Help! Did i blow my engine!!!

[WarMadeSimple]

Alright guys, I am new here and heres my situation. I just got a 97 GST spyder, supposely just had engine rebuilt, car seemed to run great....... until i am on my way home with it, I was traveling on the interstate, not ripping into it, not boosting, 25-2700rpm and 60mph, just cruising................suddenly my car seemed to miss, well then it drove fine, then about 2 min later, i hear KLACK KLACK, very loud and then the car dies and it appears to smoke a small amount, well I get it on the tow truck (costs me 780 for the tow home, 180 miles), under the car was a slight amount of oil once towed.........I cant really see any real issues off hand, but the timing belt teeth are shaved down near the cams. any ideas?

 

[empie1]

How about looking into a 6bolt swap and stop messing with another crankwalkable 7bolt motor.

If hes looking for a low cost option, 7 bolt is the way to go...especially if he found one local. 6bolts walk too btw.

 

[WarMadeSimple]

well i found a 97 gst 7 bolt, said to have 60k miles. but of course there is no guarentee it does or is going to work, what should i check with that, he is 3 hours away, the 6 bolt, is roughly 7 hours away, i would tow my car there, he would install and hope to jesus i can drive it back......

7 bolt from 97 gst = 700 bucks and 3 hr drive, no turbo (i have a 16g)

6 bolt, built by a friend of the seller, receipts from parts, and he says he can install it and everything for 1500 including a 16g, = 7 hr drive, and hopes everything turns out........


should i just get the 7 bolt this weekend, maybe rally a member here to help me install it?

 

[hypergenesis]

FYI, kyb is a oem replacement...gr-2s that is.

Yea but just replacing 1 out of 4 is a little dumb to me

 

[Calan]

If you don't have the tools or place to do a simple inspection and some basic tests to find out what happened, I don't think you're in a position to be thinking about 6-bolt swaps or towing a car 7 hours to replace the motor and hope it makes it back.

I think you need to slow down a bit and think this through. Find someone local who can help, and follow Zach's advice in post #10...find the problem first before jumping off the deep end and talking about swaps.

And to be honest, a DSM may not be the right car for you.

 

[1gdsmftw]

only thing i can think of is the belt skipped some teeth and caused valves to hit....this causing the belt to shred and bam!

maybe the oil is just a leak this guy didnt want you to know about? the oil pan may have a leak in the gasket? hole in the pan? i know if it jumps timing u can throw a rod as well if bad enough...and shredded belt sounds bad enough to me!

you turn that engine and ill personally E slap u

 

[empie1]

well i found a 97 gst 7 bolt, said to have 60k miles. but of course there is no guarentee it does or is going to work, what should i check with that, he is 3 hours away, the 6 bolt, is roughly 7 hours away, i would tow my car there, he would install and hope to jesus i can drive it back......

7 bolt from 97 gst = 700 bucks and 3 hr drive, no turbo (i have a 16g)

6 bolt, built by a friend of the seller, receipts from parts, and he says he can install it and everything for 1500 including a 16g, = 7 hr drive, and hopes everything turns out........


should i just get the 7 bolt this weekend, maybe rally a member here to help me install it?

Yeah wait till you know the damage first. Personally, buying used engines off private sellers is a crap shoot and i never will do it again. I just got ripped off by a member on here a few months ago.. Drove two hours to pick it up, put a thousand miles on it only to discover it was a pos and virtually unusable. Currently have my other block at the machine shop getting built.
But for real, if you have no tools or garage....sell it now. These cars can be reliable, but need to be picked over with a fine toothed comb to fix all issues...especially when you get a lemon like you just got.

 

[Alex7747]

Just sell it and me done with it. Even if you know how to work on it..you have no tools or space to work on it. And theres no guarantees that the used engines will work.

 

[WarMadeSimple]

yeah this sucks, i guess ill cut my losses and sell it, then just get another zx10 and be done with it

 

[Alex7747]

yeah this sucks, i guess ill cut my losses and sell it, then just get another zx10 and be done with it

Smart choice

 

[Dsm4lyfe12]

Just sell it and me done with it.

Your an idiot... if that was the case there would be no dsms left...

To the op, did anyone address the balance shaft problem that we have with these cars? I think that the balance shaft belt broke hitting the timing and shearing teeth, being the large klack klack. I think you should investigate this first and diagnose your problem by looking. Maybe ask a local member to come take a look at it for you. Typically, oil followed by a klack deems for assuming the worst. If i were you i'd check your oil return, rent a leak down tester. And follow up by removing the timing...cut the damn thing. And pull your balance shaft belt. Then if you find it is beyond repairable, take you losses and buy a bike.

 

[WarMadeSimple]

Well I am going to take a look into it after work today and see if I can see any broken belts, or where the oil is coming from, maybe It isnt as bad as I think. I just am not going to sell the car for pennies, I will plan to save about 4k and beast mode the car, if someone comes along with the right cash before I can afford to fix it, then I will sell it. I am not in a dire need situation.

I thought maybe i should check my oil lines because they are all braided so maybe one popped off when the belt broke (given thats the issue) its hard to tell, so I guess its time to get to looking

And it is always repairable, just to what extent I want to repair, the engine, I can fix that. I make 65k a year, I can afford it, but there also comes a point of is it worth it................we shall see, I will update this thread after I look around here in a few hours once im out of this hellhole they call the office

 

[DSMTyson]

Your an idiot... if that was the case there would be no dsms left...

To the op, did anyone address the balance shaft problem that we have with these cars? I think that the balance shaft belt broke hitting the timing and shearing teeth, being the large klack klack. I think you should investigate this first and diagnose your problem by looking. Maybe ask a local member to come take a look at it for you. Typically, oil followed by a klack deems for assuming the worst. If i were you i'd check your oil return, rent a leak down tester. And follow up by removing the timing...cut the damn thing. And pull your balance shaft belt. Then if you find it is beyond repairable, take you losses and buy a bike.

