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I just ruined my saab...or did I?

5K views 36 replies 8 participants last post by  euromobile900 
I believe our member 900t has recovered his chain from below the crank sprocket. I think he employed a combination of fiddling, swearing, and fishing with a wire coat hanger or similar. Drinking helps too in this instance. IIRC, 900t's efforts were successful on the chain, but the engine he repaired turned out to be buggered anyway. Tant pis pour lui. I'd try a magnet on a stick, a long piece of wire, and shine a good strong light down there so you can see what you're doing. Maybe it'd help to get a friend to turn the crank at the same time too.

Taking the timing cover is a bit of a difficult dance without taking the engine out. It's best done on a headless engine, but there's a stud (yes, a stud) that connects timing cover to gearbox that you have to remove with vise grips or two nuts locked together in order to remove the timing cover. Also requires oil pump, crank pulley, and water pump removal. Difficult. The reason I say take the head off is because the head gasket seals the timing cover to the head, and this joint will no doubt leak afterwards, because you can't avoid nicking the gasket when pulling the cover.

I'd try fishing first. If you want to dismantle all the way, then buy a proper endless chain and sell your split-link one. Also check your guides, because you can replace them while you're in there.
 
though actually removing the cams would be WAY easier and faster.
I think he has removed the cams, or at least got all the valves closed. I told him to and he said he did, anyway.

So yeah, I recommend a 30-pack (I love America) of cheap American beer, a length of thin steel wire and a toilet auger with that spring on the end:
Git'er done!!!
 
I used those plastic zipties and it decided to break....spawn of satan!
Don't ever use these for this job!!!!!!!!:evil:
I've had success with a wire, but I guess from now on I'll be using one of these:

The consequences for dropping a chain down the engine seem very grave indeed, considering even my tentacle-like long arms do not fit in this opening.
 
Cheer up.
Everybody mistimes their engine the first time unless they're lucky. Well, lots of people do. In the two years I've been here, I've seen at least 4 threads about it. That's not counting all the people who mistimed their engines and didn't write about it. This means nothing about your other skills. It's called a learning curve. Try again. As White says, it's easy to retime. Pistons won't have hit valves if you were close, which you were if it runs at all.

As a mechanic, having a hot head and giving up never pays off. Be patient. Be mature. Remember the thing you're working on doesn't have feelings, so you shouldn't either. In other words, to best repair the machine, you must understand the machine. To understand a machine, you must temporarily become a machine.
 
What a test for patience. I thought the patience I acquired while flying planes would qualify me for repairing cars. Wrong, I was.
This kind of patience is different from patience with a system or with other people. And though you're working on a machine, it's not really patience with a machine either. It's patience with yourself, my son. Most people avoid doing things that require this at all costs.

Hopefully someone benefits from this...I hope we can make the FAQ so someone avoids my mistakes....
It should be an epic FAQ post.
 
Are you timing the engine after tightening the cam bolts down? If so, you've probably bent the valves. Having the cams 180º out is pretty far, so that's the only thing I can think of that would cause that. The thing has to be lined up when the cams are all in place. A way to tell if you've severely bent valves is see if all your lifters come up to the same height when the valves close.

Tensioners often stick when you first install them. They are fed with pressurized oil, so you need to make sure all your seals are there. There's an O-ring on the bolt that tensions the chain, and a sealing-ring between tensioner and head.
 
yikes :| hopefully they last...

but yeah, when you consider what happens to an engine with a blown chain, but also consider the impact when the engine is spinning at 3000 rpm with the whole inertia of the car moving 70 mph spinning the crank, it is still pretty light...
Even with a crank idling at 1000rpm, that flywheel is a heavy mother especially considering that there's no compression to slow it down if the chain breaks.

Also consider Jim's authoritative warnings about bending the valves when rolling in the chain while trying to keep the cams sync'd up (not undoing the caps). I'd say it's getting near that kinda force. Difference is, Nuclear's force was an impact, like a soft hammer. The valve-bending Jim describes is caused by a gradual cranking, like a press. We know which is stronger.
 
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