Timing & Cylinder Head - help

[LeftAngle]

Here’s my situation... in my area of SE U.S. there’s no one around with any Renault experience.   Short story is I just picked my car up from a Savannah GA shop that destroyed my motor and handed the car back to me.  The piston photo shows what I’m now facing.  All pistons have been hit by valves. 

My first task is removing the cylinder head.  I know it has to be rotated off, but does anyone have any experience on how to get enough leverage to do that without damaging other stuff?

My second task is re-timing.   I have no idea what the shop did to screw it up since no one is talking, but as per the manual, luckily the key way of the lower cog is facing up (the crank shaft turns enough to get it aligned before any valves hit).   The other photo shows the position of the cam’s cog.  What’s going on with that?  Is it 180° out or am I looking at a timing mark somewhere in that photo?

So... Any help will be appreciated.   I will never again let my car out of my eyesight where it’s over 50 miles away being worked on by “experts”, so it’ll be local Detroit iron mechanics and myself doing the work from now on. 

[jbcollier]

Hard to see what’s up from photos.  Here’s the relevant section from the manual:

http://lotus-europa.com/manuals/s2work/e/index.htm#13

[jbcollier]

Follow the direction in this section when removing the head:

http://lotus-europa.com/manuals/s2work/e/index.htm#5

All bolts and pushrods (keep them in order) must be removed.  Give it a smack sideways with a soft face hammer.

[gideon]

Wow, it's hard to believe that they would screw up your engine then wash their hands of it.  Did they offer to put things right? 

[4129R]

Could the cam be 360' out of sync?

i.e. a 4 stroke being 2 stokes out of sync.

[GavinT]

The timing marks will be on the machined surfaces of the sprockets. Sometimes the marks are rather faint it seems.
Here’s a couple of pics with white paint on the timing marks.

[LeftAngle]

  Thank you Gavin.   That’s the info I was looking for.   I won’t be removing the motor from the car and chain timing is the most difficult task to do because of its cramped location.  I’m betting once the head is off, it’ll be an easier job.   I’ll be painting the marks as well.  The manual doesn’t mention where the marks are so your expertise has saved me a lot of time. 

I’m also hoping a mallet will break the head free.   I was thinking I’d need to come up with a way to lash a 2x2 to it to use as a lever to rotate it off the block. And as long as it’ll be off, the rings will probably be changed as well.  I’m hoping the damage to the piston tops isn’t enough to warrant new pistons but once I see them, I’ll know more.  Whatever happens, this’ll be my big summer project.

  As far as the shop making good, the new owner is the son of the original owner.   He’s a jerk who most likely needs to steal to pay for a habit.  I won’t be able to recover for the parts they broke lost or damaged unless I take them to court.  I’m leaving the resolution of what services they charged me for and didn’t do up to PayPal.  I’ve given PayPal’s new bank certified evidence that nothing was done and hopefully they’ll follow through.   I have my doubts though since it’s hard for me to put faith in any financial institution who’s name is made up with the words “sin” and “crony” :-).   But nomatter what they determine, I’m looking forward to working on the motor this summer.  I know I’ll learn a lot.

[skippopotamus]

Hi LeftAngle,the pistons have to come out through the bottom of the engine.  I guess you could try taking out the liners and then changing the rings but it'll be tough.

[GavinT]

Hi Lefty,

Do you intend extracting the engine to the healing bench first?
That'd be best and probably necessary because, as Skippo says, the con rods won't come out through the top.

Perhaps the easiest way to remove the head is with a piece of 4 x 2 positioned (end grain) at the corner of the head and whack it with a dead-blow hammer or whatever. They come away fairly easily but be mindful that the lifters will be overhanging the cam, so don’t rotate it too far.

The pistons might be OK if they measure within spec and the valve damage isn’t too serious. I’d plan on having them crack tested anyway, but that’s pretty inexpensive.

Take some pics of the pistons when you can.

[dakazman]

Hi left angle. I agree that the SE is low on experts. It’s unbelievable that a shop would do that. I have some horror stories with my SBC engine that the rocker arms were not torqued. About 10 ft lbs instead of 50. It bent a pushrod and nicked the piston when the valve seat pushed out. I now do the work myself. The shop was a NAPA dealership.

  With that said, how are the pushrods/lifters? It would make sense that they are the weaker link.
I can’t imagine pulling the pistons out with engine in the car and removing the crankshaft. Removing the liners I’ve found to be quite tight.
Dakazman

[LeftAngle]

With the car on the lift, it looks like the crank shaft and pistons might be removed from the bottom without too much angst.   If that’s not possible, the rings might have to stay as they are until the next owner decides to do them.   My wild driving days are behind me and the car only needs to go between car shows.   The strikes on the pistons are right at the edge of the pistons’ steps.  The metal is weaker at the edge so maybe the valves didn’t get the brunt of the force.   I was planning on using the wood board and sledge hammer method, but have some carpet that’ll be tacked to the motor end to further cushion it.   I know we have some rocker spring removers around and might find one that fits.  If not, I’ll need to order a set but of the loose rods I’ve seen, none seem to be bent.   I won’t be able to get to the car until the end of the week.   I’m going to the range tomorrow to work out some frustration and I’ll be in better spirits and ready to work when I get back.   

I’ll never let anyone else work on the car again without me being there.  And if I’m there, there’s no reason why I can’t be doing the work.  I’ll make mistakes for sure, but I have a coffee maker, popcicles, itunes and a lot of (Detroit iron) people dropping by.  I’ll be in my element with my tools and I’ll be learning new tasks as well.   I’ll take lots of pictures.  Here’s most of the parts I’ve taken out so far.

[LeftAngle]

As long as I’m up, here are some pics I took when I was assessing the damage a week ago.  The first is of the bottom.  I had modified the oil pickup last year when I replaced the factory oilpan with a cast aluminum one I got from Ray.  Other than that and remounting the timing chain tensioner, I haven’t touched anything inside the motor.   I have video that shows the motor turning over just fine at the beginning of the year.  It no longer turns more than a couple of degrees.   All the pistons have valve strikes.  I only have photos of two of them.  You can see the valves displaced the metal at the edge of the step in the piston face.  I’m hoping the valve stems are salvageable.  The piston tops should be repairable or at least smoothed out.   The rods in the last photos spin with no wobble so I don’t think they’re wrecked.  I won’t know for sure until I see the ends, but I’m hopeful.   When I get back and remove the head, I’ll get more pictures of the damage.   I’ll also get the cam aligned and see if I can spot any builder’s marks on it.  I suspect the PO changed the cam, but don’t know for sure.

[GavinT]

Hi Lefty,

Can you shed some light on this pic, please?
I’ve marked a lime green ellipse which shows the chain not in contact with a portion of the crank sprocket.

If the tensioner is retracted, the chain might be a bit loose, but that seems not to be the case.
The same thing is evident from the pic in your last post, too.

What have I missed? 

[LeftAngle]

Good eye Gavin. Most likely it’s because the only direction the motor would turn was clockwise before it clunked to a stop.   I’ll know more when I get it back in the air.