[thesavo]

I am helping out a friend troubleshoot their SPI that died pulling into the driveway the other day. It has an Automatic Transmission.

It will crank, and turn over, but not fire-up.

I found this guide on Focal Jet.

I have a fuel tank pressure tester, a compression tester, and a spark tester.

If all else fails, what should be looking for? I can hear the fuel pump start with the key in RUN. We also added 5 US Gallons of fuel to the tank.

 

[zetecDon]

Moved to "General Technical Chat".

 

[thesavo]

so, We verified the following:

• There is OVER 1/2 tank of fuel. The gauge does move up to 1/2 with key in RUN, and aba
• Idle battery reads 12.4 volts.
• verified all engine related fuses checked good.
• fuel is getting to the rail. 4 BAR
• There is spark at each cylinder
• the injectors each read 13.4 - 13.5 Ohms
• tested each injector plug. While each connector is disconnected from their respective injector, the connectors read 12V in RUN and crank.
• Sprayed starter fluid down the Throttle body made NO difference.
• Swapped the Engine management micro Relay with the AC micro relay. No difference.
• removed all spark plugs, there seems to be no fuel in the cylinders.
• The #1 piston is definitely moving while cranking the engine.

 

[sailor]

Compression?

Confirm cam turning? (Timing belt possibility)

 

[thesavo]

Compression?

Confirm cam turning? (Timing belt possibility)

We are going to do a compression test after lunch. I'm search for more tests.

We pulled plug #1 and piston is defiantly moving. or is that not a valid test?
I can feel air pressure coming out when cranking.

 

[sailor]

Crank/piston moving is all that proves, you still could have bad compression & it doesn't even prove the camshaft is turning.

Pulling all the plugs & testing each cyl. for compression will give more information.

(Throttle open, crank until pressure stops rising for each cyl.)

Cam belt could be stripped/broken & the cam won't turn, compression numbers would show the problem. You'll see little to no compression across the board if that's the case.

 

[thesavo]

ok. all the plugs are removed, the ECU-Coil signal is disconnected and the fuel pump relay is out.

1. Cylinder 1 is near 90 PSI.
2. 0 PSI
3. 30 PSI
4. 120 PSI

 

[dave89iroc]

From those compression numbers, I'd say you either broke/stripped a timing belt, blew the head gasket or dropped a valve seat

 

[thesavo]

OK, how do further test?
Does the timing belt check require removal of a motor mount?

 

[dave89iroc]

Can you see the cam or rocker as through the oil fill hole? If yes, have someone crank it over while you look and see if they move

 

[thesavo]

From the oil filler, the rocker seen on the right doesn't move

 

[thesavo]

I gave those compression numbers to a buddy of mine. He suggested I drain the oil and check for metal bits. Possible chunks in the oil pan.

He thinks that cylinder #2 might be a broken connecting rod and bad rings on cylinder #3

 

[thesavo]

On the other hand, another mechanic friend and a pm here said to check the timing belt. I haven't found any threads on checking timing belt, only changing it. Do I need to remove the motor mount, and wheel well skirting?

 

[sailor]

You'll have to remove a lot to change it, but all you need to do first is pull enough cover back to confirm it isn't turning the cam (and that's pretty definite already from not seeing a rocker move).

 

[thesavo]

Oh boy. Is the cover held on with just the two bolts?

 

[sailor]

I haven't looked at directions for one in detail, most of the pics are taken after covers/mounts removed. Hoped there was an upper cover like others have so you could peek without doing too much disassembly.

The good thing is that a belt problem doesn't kill those engines as a rule, so it's worth looking into.

 

[thesavo]

Update: I got the timing cover off. For future reference on checking the timing belt, follow the guide and support the engine. Remove the upper engine support. Remove the upper timing cover. Loosen the top two 8mm bolts on the middle plastic cover to inspect the belt.
I found it helpful to move the power steering reservoir. It's an 8 or 10 mm bolt aft of the PS bottle. It then slides up. Tt gain access to the middle plastic cover bolt, I used and 8mm nut driver, turned by 1/4 inch box head wrench.

Status: The timing belt is stripped on the crank pulley. I was able to slightly turn the valve pulley by hand.

I think that the compression numbers might be misleading. I feel the valves are all open at different amounts.

 

[pcordes1979]

SPI engine, I drove cars with those for years done my share of timing belts on them.

Relatively simple repair, line the cam and crank sprockets up and put the new belt on. There are many forum threads on doing the SPI timing belt like the one you already found. Just be sure to replace the water pump and the tensioner pulley (the one right under the cam sprocket) while you are in there, so sense and doing the repair multiple times. Also when putting the harmonic balancer back on to tighten the bolt down to 90-95 ftlbs and be sure the crank key is not damaged (generally is not but I have seen it happen on one of my SOHC Escorts along with a number of other peoples cars on the Escort forum). If you have access to one an impact wrench makes getting the harmonic balancer bolt of a whole lot easier, but can also use something like a strap wrench being held by one person while another attempts to loosen the bolt, otherwise the crankshaft will just turn freely as you try to unbolt it.

On the plus side the car is already in the driveway so no need for a tow .

 

[thesavo]

We'll ill try to suggest the water pump and tension pulley. However, they may only want to invest what will make the car run. ?
The weekend is over now, I'll get to work on it again next weekend.

 

[sailor]

Oh that's WELL stripped, so timing would be VERY off if it moved at all when cranking for the compression test.

None of those numbers are meaningful now, other than the fact that they pointed to the real problem - the bad timing belt.

G/L with the repair (and good work)