harmonic balancer problems. or is it?

[cjmkIII]

So I know that you guys have a big problem with people posting threads that are similar to others. Well I did look at previous posts about harmonic balancers and non of them seemed to fit what happened to my car. I bought the car about a month ago. When I purchased the vehicle it had a ticking noise that seemed to be coming from, or sounded like the belt tension-er pulley was going out. So I figured that was the problem. I had just changed the oil in the car, changed the plugs with NGK type R, and replaced the K&N filter. The next day with two full coolers and my girlfriend in the car while going up a rather big hill, the turbo started to boost and around 8psi I herd a loud thud, and a backfire, than the RPMs started to climb and the car started to loose power. I threw it into neutral, its a five speed, and at the top of the hill it died. Now, the first couple times I tried to turn the car over it sounded like the starter was just spinning freely, and was not cranking the motor over at all. On about the third try it caught and wouldn't turn like the engine was locked up. I looked for any broken belts and all I found was the ac belt was gone. I don't believe it was there to begin with cause the pulley for the ac was oxidized. When I got the car back to my dads house I took off the timing belt cover and the timing belt looked fine, no cracks or missing notches. I also noticed the belt was moved over to one side a little bit, not siting flush with the cam pulleys. I could move the cam pulleys by hand so the pistons obviously are not locked up. I am at a loss now. I talked to a guy that works for a shop I take my cars to. He said he has owned a few DSMs and loves them. He is the one that told me its probably the harmonic balancer. I have never worked on this kind of engine before and have no clue what that is or what it dose so any incite on it would help me, I'm planing on doing it my self but I would like to understand what I'm getting my self into. And if there is any other reason for this to occur. My car is a 1g eagle talon tsi front wheel drive five speed turbo.

thanks much.
sincerely
Christopher Johnson

 

[pauleyman]

You throw a balancer the car wont lose power or die. Sounds more like you broke something else. Check the timing belt. Assume nothing. You have already made one improper asumption.

 

[cjmkIII]

I did check the main belt it dose look like there are two timing belts from the manual I have, and I was told that the harmonic balancer could be the issue that's why I posted the thread because I don't want to dig into anything that I don't have to. Thanks for the input Im gonna take the car in to get diagnosed this week. Im clueless this aint no 7m-gte.

 

[ScuzziOne]

For starters, would put the car in neutral and try to manually turn the crankshaft with a 1/2 drive ratchet to see that the motor turns and that all the camshaft and crankshaft timing marks still line up correctly. You can get to the camshaft drive bolt through the access port in the drivers side wheel well splach shield. You want to turn the cranksaft clockwise whle facing the motor through the drivers side wheel well. Take your time and make sure camshaft and crankshaft are turning together. If tiiming marks are off then you've probably skipped timing and potentially damaged the motor as these are interference engines.

 

[Tyeler18]

I'm going to second a tbelt failure. You can turn the gears now because of either a) the belt being broken down the side somewhere or b) the valves are demolished. Your described noises and symptoms scream a jumped/broken belt. Sounds like you probably killed your bottom end trying to crank it over.

Harmonic balancer will not cause your described issue.

 

[dsmcurse]

^ Totally concurr with the above statement. As I read your story, how you described loosing power and the way the engine turned over, I was thinkin"T-belt" the whole time. sounds like you need to pull the entire plastic timing cover and look at the whole T-belt situation and take a good peak in there.

And by the way, the 4G63 is alot more mechanic friendly to work on than the 7MGTE. I got lots of experience with both engines. If you can get down to business on a '90 Supra than you should be able to do the same on a '90 talon.

The 4g63 is essentually the exact same motor minus 2 jugs and mounted east-to-west vs's north-to-south

 

[BurrowZ]

As somebody who just spent an hour diagnosing a similar ticking noise that you describe, I can tell you that I would put all my money on your hydraulic tensioner going bad and bottoming out. The sound was the arm hitting the tensioner body. Since that went bad, you jumped timing and more than likely bent valves. At the time I could swear the ticking was my harmonic balancer.

Sorry to hear about this man.

 

[cjmkIII]

well turns out I jumped timing and dropped a valve. Blew apart in the cylinder and blew into my turbo destroying it. motor is beyond repair and turbo is destroyed. The motor and turbo both need to be replaced. I don't suppose anyone would know wear I could get my hands on a motor and turbo for under 2900$ . new or rebuilt with warranty.

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[Tyeler18]

well turns out I jumped timing and dropped a valve. Blew apart in the cylinder and blew into my turbo destroying it. motor is beyond repair and turbo is destroyed. The motor and turbo both need to be replaced. I don't suppose anyone would know wear I could get my hands on a motor and turbo for under 2900$ . new or rebuilt with warranty.

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Look at any of the vendors here, you can get a built engine for roughly $2000, then buy a stock head for $100 to throw on it. Another $100 for a 14b and you're back up and running. Then sell off anything salvageable from your prior engine and make a little bit back.

Or you could purchase a used shortblock/longblock that's built or stock for $500-1500. That will depend on how much of a gamble you want to throw down. Ive seen a lot of used engines that are junk and sold for a reason.

 

[cjmkIII]

Alright thanks guys for all your help. I hope I can manage to get this beautiful DSM back on the road for all those other guys to drule over. haha later

sincerly
christopher johnson