge some in the flywheel. Not what I wanted to do. One old guy at the auto parts store said to get a breaker bar with the socket on it and wedge it against the frame and then hook up the battery and kick the starter over a couple of times. Damn that worked GREAT!!!!. Then the harmonice balancer puller purchased at a garage sale did NOT look like it was working properly, so off to Sears to see what a new one looked like. Sure enough a part was missing, so after purchasing the harmonic balancer puller from Sears ($20) the harmonic balancer came off nicely. The next problem: the garage sale gear puller to remove the crankshaft timing sprocket was too big. Off to Sears.
Finally, the timing cover came off and I inspected it. I noticed a portion of the inside top of the timing cover had a circular pattern where something was grinding against it. I immediately touched the camshaft timing gear, and it almost came off in my hand. The bolts had worked loose, and the gear was wobbling all over. Well of course the camshaft is only held in by this gear, so the camshaft has been dancing around for a very long time. This is indeed the root cause of the problem. Why the hell didn't the mechanic put Loctite on the bolts? SOB!
New parts, and it is going back together. With Loctite! Slowly so I don't screw this up. It's about half way back together now, and over the next few evenings I expect to finish it. I will post some pictures.
I had this engine put in brand new three years ago by Braley-Graham Isuzu in Beaverton Oregon for the cost of $3700. As I was driving along about eighteen months after it was put in I felt a thump and all of sudden it was running horribly. It finally died about ten miles later. I had it towed home and then just left it setting. Recently, I decided to fix the damn thing so my twenty year old son Jon ( say hi Jon), can drive it and Jon could help me fix it so he could get a really good education on engine internals. So I surmised that one or more lufters were bad, and took the engine apart to check it out. Sure enough I one bad lifter. I replaced all of the lifters, and against popular opinion, put it back together. Several friends and mechanics said that I should replace the camshaft also, because it is probably damaged also. I didn't do this. So after putting it all back together with the new lifters it ran really good, but still sounded horrible. Damn!
Camshaft must be bad. Jon and I started taking the engine apart, and got to the lifters and sure enough the old bad one's slot had a new bad lifter. Not as bad, but pretty bad. Yes, indeed the camshaft must be bad. So onward, we started taking the rest of the engine apart to replace the camshaft. Not too bad, until we got to the crankshaft pulley/harmonic balancer bolt. I tried to loosen it and the engine turned. Advice from the internet and parts store said to try to wedge some in the flywheel. Not what I wanted to do. One old guy at the auto parts store said to get a breaker bar with the socket on it and wedge it against the frame and then hook up the battery and kick the starter over a couple of times. Damn that worked GREAT!!!!. Then the harmonice balancer puller purchased at a garage sale did NOT look like it was working properly, so off to Sears to see what a new one looked like. Sure enough a part was missing, so after purchasing the harmonic balancer puller from Sears ($20) the harmonic balancer came off nicely. The next problem: the garage sale gear puller to remove the crankshaft timing sprocket was too big. Off to Sears.
Finally, the timing cover came off and I inspected it. I noticed a portion of the inside top of the timing cover had a circular pattern where something was grinding against it. I immediately touched the camshaft timing gear, and it almost came off in my hand. The bolts had worked loose, and the gear was wobbling all over. Well of course the camshaft is only held in by this gear, so the camshaft has been dancing around for a very long time. This is indeed the root cause of the problem. Why the hell didn't the mechanic put Loctite on the bolts? SOB!
New parts, and it is going back together. With Loctite! Slowly so I don't screw this up. It's about half way back together now, and over the next few evenings I expect to finish it. I will post some pictures.
