Anther Problem...

Hey guys i have a 96 auto lx.

I'm having anther problem. The car doesn't seem to start up, but the engine turns over and i can give gas. When i give gas it makes a loud clicking sound coming from the engine then dies like someone is choking it.
I drove to the gas station from work fine and soon after i filled up the gas, it wouldn't work.
I tried flippen the fuel cut off switch on and off and no luck.

Do you guys have any ideas what the problem might be?

I just installed a new battery and timing belt.



THanks,

here are some vids i took on the cell..

http://img695.imageshack.us/i/sspx0107.mp4/
http://img685.imageshack.us/i/sspx0108.mp4/

Was it acting like this, or some other bad way, ... before you replaced the belt??? (It kinda sounds like the belt is off a tooth.)

hmm i'm really not sure..but people are telling me a valve has been dropped..i've done some research on youtube and other forums and it sounds exactly whats happening to me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpMP70nYwMc

Hmm. Always wondered how that was supposed to sound. Thanks for the video link.

Let us know if you're able to confirm it.

Hopefully it is just a slipped t-belt; that was my thought as well.

Let me ask a different way; ... Why was the belt changed?

the timing belt went...because of the idle puller was bad..so i changed both..

Unfortunately that video sounded just like the noise my 94 was making when I agreed to buy it - with a known 'dropped inlet valve seat'. It made a loud, almost vicious, rapping, that would have been easily audible with the hood closed & me standing 50 ft away. And as soon as I took my foot off the gas, it died. It wasnt in a condition to -idle-.
I havent heard that Escorts get rod knocks very often, but anyway, a rod knock is only every 2nd time the engine is turning (yours sounded like it happened on every engine rotation), and the knock would be louder at a fast idle versus a slow idle.
Also, if it dropped the inlet valve seat, the compression would be Zero, and probably in cylinder #4, and possibly another cylinder; since the shattered bits of valve seat get blown back into the intake manifold, and sucked into one or more other cylinders.

yea..u experinced to eh..what did u do about it?..and how much does this job usually cost to fix?

Be sure to check the condition of the rollers on the bottom of the hydraulic roller lifters. If they're flat-spotted then that can make a loud tapping noise in the head that in some cases, might be mistaken for valve noise. So far I've had one or two rollers/bearings go bad every 100k-120k miles. VERY simple thing to do. Five minute job. When reinstalling them, be sure to line up the oil feed hole (extremely tiny) with that in the head.

If you do a compression test, and its NOT a 'dropped inlet valve seat', then I would expect decent compression in all cylinders. The flat-bottomed roller on the the lifter wont change the compression much - at cranking speed.
I rebuilt the engine in my 94 LX.
I first pulled the engine head off - to make sure it really was a valve seat failure: It was. Then I hoisted out the engine (along with the transmission). If there had been only minimal damage to any piston tops, I might have just gotten a rebuilt head. But two pistons were heavily 'peppered & pocked', with signs of damage at the edge; the crown of the piston. With the engine on the bench, pulling the pistons out let me know that two of them were no longer 'free' to rotate on the con-rod. That is, the wrist pin bushing was binding somewhat. The piston would not flop back and forth on the con rod. The cylinders looked fine, but still - I didnt know how much impact the crankshaft journals would have felt.
I just got a 'guaranteed running engine' from a rural junkyard (they pulled it out of the car while I waited, which took 45 minutes!) It cost me a days drive & $200, and had both manifolds, the throttle valve, and the coil pack and wires on it.
At home I dismantled that engine, had the valves lapped in & the head checked for flatness and cracks, checked the cam lobes and lifters, put new valve stem seals on it, put new rings on the pistons, homed the bores with coarse emery paper, gave it new bearings (std.size) on the crankshaft, new main seals, and ... nothing else. This cost me less than $700, a price which also included some other new parts; pads, hoses, timing belt, water pump, etc.
The car also needed a new clutch, which was about another $150 from www.rockauto.com (I know parts carry a premium in CA). I didnt get the best performance clutch, the wife and I drive like what we are; snowbirds.
I worked on it for over two weeks - but that was just in my spare time, while doing work around the house and yard. It was also in summertime, working in a shady area of my driveway.
That car is now my wife's daily driver, to her 2010 Census job, has gone about 11,000 miles since the rebuild, and runs nicely, & gets 40 mpg on the highway.
I bought it knowing the engine had problems; a fixer project.

good job denisond, i'm glad u got that thing working..now i wish you can take a look at mine lol..

Naw! You're too far from me, and its too cold in your region this time of year. Im at the keyboard this morning instead of working on my hobby cars, waiting until it warms up somewhat, because its cold outside; 50f. Down here almost no-one has a garage, including me.

hey guys just an update..i've taken it in to the mechanics..and he'll let me know whats going on and the price...