94 quad four timing problem

i got a 94 grand am with the single overhead valve quad four in it that had a knock with 95 thousand on her. i was told that it was the timing and to replace everything its like $170 and the haynes book says its possible without pulling the motor. has anyone ever worked on one of these and can tell me what to do im debating junking it or pulling the motor. thanks......

Beastly:

I had a 93 with the same motor, I replaced the head gasket without pulling the motor, and of coarse I had remove the timing chain - not a problem.

The problem is this is a zero clearance motor - meaning if the timing were out much at all you will have bigger problems - bent valves !!!

Also they have a timing chain not a belt - not prone to slipping with that mileage.

Is this a knock or a tick ???

A knock usually points to the bottom end.

it runs real rough and its more of a knock but all 4 of the cylinders have good compression. the engine runs on 3 cyls and i can see that the timing chain looks to be a little loose

I would look at the coil pack that fires the spark plugs under the Quad Four cover.

Timing chains usually do there stretching within the first five hundred miles. a little slack is not uncomon.

Just rebuilt my quad 4 single overhead with 270,000 miles on it. The only reason was leaking a little oil and loosing water. Found a blown head gasket. But, the timing as mentioned before is critical. Mine was a little off when I started it the first time, bent valves, and had to pull the head. The timing chain should be tight. If not, check the tensioner. I had a lot of fun with that. The shaft slides out, and ratchets. To compress it, you have to turn it 90 so the ridges are along the side. Depress it, get some needlenose and turn it back towards the tensioner body. Put a clip in the hole and on the chain guide. Install, insure timing is accurate, then pull the holding wire. Took me a couple of hours, but it runs sweet now.

Kevin

That tensioner should have a reset hole, using a small screwdriver you can pry the ratchet pawl away frm the ratchet teeth - this might save you some time.