Replies to post #1433 on Cars, etc. (GEARHEAD)

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

One comment about newts and I'm gonna put a curse on you like "May all your apexes be early!"

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

Don't think I'd consider myself a huge SHO fan at the moment.

Got home today after just driving all over the place with the sunroof open and decided I'd had just about enough of it acting like it's only running on 4 cylinders, and besides, I'd had my son pick up a set of plugs for me the other day while he was in town.

Have you ever serviced the rear plugs in one of these?

I took out the front 3. No biggie except that I noticed they were all in a bit of an oil bath. Otherwise, they looked to have been burning just fine.

Decided to start the car on the back 3 to blow the oil out of the cylinders and it started. Barely. Sounded like exactly one cylinder. Wouldn't pick up revs or anything.

So, off comes the intake assembly. Not fun but I've seen worse. What sucks is that it looks like you're *not* gonna change the rear plugs with that thing in the way.

When I got everything out of the way and went to remove the rear plugs, I found that 2 of them were in an even deeper pool of oil than any of the front ones.

There was so much oil that by the time I got the plugs out, they were too wet to really tell their condition.

I inspected the front plugs wires and they looked just fine. Figured I'd put an ohm-meter on them later. But then I looked at the back ones. All of them had huge cracks on the part that goes around the plug.

"Hmmmm....", I thought. With cracks like that, in a 3" deep pool of oil, perhaps these plugs aren't even firing at all and, instead, the current is just going through the oil to the head.

So, I'm off to town to pick up valve cover gaskets, plug wires (looks like I'd better bring lube for these), intake gaskets, and yet another set of allen wrenches since that's what I need for the valve covers and yet again I can't find any of the sets I've bought.

With any luck I'll have her rolling again tonight or tomorrow and hopefully consistently on 6 cylinders.

Edit: Appears the AC doesn't work either. Discovering that reminded me of how the guy who sold me the car turned on the AC and bragged about how excellent it was working, throwing out such cold air. And my reminding him that it was below 20 outside.

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

Think I already mentioned that my SHO threw the timing belt on the test-drive after I'd replaced the plug wires.

Since the guy who bought it told me the timing belt had been replaced just a dozen or so miles before I went to look at it (along with a motor-mount), I was suspicious that I'd caused this one myself.

I'm reluctant to use blue silicone sealant and used to always say "Blue Goo: The sign of the a-hole mechanic.". Especially on motorcycle engines where a loose blob of it can easily clog an oil passage. I've seen motorcycle camshafts seized because of this kind of clogging.

But the rubber valve-cover gaskets were in good shape and though the seals around the spark plug holes were hardened, so not trustworthy for sealing, I didn't want to spend $90 on replacement gaskets. So I conservatively used blue goo on the valve-cover gaskets and more aggressively on the spark plug seals.

Anyway, finally got the new timing belt and replacement accessory belts yesterday and started tearing it down.

I suddenly remembered again that when I was getting the new tires put on the car, I inspected it from underneath and noticed that the accessory drive belts were old and cracking. Thought it odd that they wouldn't replace them since they had to come off for a timing belt change.

Well, I got my answer last night.

The timing belt had several tens of thousands of miles on it. Whole thing showing cords and the frayed material that'd been coming off of it over the years had accumulated heavily inside the timing cover. It's not the original belt (which couldn't have lasted 140k miles).

Both sets of camshafts turned freely, but since I've seen things seize then move freely again after cooling down, I went ahead and pulled the caps. Mirror surfaces everywhere. The timing of the camshaft breakage was mostly coincidental.

I doubt the old belt has been causing the problems, though. It could let the cams get out of time some without jumping teeth, but doubt it could do it enough to always feel like I've lost half the cylinders.

It's likely that the misfiring the car was doing on the test drive at high revs caused it to try to open valves against compression or combustion, resulting in just enough camshaft resistance to break the worn-out belt.

So, the guy who sold me the car was lying through his teeth. Why am I not surprised? Especially since he sells used cars (mostly restored old Caddies and Mercs) from his home for a living.

Heck, I knew to beware when he bragged about the coldness of the AC when it was about 20 degrees outside. But I insisted on an 89 SHO with a 5-speed and the cloth seats were the kicker that talked me into it.

I've been reading around the 'net quite a bit and a number of folks say they just leave the timing covers off of this car. I'm not sure about that. The crankshaft position sensor looks awfully vulnerable and I live on gravel roads. But about 90% of the time I spent getting the belt off was spent getting the (3) covers off. And I expect to be putting aftermarket camshafts on it before too long and adjustable sprockets, which means I'll want to check and fine-tune the cam timing now and then. Perhaps I can figure out a way to protect the CPS while still leaving the covers off.

I'd be about ready to start putting the car together, but I'm removing all of the most easily-removed and visible parts and cleaning them. And checking for any oil leaks. Kinda hard to tell since the valve covers were leaking so much before.

And I'll probably go ahead and buy the new gaskets. When I was test-driving it, it acted like the front valve cover was still leaking, right onto the exhaust.

So, the fun continues. I'm going to give the Mustang its much-needed brake job this coming week, slap street tires on it, crank out some of the negative camber, and get it inspected and licensed for the first time in several years. Seems I can't trust the Taurus too much and I really hate driving my truck (but have to keep it because of the trailers), so I'll drive both the SHO and the 'Stang.

I love working on cars when I want to, like for performance improvements. I hate working on them when I have to, though.