It's Dead!

Ouch.

I have to fix mine too, albeit not as bad. The last RallyCross pulled the exhaust free and tore a hole in the trunk. Not nearly as labor-intensive to fix, but frustrating nevertheless.

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As our production editor says, "Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug."

Well, yesterday morning we were the bug. While we were on our way to work for the first time in our reanimated Neon, the car died quite suddenly. Looks like we've got some diagnostic work to do. We're hoping that it's something simple, but rarely is anything simple when you're up against a deadline.

Turns out that the problem isn't simple, as we've had a cospatial event between the valves and the pistons thanks to a slipped timing belt.

So the rebuild needs to be rebuilt already? Wow that sucks. Been there, done that, but luckily on a non-interference engine. Good luck!

Yea, I believe the powersteering pump froze and put enough torque on the crank pulley to stop everything. I've found a cheap head and it's on the way. I'll be out a few hundred bucks...no big deal.

It's the time that pisses me off.

So I suppose this means I won't be seeing you at the RallyCross Natl. Championships? Thats too bad.

gotta love rebuilding a 6 mile motor...of course, had you been drag racing it, that would have been 24 passes LOL ...which wouldnt be bad bad for a alcohol car i guess... :P

sounds like what happened to me last year, but it made it 20 miles after getting the engine repaired that it died on me again

"cospatial event": I like that. At my work, we use "incident" a lot...

Kind of like when an atlas rocket blows up 30 seconds after takeoff and they announce "Theres been an anomaly."

I'm just wondering how a frozen P/s pump can cause a timing belt failure. Doesn't compute.

Sounds like a bad water pump to me or a pluged oil passage to the head locking up the cam. Either way something had to stop turning to cause the belt to jump ship. Could be a great time for a three angle valve job and port&polish! The PS pump drive/damper pulley isn't keyed to the crankshaft, it's pressed on.

that's just a guess at this point..I heard the p/s making grumbly noises and a few squeals (followed by lack of p/s boost) and a short while later the belt skipped on overrun---with that same squeal/loss of p/s boost. Dunno.

newer head/gasket set on the way.

Hm. I've never had a p/s pump go bad enough to make a timing belt jump - you may want to have a look at the t/b tensioner.

And if the p/s is making that bad bearing grumble, seems like it's time to replace, of course.

bc

Will it return to RallyCross greatness? Inquiring minds want to know...

After the Turner's roll at Nats, mine is off having the bolt-in Kirk rollbar replaced with an RA-legal cage, and some other goodies over the winter.

It was actually the camshaft that seized...ahh...the beauty of a used head. I've got another used head that's going on soon.