VERY frustrated - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

ThomasToTots · 04-09-2008, 04:06 PM

Ok I put it all back together. no extra pieces or anything. I followed instructions. And it wont start. I managed to get the power back to the car. the starter goes the timing belt turns. but nothing. bleeding nothing. I tried to check compression but I got a reading of 60. that simply cant be right. Cant be! new rings new head gasket valves in good shape and verified. how can it read 60? what the bloody heck is going on with this car?

Ok I don't get it . New rings new head gasket head machined and verified, new plugs new seals, valves in good shape. somebody tell me how my compression is still dropping????

edit: Checked spark Got it . , Checked Fuel Got it, Checked timing Got it . It must be compression. What am I missing?

Skiermang · 04-09-2008, 06:39 PM

Is it 60 PSI across all cylinders? If so, perhaps the cam to cam timing is not correct.

If it's one or two, check valve clearances (shims not put back in same places?) and the head gasket.

Did you use new cylinder head bolts? They are torque to yield, or one-use.

***toyomoho*** · 04-09-2008, 07:01 PM

Did you do any cylinder work such as boring and honing.

ThomasToTots · 04-09-2008, 07:19 PM

No the bores werent bored nor honed (they were very smooth to the touch when I pulled pistons out and put them back so I didnt touch them). I did install a new head gasket and used new head bolts. and no not across the board. Its 60 90 60 60. which is almost exactly 30 less per cyclender than it was before I rebuilt the engine. The marks lined up perfectly when I reinstalled the cams. and The head wasnt disassembled. it was mearly washed (by shop) and its surface was refinished (gasket area)

***toyomoho*** · 04-09-2008, 11:20 PM

One issue is putting new rings into a cylinder that has not been honed. The glaze on the cylinder wall needs to be broken up; this also provides a rough surface to allow the rings to seat. If you did not hone the cylinders the rings may never seat. The result will be higher oil consumption and lower compression.

Try squirting some oil into each cylinder then doing a compression test, it if jumps up dramatically you have an issue with the rings.

Other issues could be cam/crank timing. With the valve cover off, make all valves are completely closed when the pistons are at top dead center on the compression stroke. And that the valve clearance is set OK and not holding a valve open.

ThomasToTots · 04-10-2008, 12:58 AM

I thought honing a cylender smoothed it out. I have a spare head gasket and bolts if I need to pull head off and hone them. I will try oil test.

fredk · 04-10-2008, 09:36 AM

your cam timing is off, an otto design engine has to have over 60psi to run

ThomasToTots · 04-10-2008, 11:23 AM

Some pictures from TDC

You cant see it too well with the sun but there are 2 dots/divots/marks whatever on the camshafts that on the left one is at 90 degrees and on the right one is at 270 degrees they are matched up together. I can try to get another photo when the sun has gone up more. now there are 2 sets of dots on the camshafts the Manual said to use the lower ones and I did. there are 2 other dots that I havent looked at how they match up.

Hope this helps any timing issues.

ThomasToTots · 04-10-2008, 12:12 PM

Update : Ok little oil in the cyclenders helped. Im a little worried. #1 is upto 120 #2 is 180 #3 is 220. I reran number 3 a few times to see if I was imagining things. Im going to go out and test number 4.

I didnt get to number 4. when I released pressure on the gauge for number 3 insted of oil liquid came out of the releave valve. I took a swab and swabed into the cyclender and it has a good layer of oil in it. Maybe I added too much I dont remember adding much to it but its clean oil in there. and doesnt look to be anything else.

PROGRESS! It didnt start but #4 was at 120 psi. And I got combustion (I think) I got exhaust smoke out the egr pipe. Back to checking spark fuel and distributor timing.

Doctor J · 04-10-2008, 02:12 PM

When 1 year ago the air cleaner element broke apart and the fragments were pulled into the cylinders, the shop did the compression test which indicated 0 psi in cylinder number 1: the car was not starting; later after the distributor rotor was replaced the car started instantly.
Instead of compression I will suggest to do the leak down test with 90 psi of air applied via sparkplug adapter. If the air will come from the open oil filler cap the rings are not seating. It is kind of strange as my 79 Supra started in less then a second after head gasket replacement.

Skiermang · 04-10-2008, 03:06 PM

If compression doubled after adding oil, it sounds like the piston rings are the culprit. Did you align them correctly on the piston? The ends shouldn't be near each other.

ThomasToTots · 04-10-2008, 03:28 PM

I made sure they werent aligned. Didnt take pictures but of the 4 rings (2 were part of the 3 part oil ring) I made sure they were all facing differnt ways. I think What I heard about new rings not seating was the problom. but I have made some progress. Its trying to start now. I am getting combustion just cant seem to nail the timing down. camshafts are good crank cam timing is good. I do intend to check the distributor voltage. I checked for presence of spark I wasnt thrilled about the spark I saw though.

ThomasToTots · 04-10-2008, 04:43 PM

Well Im done for the day. I had my Vac lines hooked up wrong. Even missed one. I blew my bimetal vacuum valve apart. anybody got a spare? Tommarow I pull and rerun all the vac lines makeing sure I get em right this time. I hope.

ThomasToTots · 04-12-2008, 05:14 PM

The replacement BVSV is on. vacuum lines all hooked up. It still doesnt start. Im at a loss. I am going to reverify and reverify the timing.

Doctor J · 04-12-2008, 07:10 PM

Are the injectors working ?