Pulled from a post I made on fragfest:
well, abt time for some pictars huh?
Here’s when I did the oil pump (checked clearances on the old one, they were in spec) to try and cure low psi @ idle:
the little shit area to work in:
oil pump housing:
zee pump:
the relief valve I was going to replace, but obviously no the right part and I couldn’t even get it form the dealer… :gaytard:
Making a new gasket, weeeeeee (no they do not sell or make a gasket for this, suppose to use RTV, gay):
First I tried swapping the lifters from the old head (supposedly rebuilt) to the news head, just to see what the difference would be. At this time I didn’t do any reading up on lifters or how this shit works so I just assumed it would be ok. Turns out all the lifters were collapsed (stuck) and my car sounded like a fucking diesel from hell or a clackity old train or some shit.
Here’s a pic of the old ones for reference:
Then I “rebuilt” the lifters from the news head because I couldn’t get the old ones unstuck. The only thing to do with these really is to clean them really well. Here’s one lifter exploded:
exploded even more:
I broke each one down like this and then soaked them in acetone overnight. As you know acetone is clear, well here’s all the varnish and shit that came off:
the dirt and chunks and shit (there was a hunk of rtv too):
cleaning:
laying the parts out:
Almost done reassembling, just missing the snap rings to hold the lifter down:
with the snap rings on, this was a huge pain the ass due to it being slippery as hell with all the lube:
Pic of the snap ring:
It still sounded like an [b]80s Mercedes diesel[/b], but it seemed to do a little better. Emissions was coming up and I was worried I wouldn’t pass, plus my poor saturn was in pretty bad disrepair after only 8,000mi of being back on the road. So I bought a bunch of shit to fix a bunch of bullshit issues.
Pictures here is:
- New Spark Plugs. I was running platinums, but I was told that the car some how measures resistance on the #4 plug/wire and using platinum throws it off. It uses this measurement to determine CAM position instead of having a CPS.
- Crank position sensor. I was told when these fail the car won’t crank and if it is running when it fails it completely stops. The car uses this to know the engine is on, w/o it, no go joe.
- Top passenger engine mount. Mine was ripped in half, so I figured I’d replace it. MADE IN KOREA!
- Two rear wheel cylinders, a set of rear pads, and a brake hardware kit. My brakes suck and still do after this work. I think my drums may be out of spec since my e-brake doesn’t catch. That or my master cylinder is dying, who the fuck knows.
- PCV valve, just a routine maintenance thing.
- Radiator, my plastic end tank had a big crack in it and was leaking pretty fierce.
- EGR gasket, because I wanted to take the EGR off to clean the pindle.
- Two new ACCEL Coils
- Set of ACCEL plug wires.
- O2 sensor
- Not pictured is a new catalytic converted from Magnaflow (it did not fit)
the old radiator, pretty beat up:
Old brakes shoes, worn pretty unevenly:
New assembly:
This press fit shit is hard to fucking do without fucking shit up:
Also at this time I had purchased a AC/PS delete belt so I went ahead and took that shit out. It opened the engine bay to work in nicely. before:
After:
Here’s the nice (was a nice piece) catalytic converter that did not fit but was made for my car ( :gaytard: ):
Flanges obviously in different positions, was probably made on a friday:
Bend in pipe is different:
So I gutted my existing catalytic converter 
(I thought it was clogged)
I installed the other shit but didn’t really take pics. Here’s the coils installed without the new wires (wanted to see the different between each item):
Then I went to emissions:
[code] 25/25 50/15
Reading Allowed Reading Allowed
HC ppm - 133 - 153 88 - 159
CO % - 0.39 - 0.86 0.44 - 0.89
NOx ppm - 469 - 1123 684 - 1242
CO+CO2 % 14.64 - 6.00 (Min) 14.66 - 6.00 (Min)
[/code]
Pass, within pretty good margins considering I didn’t have a catalytic converter.
Then my car started taking a terrible shit upon itself only 3 or 4 days later. I couldn’t idle, I couldn’t rev past 4,000 rpm, I couldn’t go WOT or the car would seemingly flood (the car would literally SLOW down) and backfire a crap ton. Initial look @ the spark plugs told me a lean condition (white plugs). I checked for vacuum leaks, couldn’t find any. Did some research and it seemed like a plugged up exhaust would cause some or these problems so I disconnected the exhaust at the manifold, was loud, but no improvement.
Then I read a failing/leaky EGR could be at fault, so I pulled the plug on it, no change. Read that just pulling the plug might not work. It was recommended to stick nickles over the ports of the EGR on the intake manifold, I did that, no change.
At this point I am thinking it is a fueling issue so I suspect the FPR. But first I wanted to try cleaning all my grounds. So I did. I also added in two ground straps, none of it helped though :(. I sanded off the paint on the body grounds and then covered it in vaseline to prevent rust and corrosion:
There were quite a few more grounds on the block that I cleaned and linked with grounding straps but I didn’t take pics. This also did not make a difference 
So I did the FPR. No pics of that, but it took nearly two hours because the fucker is hard to get to and it’s just a stupid tension clip that holds it on so it’s a near fucking impossible job of getting the fucker back on.
This didn’t help either and since I did the Fuel Filter back in March/April I decided to attack the fuel pump:
It came from carter but it’s actually a walbro unit (190lph) GS300:
The tank was a real bitch to get down, especially considering all the fucking mud that was falling into my eyes:
I like the quick disconnects they have all over this car:
A little beer and elbow grease and it’s looking better:
Hey look the germans (bosch) made it:
the retarded contraption inside:
The bosch pump:
So back in it went. Still had the same problem. Uggggggggh.
At this point I went and purchased the fuel pressure tester, fuel filter and compression tester (just because I wanted to know, but I haven’t used it yet. I have my suspicions though). Fuel pressure checked out at 45psi with the key on/engine off (spec is 40psi). It holds pressure here with no problem.
It has 40psi @ idle (spec is 25psi). It does seems to flucuate a little, like between 38psi and 42psi or maybe even a smaller variation. With these variations you can feel the motor adjusting with each fluctuation up and down. I don’t know if this is the FPR/IAC controlling idle and it’s just noticeable?
Even though Fuel pressure checked out I replaced the filter anyways. Still was having the same issues
At this point I did some more reading. Seems like it could have been that my timing chain jumped the sprocket. There’s no way to tell timing on these cars other than physically verifying on the chain and sprockets/gears. So I figured I’d try to tell by looking in the spark plug hole and the top of the cam sprocket w/ the valve cover off.
So I pulled the valve cover off to discover something bad, something real bad:
HOLY SHIT WTF. Damn. Something went wrong here. My first thought is that the timing IS OFF and the valve ran into the piston. I went ahead and fixed this with the other rocker bars I had from the other head. had to tap the hole because the bolt sheared the threads. here you can see the aluminum in the threads:
Here’s the tapping:
end result (focus is kind of off, it’s the ugly non-black bolt :)):
I took the Timing Chain Cover off again and the cam and crank sprockets are still in alignment, so my timing chain hasn’t jumped the gears…
Well, now it sure as hell runs better, but it still won’t rev past 4,000 rpm. I don’t know WHAT THE HELL that shit is about. I have no ideas left.
And my veggies are coming along:
