Cylinder Head Replacement

[carpenter_jai]

This is basically a continuation of cam seal leaks and leaks and leaks...

To resolve the oil leaking problem, I decided to take the head off my manual 96, 3 cyl and put it on my manual 95, 3 cyl. I bought a new head gasket for the rebuild. While I was at it, I replaced the alternator, the water pump, and the crappy block heater. I also flushed the rad. I de-scaled the heater core and flushed it too.

The work went fairly well. When I went to start it up, the timing was off. I had left the timing cover off, so it was easy to adjust it. When I had the timing right, it started and ran rough with a loud ticking sound. I advanced and retarded the timing to see if there was an improvement, and found none.

Basically, the car runs rough. It idles so low it almost stalls. I give it some gas, then let off, and it runs rough again.

I pulled a code from the computer. No. 23, IAT/MAT. Manifold Air Temperature/ Intake Air Temperature Sensor Circuit. I looked around and found that I forgot to reconnect the sensor on the air filter, but I believe these are not related. Where is this sensor located? The name implies to me that it is in the intake manifold.

The second question I have is, what is the most likely source of the ticking? Valves? (I hope not). Lifters? (Better). Cylinders (please no...)

At first glance:

[discnik]

The sensor in the air cleaner asy. is probably your air temp. sensor.
Go to: http://www.autozone.com/home.htm there is a free repair guide section along with parts locations etc.

[Woodie83]

IAT sensor is mounted on the air cleaner, that was the 23 code. It wants to see five warmup cycles with proper operation before it clears the code.

Ticking might just be a collapsed lifter that will pump up eventually.

[carpenter_jai]

I am getting the impression then, that the thing I should do is continue starting the car, allowing it to idle for a while. This will help to lube up the lifters (which haven't been used in a year). And the code 23 will be cleared after a few more starts. Does that make sense?

I drove the car, but only enough to move it out of the garage and repark it to leave room for another car. I am nervous about how badly it ticks. I gave it gas until the engine was at 3000 rpms, and it sounded bad. Lots of vibration, tending towards stalling when allowed to idle. Coughing and reving up slowly and unevenly. I don't want to damage it after all the time I spent trying to fix it.

Jai

[carpenter_jai]

I tried the car again today. I started it up and let it idle for about 20 minutes. I jacked up the front and took off the rad cap to allow any air bubbles to work through. The lower rad hose never warmed up. Maybe I have the thermostat in backwards?

As soon as the car warmed up, it idled down. It was almost ready to stall, but did not. Giving it more gas, it idles nicely. Revving it above 2000 rpms and it coughs and sounds like it misses. The ticking sound decreased but is still obvious. Am I overlooking anything that I should do after this kind of repair?

Jai

[Crvett69]

i have bought a lot of the jdm motors they ship from japan. almost all of them seem to tick for at least 30 minutes. think the lifters that have pressure from spring on them bleed down if it sits for along time. first start it and make sure you have oil slinging around up top, just take filler cap off and look. it oil is coming off cam lobes your fine. if it will run down road take it for a short trip and see if noise goes away. on the hose thing make sure heater fan is all the way off, if its cold out it will keep the engine cool enough by itself that thermostat may not open at idle. another thing i like to do if installing a new thermostat is drill a small hole on outer edge of thermostat (.030-.060) it helps to bleed any air out of the system and is not big enough to lower temp while running, just make sure its at the top when installing it

[carpenter_jai]

I rechecked timing and found that it was late two teeth on the cam sprocket. I corrected that and found that the engine still had trouble.

While I was taking things apart, I broke a harness tab. It's for the temperature sensor located on the back of the thermostat housing. I taped the harness back together and thought it would be fine. I suspect that I damaged the connection and the computer is not getting information from the coolant sensor. The cat idles fine for a while then it revs up between 2 and 3 thousand RPMS, sputters a bit then drops RPMS and usually stalls out.

