I had a chance to go to the shop this weekend so I could finish porting my heads but things didn't turn out as planned.

Just as I was pulling into the driveway of engine lab the uber-wagon died.

On a car with a quarter million miles there were a few different things that could have been causing my problem so I started checking all the likely causes.

I had an intermittent check engine light so the first thing I did was scan the computer. All I got was an old EGR code.

Then I checked the fuel pressure just in case the fuel pump finally died. No problems there either.

Then I checked the spark. Great spark. Uh oh, that means this could be mechanical unless my EFI driver circuit is kaput.

I check compression, BINGO. I got nothing which leads me to believe that the timing belt broke. I pull the cover and verified my suspicion.

Thats when I realized I was in deep doo doo. This is an interference motor so bad things could have happened when the pistons played russian roulette with the valves. I had depressing visions running through my head of dumping potential porsche funds and my limited time into my POS beater.

While waiting for a new belt to be delivered I ran a leakdown test to determine if any carnage had occured and how bad it might be.

It would be an understatement to say that I was pleasently suprised to find that 3 cylinders had only 5% leakdown while one had almost 20% which is nothing bad for a motor that old. Best of all it meant no bent valves. It was probably due to the fact that the cam went to the timing mark location as soon as the belt snapeed when the the engine was at low RPMs

I put the new belt on, bolted everything back together and the car started and ran as good as it ever has.

Even though it used up my day that I had planned to work on the porsche I am glad that the total damage came to less than $20 and that I now don't have to worry about the timing belt being the death of the wagon. I am also glad this happened when it did instead of when I was on my trek to daytona last weekend.

I am a lucky man indeed.

 

phew... uber wagon rides again.

 

pffffft! Your beater has only a quarter million, huh?

Congrats on it's survival.

Edit: Shitty night picture, but that's 413k

 

Wow, what vehicle is that from?

 

looks like a honda

 

i didnt even think they would make tacks go to 400,000 miles

 

I remember back when most cars odometers only had 5 digits.

 

LOL the car companies must not of had much faith.

 

The wagon only has 5 digits so ford must have been sandbagging on that one.

I didn't believe digital james when he told me the car had 200,000 miles on it when I bought it.

That car represents the best $250 I ever spent.