SubGothius
19th January 2005, 03:54 AM
Since this might be somewhat urgent (in fact, I want to know whether it is urgent or not), I am reposting this, slightly edited, as a separate, new thread, since I have had no response to the post in the Died, won't restart thread (http://www.lancisti.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1292) (where, in hindsight, I now realize it did't quite belong anyway, since we now already know why she died and won't restart!).
Anyway, I finally got all the bits and tools I'd need to replace the timing belt and related tasks, but ran into one obstacle and made one alarming blunder.
First, the baffling obstacle:
I cannot seem to figure out how to get the A/C compressor belts off. Yes, beltS -- plural. One goes around the crank pulley, P/S pump and A/C compressor, and the other just goes around the crank pulley and A/C compressor alone. I slacked off the only two bolts I could find on the outboard side holding the comp. to a bracket on the engine -- the lower bolt hole on the bracket is arc-slotted and would apparently allow the comp to pivot towards the engine slightly to remove the belts, but the comp still won't move. Are there other bolts, perhaps on the inboard side somewhere, that I'd need to slacken, as well? I saw some "maybes" in the region of the oil filter (horizontal filter pointing to front of car), would prolly have to remove the filter to get at those properly, darn tight spot to even get a wrench into, let alone swing it at all... So I'm asking for advice first, before I do anything radical that could be ineffective and make reassembly more difficult.
Now, my boneheaded blunder, the source of possible urgency:
I'd taken the plugs out so I could turn the crank by wrench, and stuffed some paper napkins in the plug holes to prevent any debris from falling in. You may recall that I was dreading removing the plugs, as I knew from the pre-purchase shop inspection that at least one plug hole was nearly stripped and would likely need to be rethreaded with inserts.
BTW, Guy Croft himself (via email) warned me off the Wurth Time-serts for this application, as the counterbore tends to go too deep for proper plug seating and they can unthread too easily. He recommended Recoil Plug-Saver inserts instead, which are solid like Time-serts (and unlike Helicoils, tho' apparently Helicoil sells these sparkplug rethreading kits rebranded under their own label, but I digress...), but they have a knurled section of threads to resist unthreading. Amazingly enough, I found a kit with step-tap and a selection of inserts, house-rebranded at the local AutoZone (a US discount autoparts chain store) for US$30, so was no big hassle to get "the good GC-approved solution".
Anyway, back to my blunder, the stripped plug hole was #4, and with all the assorted plumbing and brackets and whatnot in the way, I simply could not get my hand in there well enough to start the tap properly (which may explain why the threads were semi-stripped). So I decided to pull off the heater hose emerging from the head right next to it. Of course, a fair amount of coolant splashed out before I could get the disconnected hose upright, and said coolant, of course, drained to where? You guessed it, right into plug hole #4, soaking right thru the paper napkin loosely stoppering the hole, and trickling right down into cylinder #4 itself. I will pause a moment now, so you can finish laughing and regain some composure.
Of course, my battery's dead from all those cranking attempts, so I couldn't just crank it'round a few times with the plugs still out to blow the spilt coolant (or most of it) outta cylinder #4. So I resorted to sticking long strips of cotton rag (actually cuts from an old cotton sock) into the plug hole, extracting it, wringing it out, lather, rinse, repeat, until a dry ragstrip re-emerged barely damp. There may be a couple-few CCs of coolant left in there, for all I can tell, but will it do much damage to leave things like this? Or so long as there isn't enough to block the piston's full range of movement (i.e., hydraulically lock before ful cylinder compression), would it all just evaporate and burn away when I finally fire up the engine again, no harm done?
Thx for any advice you could provide!
Anyway, I finally got all the bits and tools I'd need to replace the timing belt and related tasks, but ran into one obstacle and made one alarming blunder.
First, the baffling obstacle:
I cannot seem to figure out how to get the A/C compressor belts off. Yes, beltS -- plural. One goes around the crank pulley, P/S pump and A/C compressor, and the other just goes around the crank pulley and A/C compressor alone. I slacked off the only two bolts I could find on the outboard side holding the comp. to a bracket on the engine -- the lower bolt hole on the bracket is arc-slotted and would apparently allow the comp to pivot towards the engine slightly to remove the belts, but the comp still won't move. Are there other bolts, perhaps on the inboard side somewhere, that I'd need to slacken, as well? I saw some "maybes" in the region of the oil filter (horizontal filter pointing to front of car), would prolly have to remove the filter to get at those properly, darn tight spot to even get a wrench into, let alone swing it at all... So I'm asking for advice first, before I do anything radical that could be ineffective and make reassembly more difficult.
Now, my boneheaded blunder, the source of possible urgency:
I'd taken the plugs out so I could turn the crank by wrench, and stuffed some paper napkins in the plug holes to prevent any debris from falling in. You may recall that I was dreading removing the plugs, as I knew from the pre-purchase shop inspection that at least one plug hole was nearly stripped and would likely need to be rethreaded with inserts.
BTW, Guy Croft himself (via email) warned me off the Wurth Time-serts for this application, as the counterbore tends to go too deep for proper plug seating and they can unthread too easily. He recommended Recoil Plug-Saver inserts instead, which are solid like Time-serts (and unlike Helicoils, tho' apparently Helicoil sells these sparkplug rethreading kits rebranded under their own label, but I digress...), but they have a knurled section of threads to resist unthreading. Amazingly enough, I found a kit with step-tap and a selection of inserts, house-rebranded at the local AutoZone (a US discount autoparts chain store) for US$30, so was no big hassle to get "the good GC-approved solution".
Anyway, back to my blunder, the stripped plug hole was #4, and with all the assorted plumbing and brackets and whatnot in the way, I simply could not get my hand in there well enough to start the tap properly (which may explain why the threads were semi-stripped). So I decided to pull off the heater hose emerging from the head right next to it. Of course, a fair amount of coolant splashed out before I could get the disconnected hose upright, and said coolant, of course, drained to where? You guessed it, right into plug hole #4, soaking right thru the paper napkin loosely stoppering the hole, and trickling right down into cylinder #4 itself. I will pause a moment now, so you can finish laughing and regain some composure.
Of course, my battery's dead from all those cranking attempts, so I couldn't just crank it'round a few times with the plugs still out to blow the spilt coolant (or most of it) outta cylinder #4. So I resorted to sticking long strips of cotton rag (actually cuts from an old cotton sock) into the plug hole, extracting it, wringing it out, lather, rinse, repeat, until a dry ragstrip re-emerged barely damp. There may be a couple-few CCs of coolant left in there, for all I can tell, but will it do much damage to leave things like this? Or so long as there isn't enough to block the piston's full range of movement (i.e., hydraulically lock before ful cylinder compression), would it all just evaporate and burn away when I finally fire up the engine again, no harm done?
Thx for any advice you could provide!