car not running... need help asap..UPDATE!!motor is gone

[malloynx#2]

i was driving down the interstate today doing 80mph, all of a sudden the car dies. i pull over and i try to start it, but it won't.. the car is was also overheating.

so i let the car cool off. the car starts and will hold a good idle. as soon as the car is under load it's runs like utter crap. i can't get it out 1st gear and it won't go past 20mph.

when the car is idling it seems fine, i put it in gear and when i rev the car i hear very very clunking coming from the drivers' side valve cover..

my car is 400 miles away and i need to get this fixed..

[ May 29, 2003: Message edited by: malloynx#2 ]</p>

[97 30th RS]

That could be almost anything man. I would get the car trailered to a dealer and get a diagnostic

[malloynx#2]

well it happened 400 miles after my 2nd cam install. i'm pretty sure it's valvetrain related

[Magnus]

pop the valve covers and take a look.

If you over torqued any rocker arm bolts, they are garbage and not to be re-used at ANY cost.

I re-used a set of rocker arm bolts probably 4 or so times, but I NEVER over torqued them.. This is a risk, but My car lived. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Wicked 3800 V6]

Hey, why not check plugs and wires! One probably burnt through with all of the re-arranging you had to do during a swap. If not, you'll at least get to see what happened on the plug of a particular cylinder.
-Rob

[malloynx#2]

well the car is about 400 miles away from me. i did reuse the rocker bolts and i did over torque them by accident. i torqued them to 22lbs then 90 degree turn. i know this is way too much. i'm going to check the plugs and wires, but when the egine is under load i hear metal grinding, from the driver side valve cover. i hope this can be fixed. i just ordered 12 new rocker bolts. i really hope i didn't do any seroius damage.

the car will start fine and idle, BUT THAT'S ALL IT WILL DO!!!

what do you think keith, i'm not going to be able to touch the car till thursday, i the mean time, i have to gather a plan, cost if i can't get the car started, then i have to find a cheap way to maove this thing 400 miles..

please everyone keep the ideas coming in

[Magnus]

the bolts are torque to yeild, so if you over torqued them you stretched them out a good bit and fatigued them..

I say pull the valve covers and take a look.

If a rocker bolt comes loose, usually there is no damage, but if one breaks... well your rocker arm would fall up and just get bounced around causing all sorts of damage.. and who knows where the lifter would push the pushrod up into.

Definately don't run the engine utnil you diagnose the problem.

You say the car is over heating... did you run out of coolant? Perhaps a gasket is bad somewhere and you drank up the coolant.

What does the oil look like?

[slacker69]

What kind of springs and retainers did u buy mike cause if you didnt buy Bee hive shaped springs u have to grind the rockers down in order to make clearence. I didnt know this and when i first did my cam install my car ran like crap. I only drove it this way for 20 miles. at the most but it was grinding the metal off the retainers. You really need to take the valve covers off annd probalby have it towed or get a friend to trailer it for you. I am sure the Base you stay at can help you.

[AllTheGoodNamesAreGone]

from what i understand, you shuld ALLWAYS replace torque to yeld bolts with new ones.. becuase if you over torqe them they are pretty much jacked.. i guess they are kinda a one time use sort of thing for saftey..

~Billy

[DEE97GTP]

Loose rocker or broken valve spring/retainer is my guess. If I were you I would get a pushrod to take with you as well. If your rocker came loose, it might have jack up the pushrod as well.

Check the coolant, oil, etc to see if you have fluid and they aren't mixed together. Other than that, it has to be a thermostat, waterpump issue.

BTW, please email me back.....

DEE

[jmorgan]

never mind lift is only .506


could be a rocker bolt or a plug wire

[ May 27, 2003: Message edited by: Jason Morgan ]</p>

[nino]

mike, sorry to hear this. this really sucks.

nino

[Dominic]

Just a quick update, he told me the oil looked good. Thats all I know right now. I was present when he installed this cam, for one of the 3 days, and everything went together fine. I didn't help with the rocker arms though, and I do believe it will turn out to be a broken bolt :(

I hope its okay. .. :(

[malloynx#2]

UPDATE, i'm here in south florida and i'm about to go take a look at the car. it's at my girlfriends dad garage. he said the motor was toast but i don't beleive it. yesterday, they hooked the car up to a dianogistics machine and they said the car was idling and just lock-up.. i have to go investigate. i know the motor couldn;t have seized up.. i'll post updates as they come..

i'm really hoping they didn't run the motor without oil in it. they checked the oil and said it was fine. i don't know if the oil was drained and they started the car without oil.. i'll post more tonight.. this really sucks. i just hope it's a rocker bolt..

[Magnus]

the motor shouldn't be run period. I said that in my second reply of this post. You could cause a lot more damage that way.