Megan the Merlot M edition

[ViPER1313]

No ATF in the oil, ask Scotty B how well heavy detergents worked in his sludged up Audi. The only thing you should ever put in your engine is oil.

[RawrImAMonster]

Crazy that the wires can go in as little as 15k on those.

I just did the CCV on a coworkers 2002 325i. It still had the original 240k, 14 year old coils in it and only one of them isn't working. I couldn't believe it.

[Senor_Taylor]

Taking off the valve cover isn't that bad man. It's like 8 bolts and lift. Rubber mallet and some light taps if it's stuck.
BE BRAVE (and gentle)

Bruh, I've done a timing belt and water pump on a Miata before. I'll have to pull all of the pulleys and stuff to get to the bottom of the timing belt. It's a good bit of work if I need to get to the bottom.

Scott, if I unbolt all of that stuff, how do I test the timing? Do I need to bolt everything back together and check the timing, then cut it off, unbolt everything and adjust, repeat over and over?

[ViPER1313]

You should be able to rotate the engine until all the timing marks line up (6 turns of the crank or so) but that would be the only way to tell, and it means you need to tear enough stuff off to see all the timing marks. A timing light will not tell you if your timing belt is a tooth off on a cam.

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[Scott]

You should be able to rotate the engine until all the timing marks line up (6 turns of the crank or so) but that would be the only way to tell, and it means you need to tear enough stuff off to see all the timing marks. A timing light will not tell you if your timing belt is a tooth off on a cam.

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^this.

[Scott]

Have you tried running the car with the ISCV unplugged?

[Senor_Taylor]

I put NGK V power plugs in it today and it did not improve. I also unplugged the ISCV and nothing changed at all. Maybe that means it's broken? My truck isn't running properly now to the point where I can't drive it, so the Miata hits the back burner for a while.

[ViPER1313]

I put NGK V power plugs in it today and it did not improve. I also unplugged the ISCV and nothing changed at all. Maybe that means it's broken? My truck isn't running properly now to the point where I can't drive it, so the Miata hits the back burner for a while.

Frustrated enough to get drunked up tonight and list it for sale?

[*insertusernamehere*]

I put NGK V power plugs in it today and it did not improve. I also unplugged the ISCV and nothing changed at all. Maybe that means it's broken? My truck isn't running properly now to the point where I can't drive it, so the Miata hits the back burner for a while.

Frustrated enough to get drunked up tonight and list it for sale?

You can chill with the trolling now. This is actually a nice car that I'd like to see Taylor be able to keep.

[ViPER1313]

I put NGK V power plugs in it today and it did not improve. I also unplugged the ISCV and nothing changed at all. Maybe that means it's broken? My truck isn't running properly now to the point where I can't drive it, so the Miata hits the back burner for a while.

Frustrated enough to get drunked up tonight and list it for sale?

You can chill with the trolling now. This is actually a nice car that I'd like to see Taylor be able to keep.

And I want to see him keep it too, but I can give him a little shit along the way. You can go back to your safe space now.

[JPolen01]

You can go back to your safe space now.

:lol:

[*insertusernamehere*]

. You can go back to your safe space now.

Only if you come with me boo. Bring some lube for yourself.

[Ken]

You can go back to your safe space now.

:lol:

:lol: x2

[ScottyB]

No ATF in the oil, ask Scotty B how well heavy detergents worked in his sludged up Audi

or don't :lol:

man i was dumb

[Senor_Taylor]

So, I continued my search for vacuum leaks with another can of throttle body cleaner. Seemed like some improvement if I hit the brake booster, but it wasn't very consistent. I pulled the plugs and they look fine after a couple hundred miles, then I did a compression test.
D W
#1 150 180
#2 150 180
#3 120 150
#4 140 190

Not awful, but they don't seem too good either on #3. I guess the next move is to check ignition timing and pull the valve cover to check the timing belt. It seems no parts stores around here actually have any loaner tools as I had to buy my compression test kit, so I doubt I'll have luck finding a timing light, but I'll try.

I also looked more closely at the rust spot. There's no rust anywhere else except for the front of the diff housing is really bad, but that's common, and the battery tie down has a spot as well as the brake booster. All of the drains from the roof through the fenders seemed clean after feeding a coat hanger through them and the inside of the front passenger fender was clean except for one leaf. 0 rust in any of them... except for the front left. I tried to pull the fender line out and realized the bolts were stripped, so I guess that explains why they couldn't get in there to clean it, and why it rusted so bad. I pried out the bolts and cleaned a pile of dirt and rust out of it, then cleaned it, and sprayed it with a few coats of rust reversal stuff. The rust was really only on the exterior sheet metal and there was a small spot on the interior metal, but I don't see much deep rust on anything structural. You can't see any of this if you're not lying on the ground. Then I managed to crack the rocker in half about 4 inches long. You win some, you lose some.

[Senor_Taylor]

Checked the ignition timing and it's perfect at 10 degrees. Then I pulled the valve cover to check the timing belt and holy butts was it bad. I'm not sure how the car was even running from the looks of this timing. I tried my best to get it retimed with 3 sets of hands and without tearing down the whole engine down to the crank pulley and I got it timed to what looks "correct" but it ended up being off by 4 degrees at the crank after the belt tensioned up. I didn't realize until after I had gotten it mostly back together so I decided to just see if it ran. Anything had to be better than what it was before. Buttoned it all up, turn the key, and it won't start, not even a little. Is 4 degrees really that bad?

Here's a picture of it when I first took the valve cover off.

[ViPER1313]

Did do realize all 3 marks only line up every (6??) rotations of the motor and you cannot tell what the timing is without seeing the crank sprocket? For me, this once, do the job right, by the book, and thank yourself it's not an interference motor.

[Senor_Taylor]

I put a screwdriver in the spark plug hole of #1 to find top dead center on the compression stroke. Does that not do the same thing? I also have TDC marked on the crank pulley

[ViPER1313]

I put a screwdriver in the spark plug hole of #1 to find top dead center on the compression stroke. Does that not do the same thing? I also have TDC marked on the crank pulley

No it does not. All 3 timing marks will (or would before you tweaked them) only line once every 4 or 6 rotations of the crank. There is 0 chance the car would have run with timing that far off; you measured it wrong.

[Senor_Taylor]

Please explain to me how two identical gears spinning at the same speed could possibly ever change their orientation to each other.