Joined
·
1,081 Posts
Bought the car for $500. Guy said it was making a lot of noise and running poorly. All assumptions led me to a timing belt/bent valves. I should have attempted to start it... failure on my part, but I didn't want to cause more damage.
Pulling the engine apart, I found oil in the inter-cooler, oil in the plug wells, crack on #4 DIC coil (which was full of oil). The timing was off, but not enough to bend valves, ~22 degrees pre-ignition on the crank sprocket only (knocking).
I replaced all timing components, water pump, alternator, plugs. Filled the car with Mobil1 0w-40. I did not replace the DIC, yet. I wanted to get the car started and check for good compression.
I started the car, started great. A lot of valve noise at first until oil pressure built up, or did it? Has a misfire, which is obvious. The valve noise was very loud at first and settled down a little bit, but is still very noticeable and clacking. I let the car run for 2 minutes. No oil leaks and it restarted with no issues. Yet the valve noise is very loud and shouldn't be there. Now I come to a few conclusions, but I need some Saab owner input. I did check cylinder compression and all cylinders are between 90-120, most being 110+ (no bent valves! :lol
When I had the intake apart, I reached into the Turbo to turn the impeller, no restrictions and little to no movement of the shaft. Now that I have the car started and the valves are very noisy, something tells me that the upper portion of the engine is starving for oil.
Here is my assumption, I could be wrong and I also haven't pulled an air intake tube off the inter-cooler to check for new oil after the 2 minutes of operating. Could the oil return from the turbo back to the engine be coked full of debris causing enough back pressure on the oil system to spew oil into the intake through the turbo and starve the rest of the engine of oil? This engine is also used in non-turbo applications so there has to be plumbing to the rest of the engine irregardless of the turbo by-pass.
Clacking valves on both side of the engine. Oil in the intake. Where should I look? Could a turbo failure cause total loss of oil pressure?
Pulling the engine apart, I found oil in the inter-cooler, oil in the plug wells, crack on #4 DIC coil (which was full of oil). The timing was off, but not enough to bend valves, ~22 degrees pre-ignition on the crank sprocket only (knocking).
I replaced all timing components, water pump, alternator, plugs. Filled the car with Mobil1 0w-40. I did not replace the DIC, yet. I wanted to get the car started and check for good compression.
I started the car, started great. A lot of valve noise at first until oil pressure built up, or did it? Has a misfire, which is obvious. The valve noise was very loud at first and settled down a little bit, but is still very noticeable and clacking. I let the car run for 2 minutes. No oil leaks and it restarted with no issues. Yet the valve noise is very loud and shouldn't be there. Now I come to a few conclusions, but I need some Saab owner input. I did check cylinder compression and all cylinders are between 90-120, most being 110+ (no bent valves! :lol
When I had the intake apart, I reached into the Turbo to turn the impeller, no restrictions and little to no movement of the shaft. Now that I have the car started and the valves are very noisy, something tells me that the upper portion of the engine is starving for oil.
Here is my assumption, I could be wrong and I also haven't pulled an air intake tube off the inter-cooler to check for new oil after the 2 minutes of operating. Could the oil return from the turbo back to the engine be coked full of debris causing enough back pressure on the oil system to spew oil into the intake through the turbo and starve the rest of the engine of oil? This engine is also used in non-turbo applications so there has to be plumbing to the rest of the engine irregardless of the turbo by-pass.
Clacking valves on both side of the engine. Oil in the intake. Where should I look? Could a turbo failure cause total loss of oil pressure?