kosnic
02-12-2012, 11:34 AM
I bought a 97 Legacy the other day with a 2.5 that did not run. The previous owner said that it had run fine and started to run rough and they brought it home and couldn't get it to start again. I'm not too far into investigating, but I'm not really sure where to go now. When I started to check it out I found that the engine will not make a complete revolution by hand. I tried to turn the crank by hand CW and it would not budge. I assumed that the timing belt was broken, so I started to tear the engine down to check it out. I pulled off the side timing covers and found that the belt is in tact and in pretty good condition. I attempted to remove the crank pulley and found that the crank does turn CCW about half a revolution before binding again. 3/4 way through that rotation it feels like it builds and releases compression, or hits something and frees back up again before binding up totally.
So I'm not really sure where to go next. :smt017 I can't really check the timing in the state it's in since I can't line up the crank marks, but looking at the cam marks it looks like they are correct or extremely close to each other if they were able to make a full rotation and line up. I've only got a few idea's.. I'm thinking that the timing may have skipped a tooth or two, but I don't think it would bind up the way it is unless it was off by a lot. I was also thinking main bearings, but when I am able to move the crank by hand it moves pretty easily. Maybe a rod has broken and is just sitting in the cylinder, and the crank and or the rest of the rod is hitting it? Or possibly a valve spring has broken and a valve is stuck open?
So what's my best option here? Remove the timing belt and try to reset the timing? (may be hard to do since I can't really set the timing since the engine won't rotate 100%), remove oil pan and see what's going on there, or remove valve covers?
I'm trying to repair it in my drive way in the middle of winter in Northern Michigan, so I keep hoping it's something simple. I thought it had broken the timing belt so I was just going to throw a new one on and hope for the best as far as bent valves go. I've found a couple of local engines for cheap.. one has about 100,000 miles and is reported to have a slight knock. The other I know less about other than it had run, but needs head gaskets.
So I'm not really sure where to go next. :smt017 I can't really check the timing in the state it's in since I can't line up the crank marks, but looking at the cam marks it looks like they are correct or extremely close to each other if they were able to make a full rotation and line up. I've only got a few idea's.. I'm thinking that the timing may have skipped a tooth or two, but I don't think it would bind up the way it is unless it was off by a lot. I was also thinking main bearings, but when I am able to move the crank by hand it moves pretty easily. Maybe a rod has broken and is just sitting in the cylinder, and the crank and or the rest of the rod is hitting it? Or possibly a valve spring has broken and a valve is stuck open?
So what's my best option here? Remove the timing belt and try to reset the timing? (may be hard to do since I can't really set the timing since the engine won't rotate 100%), remove oil pan and see what's going on there, or remove valve covers?
I'm trying to repair it in my drive way in the middle of winter in Northern Michigan, so I keep hoping it's something simple. I thought it had broken the timing belt so I was just going to throw a new one on and hope for the best as far as bent valves go. I've found a couple of local engines for cheap.. one has about 100,000 miles and is reported to have a slight knock. The other I know less about other than it had run, but needs head gaskets.