Yabo

Just got dropped off by the tow truck back home... my range rover i spent all fall and winter replacing the transmission on, just died on the way home from my high school. was driving fine, i was accelerating slow, and at about 30 mph, the engine died out in the matter of about a second or two, and then wouldnt start. it doesnt sound right trying tostart either, you don't hear separate chugs, you know? the engine turns, so idont think its the starter, i had someone turn the key while iwatched. it just turns and doesnt chug chug or fire.... i'm fearing the worst...

Had to clean up my spark amplifier, which in order to do that, h ad to turn teh distributor to get to it (its mounted on the side of it. We marked the timing with a pencil or something from the distributor to the block, and turned the distrubtor a quarter turn, then turned it back tot hat marker when we finished, bolted it down tight, and i have been driving for at least a month since then.. every day. and its been driving fine. idles fine as far as i could tell. if the timing was a touch off, it would show signs there i would think..

the only thing i do know is that in the last week, starting the car has been more difficult. it used to take 2 turns, but now, it takes about 5 turns of the engine to start. (well now it wont start, but before it died). I didnt think much of it then, its 20 year old car, its not surprising for it to hesitate starting. its a buick aluminum block V8 3.5L . i've got a spare engine in a parts truck, but i really don't want to have to do that... im fearing that maybe the timing was off and it blew valves or something and theres no compression, which would explain the no chug chug on start? ugh. this really sucks...

only bright side is, maybe the porsche willl come out sooner because of this....

well, kind of just wanted to get this off my back, but if anyone has any ideas.. let me know.. sucks i just sent 5 montsh switching transmissions, and now this.. i know its not a porsche, but its still such a fun, british, piece of machinery....

back to teh damn volvo i guess for now.. yay station wagon...

Eyal 951

that sucks, thast what happens with old cars though. Keep us updated.
~Eyal

billybones

sounds like a slowly dying fuel pump or a bad coil.. Try spraying some starter fluid in the intake and see if it fires. if it does then it is fuel related. if not pull a plug put a wire on it and put the bottom electrode to the block and see what the spark looks like, use something to hold it or you will get a shock... HTH..

inactiveuser92616

timing belt? on some cars you can check really easily by unscrewing the oil cap and cranking the engine, but that only works when the oil cap is near the camshafts.

porschefig

check for spark as mentioned

does it have carbs? if so then fuel delivery is obvious to see....take off the air filter (assuming it's on top of the carb; if there is a carb) and look to see if those two jets atop the venturis are spraying.

compression test would be a good idea. takes like 20 minutes for 8 cylinders...if you have the tester ofcourse

how hard it is to take off the valve covers? get some "?right stuff?" not sure on the name...it's better then gasket anyways (if you take off the valve covers and don't have extra gaskets)

when you have the valve covers off and easy access to the distributor cap it's a good time to check timing. however..with the valve covers off the lifters may spray quite a lot of oil around. what my dad did is cut an old valve cover in half length way so it catches all the oil that sprays toward the outside of the engine compartment (that where you're standing and where most of it will most likely spray).

sorry....it's 2 in the morning and i'm not familiar with Range Rovers or Buick engines

that too bad that it happened, specially after putting in so much work on it. the good thing is that the older cars are both easier and cheaper to fix.

Yabo

Hey thanks guys. i didnt have time to look at it last night, but my dad said he turned it last night, and he thinks it sounds like its probably something in the engine that is blown. (ie a broken rod, exploded piston, cracked ring, etc...) He's not sure, but he said when turning the engine, he said its an irregular sound, not constant, but fluctuating.. and said it "sounds" like theres only compression coming from two cylinders.... I got a compression tester.. i'm sure that'll probably be the first check before anything else, or at least a thumb over the wholes with spark plugs removed to see if we are getting anything. But i didn't hear a bang, or clunk, or much of anything when it died, but i know that probably doesn't mean much, or i couldve missed it. from hearing the timing belt stories here, i know it doesnt need to soundlike much. i'mnot sure if i got a chain or a belt, or what.. ill check it out.

I have a spare coil i believe, and ill check the fuel thing... looks like i possibly found out what car i'm going to be working on this summer once the porsche is fixed up..

Yabo

Btw.. its fuel injected....

well me and my dad just took a quick look. were wondering if timing chain broke so we pulleed distributor cap, and watched distributor as we turned the key, and it spun, so the timing chain isnt broken (because teh distributor gear is on teh end of teh camshaft). but, the distributor would spin unevenly, it would slow down and jitter as it moved every turn in a spot. which is obviously not something it should be doing...

Now are guesses are...

Broken camshaft, causing that end of the camshaft to flop around a bit, and cause teh gear on the end of the shaft which spins the distributor gear, to be moving and causing it to skip...

Or, bad distributor gear, or the gear on the camshaft for the distributor...


What we are most likely going to have to do is pull one of the cam covers and see if the lifters are moving on turning the engine, to see if the cam is broken or not.....

fun fun.

Yabo

Well, got the big blow today.. took off one of the cam covers on the rover. found a rocker broken off the top of the valve. this was onteh number 8 cylinder.. took off the sparkplug, turned the engine, with a finger over the hole, no compression at all. or at least not even enough to blow any air out the hole.. appears that the valve that has the broken rocker is sitting lower than tthe other valves, so it is probably stuck open, which is probably the reason for no compression, asi think i can feel teh piston is still there (not shattered or anything) wiht a screw driver down teh spark plug hole.. which means, probably wont be running till end of summer vacation, with the amount of time i have to work on it. sounds like a big ole rebuild i got coming. who knows whats under teh other valve cover. I checked my timing with the reference marks and where the distributor rotor is pointing, and its off, when its suposed to be at 1, its at 4. i'm thinking timing chain skipped a couple teeth. Perhaps my rough starting the last few days was it had skipped one tooth? and when it died it skipped another or two?

well anyway, a bit depressed right now, so it ook some pictures of my car, after promising it i wouldnt let it fall the same fate (timing belt job coming up)

ugh... thanks for the help guys.

MM951

Eh man, I just did the engine on my conquest perfectly and now it wont start..been working on it all week and wont do crap, I can understyand your frustration...but I have nothing..I'm riding the bus to school..walking to the store..etc

porschefig

what is the condition of your spare engine?
if you think you're current engine needs to be rebuilt it may be cheaper and less time consuming to put the other engine in instead.

just a thought; however, as it's in a "parts truck" it may have had a rough life too

Yabo

bah. well the way i see it, is that i don't know the history of the parts engine. the truck ran pretty good for teh 15 min i drove it before i started hacking parts off and putting them on ebay. (that is, the only 15 min i drove it ever).. but the truck was in fairly rough shape - great cosmetically, but like leaky gas tank, dead master cylinder, stuck transfer case.. and since i have the whole summer to mess with it, i just figure id rather not take out the transmission, which i would probably have to basically do to get to my top belhousing bolts on the transmission to engine.. since i just spent so long on it, and its simply a bitch of a job. and theres not much weight involved in this job if i dont switch engines, so i'd probably prefer to do that. after i take off the plenum chamber, and random hoses, it doesn't appear it should be much else in the way, and i should only need a few valves and to do whatever i need to do to tension the chain and reset timing...

thanks again for the help.

Btw.. i am not having anyone else do any work.. and most parts i will be taking from the parts truck. although i'll probably get new valves, rather than take all that time to put in ones that could be bad.