i think i blew my engine...help

goddammit, all i was doing was painting my valve cover (it looks wuite good as a matter of fact) and when i put everything back in and hooked everything back up, i cranked it.......turn turn...boom! it poped pretty loud. i think something fell into the lower timeing belt thingy and stoped it. damit tomm ima have to tear it all down and see what the hell i did. all the bolts, wrnched screws and sockets are accounted for so i no i didnt drop anything in there. what usually gives first? i no something did. valve maybe, hopefuly not a piston or a rod, maybe just a pistion ring, we took the cover back off and everything was fine in there. the ignition wires r hooked up right, and the belt didnt jump, it still in the right place. every sensor is connected and all the vaccum hoses r as well. dammit, it threw out black smoke from the exaust when it was trying to start on. please help me help my car!!!!!!

how is your oil pressure?

Bro You didn't reinstall the old valve cover gasget did you, You should always replace it with a new one..........

So it just backfired really loud at startup? No idle it just backfired and died? Or did you kill the ignition? What all did you remove and put back together?

Bro You didn't reinstall the old valve cover gasget did you, You should always replace it with a new one..........

i agree, you should put a new valve cover gasket when you replace the valve cover.

but the valve cover most likely had nothing to do with this.

the belt didnt jump, it still in the right place.

are you sure? so the timing marks all line up? double check.

are you sure the belt didn't snap? describe this "boom" you heard in more detail. i've never heard of an engine "blowing" or whatever on start-up. hopefully Stealthee can shed some more light.

im sur ethe belt didnt jump, and yes i used the same gasket, i am prolly gonan go ge a new one, but thats houlsnt make the popping sound then black smoke. something is stopping the belt from turning, prolly.

could of just been a carbon build up

thats a possibility but what i am worrired abut is how do i go about looking for the problem, i mean i could always just tear it down, but jeez

Well first off, answering our questions helps. I still don't know whether the car died or whether you pulled hte key. I don't know whether it was a backfire or whether there was a loud bang from under the hood. Did you cover everything with some type of rag or shop towel when you had the valve covers off? Is the belt being stopped from turning or not, are you just guessing? Have you checked to make sure all the marks line up? Have you checked that the belt didn't snap?

Please answer all of these.

ok
i pulled the key
back fire, no bang form unde rthe hood
i covered the sparkplugs with the wires so nothing would get it the plugs, and the cams and rockers all checked out, there was nothing in there
the belt turns, and the marks line up, at least the ones on the gears do when i timed it a few months ago, there the same, but i still needa check the lower one to be sure
no the belt didnt snap
there


black smoke isnt good

Black smoke just means you are running rich.

Next question you said "cranked it...turn turn turn boom"

Was it cranking long before it fired up, or did it fire up quick and normal like? My bet is something was either a problem with the starter and you didn't start fast enough, or something else wrong causing the engine to flood, but either way, too much fuel in the engine resulted in a backfire when it did start.

it was cranking a while, longer then normal, and slower, then it popped. i took the key out as a reation as soon as it popped, now it wont start

By it wont start....you mean? it wont crank when you turn the key? It cranks but wont fire?


You need to elaborate a lot more.

Bet it's the starter or starter ground wire, cranking longer than normal, so gas was going in, but not being burned. Finally I'm guessing it caught or you gave it full throttle which kills the injectors, and it started, and gave you a massive backfire.

well guyz i just came back from working on my car for like 4 hours. it looks to me, and my dad, that the timing is off from when we put it when we changed the vlve seals a while back. u can tell by how it cranks, it sounds nasty, its not firing or opening the valves when its supposed to, my guess and thats what caused the backfire, anyone know where i can get a timing belt alinment marks from, so i know here to put them, cuz apparently the belt jumped on the bottom, well the gear moved and the belt didnt, its a big mess hard to explian, but u shouild get the idea. well tahts the problem, hit me back, thanks.

well guyz i just came back from working on my car for like 4 hours. it looks to me, and my dad, that the timing is off from when we put it when we changed the vlve seals a while back. u can tell by how it cranks, it sounds nasty, its not firing or opening the valves when its supposed to, my guess and thats what caused the backfire, anyone know where i can get a timing belt alinment marks from, so i know here to put them, cuz apparently the belt jumped on the bottom, well the gear moved and the belt didnt, its a big mess hard to explian, but u shouild get the idea. well tahts the problem, hit me back, thanks.

I was going to recomend stealth316.com but my according to my cpu, its down. All i can tell you is that the marks on your cam gears have to be alligned with the arrow on the valve cover on the gear side. and have the first piston at TDC

Check the FAQ, look at all the 60k tuneup links. I think there are 3 of them, each has pics.

well guyz i just came back from working on my car for like 4 hours. it looks to me, and my dad, that the timing is off from when we put it when we changed the vlve seals a while back. u can tell by how it cranks, it sounds nasty, its not firing or opening the valves when its supposed to, my guess and thats what caused the backfire, anyone know where i can get a timing belt alinment marks from, so i know here to put them, cuz apparently the belt jumped on the bottom, well the gear moved and the belt didnt, its a big mess hard to explian, but u shouild get the idea. well tahts the problem, hit me back, thanks.

so after all of us asking earlier about your timing, you are NOT sure its in-time or out-of-time b/c you NEVER checked???? we're trying to help you here. don't tell us that "its in-time b/c i set it in-time a month ago". well a month ago you're car was running. now its not, so now is what matters.

and it won't take you 4 hrs to check the timing. 30 mins at most.

here http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=597201&page=2&highlight=timing are some pics i gathered of the timing marks on the cam sprockets and the valve cover.

quackman, don't forget to line up the timing mark on the crank with the mark on the block.

ooooook man, it take 3 seconds to check the timing on the TOP (valve cover). when i checked taht it was ok. what was off was the bottom, not the pully, but the realtion of the belt and the mork on the block. for that i had to take out the front tire, take off a mount so i can getto the other pulleys. take off teh alternator and powerstreering belt. then take off the harmonic balencer, then i could tell that it wasnt lined up, so, i ordered a new tensioner, cuz we never replanced mine, and a new belt, ima time it again in the morning, what i think had happened was a bolt from teh cruise control module had come out and gotten caught inthe lower gears, causinmg it to jump, but the belts in good condition so it didnt mess up the teeth, it just jumped. and on the bottom only, not on the harmonic balencer, but behind it, where th eblt is. so, we put everything back and we timed it today, turned the car on and it ran like a beut, but i took it apart cuz i needed to get a new tiensioner and belt anyways

glad to hear! most of the time its just the timing that's off. a lot of people like to jump to conclusions and say "your valves are bent" or "your valves hit ur pistons" and stuff like that. that's a possibility, but a very slim one.

ya, whenever your car is out-of-time, you should always replace the timing tensioner. that is the crux of our engine timing system. if your timing is off, its most likely because the tensioner failed. you might be able to reuse it for a few days, but eventually it will loosen, causing your belt to skip a few teeth.