^Exactly.

People are so eager to quit when 1 bad thing happens. How does he expect to fix it if he just sits there and looks at the oil leak. Investigate, make a list of things that may have gone wrong and cross one off the list everytime you find something that is normal until you find the one thing that is broken.

But if you have your heart set on buying a bike and getting out of DSMs, go for it.

 

[WarMadeSimple]

also for all I know, the oil on the side of the interstate could have not been from me, it would have been from under the tranny, given the location. Its time to investigate, and whoever said maybe a DSM isnt the car for me, dude I have built a 654awhp vr4, twin 20g, with my own two hands, I just dont have the same resources and my damn gst is parked with the tip facing a busy road, kind of hard to do much digging

so what would you suggest may have went wrong, I am just looking for opinions. I am new to the 4g63t

 

[FearlessNick]

If there is oil under the car it might have thrown a connecting rod.

Klack Klack sounds like a connecting rod, plus the oil leak.

 

[1gdsmftw]

the 4g63t is alot simpler than the 6g72 man....just do what u woulda done on the 3k not very hard

 

[WarMadeSimple]

3000gt vr4, hints the twin 20g, how many twin turbo 4g63's have you seen

 

[1gdsmftw]

yeah i read wrong and corrected as such

and there are a few twin turbo 4g63's running around...and 1 or 2 quad turbos a quad setup was actually sold on here not too long ago

 

[rlacasse1]

OP said he heard "KLACK KLACK, very loud" and the t-belt teeth are "shaved down near the cams".

And you think he should just clean off the oil pan and crank it?

****

If the timing belt teeth are gone, you most likely have bent valves, which probably slapped the pistons and may have caused the noise you heard (sound descriptions are very subjective). The oil could be from a block or pan puncture, or it could be that you just noticed it coincidently.

Either way, it sounds like you need to do a thorough inspection of the motor and maybe a leak down test to see if you have holes in the pistons. You can also pull the VC and check the valve train for any damage, and drop the oil pan to inspect the lower end.

Good catch CALAN. I was reading through this thread like "Seriously, WTF, did everyone miss that part of his post?"

First off, check out that timing belt. You should not crank it, or try to crank it until you check the timing belt. And "KLAK KLAK" could be the sound of valves hitting the pistons, considering you said the timing belt teeth were shaved off. Also as for the puddle of oil, if it is a tiny small spot then it could be something as simple as a leaking oil return line, or as big as a rod sticking out your block, but the rod would be fairly obvious and easy to find.

We already know that your timing belt is screwed. So might as well start tearing that apart, and look for oil leaking along the way.

 

[WarMadeSimple]

but the klack klack sound, almost sounded like I broke an axle, its hard to explain, wasnt so much sounding like metal on metal, sounded more like, something broke and was dragging under the car. nothin is dragging, im sure thats the next question. And like I said, i just dont have much of a place to look at the car, or pull the head, or leave it halfway done, so i was merely asking the kind users of the DSM forum for a little advice on these engines, so I could have a checklist and evaluate from there, its always better to have a full forum of people helping you with pin pointing an issue, than just myself. Help and advice is not a bad thing

also, on most engines that have thrown a rod, i have seen a lot of liquids come out from it. what im referencing is about as much oil loss as 3 mice taking a piss in the same spot

 

[JusMX141]

...and whoever said maybe a DSM isnt the car for me, dude I have built a 654awhp vr4, twin 20g, with my own two hands

With all of that experience, perhaps you should be telling us what's wrong with your car.

 

[WarMadeSimple]

My honest opinion is I skipped timing.............

 

[JusMX141]

Go with that then.

Shit broke- I don't know what you expect a bunch of internet users to do with no pictures and a vague description of some type of obvious mechanical engine failure.

 

[WarMadeSimple]

I am just curious of people opinions, I thought a forum was for a community, I havent really even looked at anything yet, I just dumped 10k into this car, and then 40 miles down the road, and a 800 dollar tow bill 185 miles back home ( i had just picked the car up), I am too irritated with it to dig any further.

I will get some pics, and dig some today, and i will be updating with finding ect ect, ive been a member of this forum for a mere 4 hours, and I see a lot of help, and a lot of drama

Not trying to be rude at all guys, just trying to get input, DSM is a moneypit we all know that, but they sure can be one fun ride to broke haha

 

[rlacasse1]

Just get a new timing belt on there and compression test it once you do. More than likely the valves are bent, so you could just skip all that and just tear the head off now.

 

[Calan]

I am just curious of people opinions, I thought a forum was for a community, I havent really even looked at anything yet, I just dumped 10k into this car, and then 40 miles down the road, and a 800 dollar tow bill 185 miles back home ( i had just picked the car up), I am too irritated with it to dig any further.

I will get some pics, and dig some today, and i will be updating with finding ect ect, ive been a member of this forum for a mere 4 hours, and I see a lot of help, and a lot of drama

Not trying to be rude at all guys, just trying to get input, DSM is a moneypit we all know that, but they sure can be one fun ride to broke haha

Well in our defense (ok...mine ), your posts make you sound like you are relatively new to DSM's and performance cars in general. I think you're wanting us to tell you everything is ok and that it's an easy fix; but without pictures or some investigation on your part, we're all guessing just like you are.

Take a break from thinking about it for a day or two, and then go at it with a fresh mind. Find someone local to help stare at it, and manage a way to get it up in the air and look around. It may not be all that bad, but you aren't going to know until you do a bit of troubleshooting.