msdz

OK, just to let you all know, this IS NOT MY CAR. I am working on this car for a friend of my wife's.
Anyway, this is what I know of the car and what I was told. I was told from the owner the car needed a timing chain set replaced and if I could do it, I of course said yeah, they were apparently told by 3 mechanics it was definitely the timing chain. I never attempted to start the car at all and just started turning bolts. I got it all tore down and checked and seen the timing was still OK. All marks lined up just fine with #1 cylinder at TDC. So I let the person know and put it all back together. I then charged up the battery and decided to give it a whirl. It has a lot of pressure building up in the cooling system cause it is blowing out the overflow/fill tank. So, first thought is the car has a blown head gasket or cracked head. I take out #5 spark plug and antifreeze is coming out of it, no others that I could see(it was getting dark when doing this and a small flashlight).
Also, the car is not firing at all. I did replace the crank sensor but this was before I did anything else(right after putting timing cover back on). Reason why I replaced the crank sensor is, this person had the belt fly off the engine and it cracked the crank sensor. The more I thought about how the engine is acting and sounding I am suspecting she broke the camshaft in it which caused to much pressure in the #5 cylinder and blew/cracked the head.
I plan on tomorrow taking the valve cover off and checking to see if any of the valves are working while cranking it over to confirm this though. Right now I was thinking that the camshaft being broke would be the only reason why it is also not firing, camshaft sensor not able to read the signals from the camshaft cause it is not turning. Also, were these engines bad for camshafts breaking?

Some feed back and ideas would be appreciated. OH, the engine is a 3.0 OHV if that makes any difference. I did however tell the owner she should consider finding another engine cause it would probably be cheaper than rebuilding that one or even id she had to consider on putting a new head on and camshaft in it. OR just get a whole different car.

rhandwor

If it was mine I would pull both heads and take them to a machine shop. Get a valve job and have them pressure tested and shaved if needed. I would pull the camshaft and have the machine shop check it for you. Clean the block first use a flashlight and look for cracks between the cylinders. Friend or not your time is valuable don't waste it. You have to fix the water leak or all your work is for nothing. People would rather pay more for a good job. But will complain for a long time about poor work. Explain what you have and if they don't have money let them do it themself. You waste more time than its worth trying to cut corners.

Airjer_

Heres what really happened. The serp belt came off and the owner drove it until it stalled. Essentially cooking the engine due to the lack of coolant flow. After the engine is cooked it wipes out the head gasket. Add low compression from one or more cylinders and you have a one way ticket to new motorville!!

Don't waste any more time on this until at the very least a used engine is installed. Many "salvage" yards offer incredible warranties!!!!

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msdz

I had thought the very same thing that she had ran it without the belt and cooked the engine. That explains the head gasket being blown or cracked head but still it is not firing AT ALL. The cracked head/blown head gasket would have nothing to do with that. This is what I am trying to figure out right now. I did not fool with her car today cause of feeling under the weather. I still think she must have done something to the camshaft, engine just doesn't seem like it has the compression it is supposed to have when turning it over by hand, very easy. Must have a very bad crack in head or a huge gap in head gasket to be that easy. Still why is it not firng?

i told her I am not a mechanic and did not want to say for sure what was the problem, only what I thought was the problem, which I told her it sounded liek a broken camshaft to me which in turn would also not let it fire...or so I think. I also told her a used engine from a junkyard would be her best bet instead of paying out the rear for a new camshaft and somebody to install it. I do not want to get that far into that engine, would if the money was right though but know she has little of that to spend.

So you guys think my guess about the camshaft could be correct? As I said I will check for sure when I am feeling better. Serp belt came off for a reason thoguh, either the pulleys caused it to or the engine had something happen to it to cause the belt to get shredded.