I will take the harness off of my parts car and switch the thermostat housing too.

FYI, the coolant electrical connector (on the thermostat housing) differs from the 95 to the 96.

I wonder if this is my problem. It's minus 25 here (-13 f) so I'm not spending a lot of time working on my car outside.

Oh yeah, the ticking did go away after getting lubed up from driving around slowly.
Jason

[Woodie83]

Yeah, a lot of things are going to be different from 95 - 96. Althought the body and the engine are the same, the engine control system had a big change. Any wiring or sensor might be different.

The two sensors on the thermostat housing run the radiator fan and the dashboard gauge. The one that reports back to the computer is mounted on the throttle body or intake manifold. On some cars there is a fourth one for the A/C.

[carpenter_jai]

Well, I have tried and tried to figure this car out. It has been very cold, so it has been a literal pain to do it.

I fixed the timing, checked all sensors, new thermostat, new spark plugs. Still the same low idle once warmed up. Still misses and occasionally backfires when given throttle. Lot's of carbon out the tali pipe and on the new plugs.

I checked the compression and my heart sank. 130-120-125 dry 140-130-135 wet. I don't need to ask. I know that's a dead engine. I'm going to order a JDM for my 96. If the engine in the 95 is done, than I will give up on this car. Just too many things that are worn out.

I hope that I get a good replacement engine for both cars eventually. I could see myself putting a g14 DOHC into the 95 and a roll cage for the local ice racing league.

Thanks for everyone's help!

Jai

[Crvett69]

you can get a jdm engine to put in the 96 but you will need to change the oil pump and the pan off a 96 or newer. the 96 engines have a crank angle sensor mounted on oil pump that the older ones (and jdm engine) do not have

[DOCTORBILL]

So the valves are shot....no worries.

You can get the Head rebuilt for $250 and replace the Rings while the engine
is in the car....or just do the head.....how many miles on the engine?

If you fix the Head, then everything is there that should be there for that year car....

Of course, this would not be fun to do in the winter....but many folks here have
done it and come out smelling like roses.

For Lord's sake, keep the car for parts if you don't fix it !

DoctorBill

[carpenter_jai]

I'm not sure about this car anymore. It has so much wrong with it. I'm still open to ideas though. These are the major problems with it.

Green 95 3 cylinder manual 5 spd hatchback.

The engine has about 260 000 km (161 000 miles).

The chasis is in rough shape. I bagged it. Rear sway bar mount is rusted away. Rear passenger toe adjustment keeps going out. (I damaged it on a logging road). There are two control arm bolts that need to be removed and re-threaded.

It has an electrical short. Also the classic overheated headlight wiring problem. Instrument panel lights and heater control lights don't work.

The used transmission I put in a couple of months ago sometimes doesn't like to reverse.

And now, engine compression is very low.

My vote is that this car become parts for my 96, which is identical to this one, except for colour and of course the differences in OBDII and OBDI.

Jai

[carpenter_jai]

I finally have given in to fixing the car again. I decided to clean up the original head and put it back on. I did some minor filing across the head with a flat file. I got everything back together nicely and fired it up. It sounds great. Louder tail noise than before I think. I'll check compression tomorrow.

For now I know that it is well above the previous 130 average that I tested it at with the other head. I installed yet another new cam seal. I checked the oil then drove about 20 km today doing errands. It ran great after adjusting the timing. When I returned home I checked the oil and it was down about 600 ml. Not that I needed to look at the dip stick to know that. I left the timing cover off. There is oil over everything on the timing side of the engine. It doesn't "look" like it's coming out of the cam seal. So that could mean it's from the crank seal or head gasket. The head gasket is new, but the head may be warped. The distributor side is clean and dry. I wish the oil were dirty so I could better see where it's coming from. I guess I'm off to the car wash in the morning.

[Woodie83]

Originally Posted by carpenter_jai

I did some minor filing across the head with a flat file.

You WHAAAAT???????