hey guys, A guy down the street is selling a early 92 model turbo awd eagle talon. its got 97,000 miles and looks wonderful inside and out. He will part with it for 800 bones. The catch is that the car doesnt have compression on 3 of the 4 cylinders. Being i have experiance with forced induction and such i know there are a number of possibilites as to the cause. howeversince these cars are new to me i thought id ask you guys what you think about it. as far as rebuilding the motor i have all the tools and experiance needed to accomplish this if needed.

He pulled the valve cover off and at a glance i noticed the timing belt looked wore out and pitted. do you suppose it could be as simple as a jumped tooth timing belt and its just holding the valves open enough to leak compression? if so... are these motors built so that if that happens it would send the valve through the piston or not? anyways i have the money in pocket and im really wanting this car, but i feel i better ask the crowd first.

Oh yeah,, everything about it appears bone stock.

thanks! and its good to be part of this forum!

Drew

 

if its a clean car, buy it up quick for that price.
more than likely its got bent valves if the belt is in that bad of shape. if it has compression on one, it will have it on all of them unless valves are bent.
if your gonna get it be ready to buy a new head or dump some money into the one thats on it if its not cracked around the valve guides.
then after you get it all running and together be ready to work on it daily
DSM = Daily Service and Maintenance
im sure youll love the car as much as i like mine, but youll hate it at the same time for how much of a pain in the *** it can be.

 

oh and by the way since thats a 92, find out if its a pre 92.5 i forget the dates exactly
thats when they went from a 6 bolt motor to the 7 bolt
your better off having the 6 bolt motor, and if you do, you have one of the rare to find 6/4 cars
(6 bolt flywheel, 4 bolt rear axles)

 

yes its a pre 92. the build date was in 91. and i checked the oil pan an its got the 6bolt!

ok.. ill start keeping an eye out for a head. is thereany way to tell if its the valves or not? i wonder if i could hook my compressor to the spark plug hole and shoot some air in there. i bet i could see if its coming out the exhaust port, or intake. what do you think?

I got the car last night. the interior is in PERFECT shape. its amazing how new it looks. the only thing that looks worn is the seats. (they look like tan leather) the stitching is loose, but no rips or tears! This is my first sports/ tuner car and i love the way it feels sittin in the seat!

 

oh yeah.. and the owner was actually just a reseller that bought the car reposessed from the bank. he even gave me a chiltons manual to help me get it fixed. i looked in the glove box and found the origional factory manual and its got all the service reciepts in it as well! that should at least be nice to see whats been done so far too it.

 

Ebay head 1

would this be a considered a good deal?

ir is it common to just re valve my current head?
and from readin on this side it seams the valve guide have problems as well? does that require machining to fix or just installing new valve guides?

here is another head i was curious about what u guys think. although i rarely buy used stuff.
Ebay head 2

 

sounds to me from what youve described that the timming belt slipped. And sorry but the engine is an interference engine so the valves would hit the pistons. However most of the time the pistons will be fine. However the head will have to be rebuilt. If your mechanically inclined enough to do the work then the machine work for the head will only cost about 5-600. But if you have to have a shop do the repair it may cost up to 2k to fix. Check to see if the timing marks apear to be right (facing eash other with the intake at 9:00 and the exhaust at 3:00) if they are off then you know thats the issue.

 

Here is a crappy pic i snapped with my cell phone. the red arrows are the timing marks. and yellow line simulates a line between the center of both cam gears.

I looked in the manual to try to make sure i did the alighnment right before i snapped the pic. both dowels are facing up. or at least the exhaust one is. with the timing marks on a level plane with the top of the head. or at least the exhaust one is. lol it seems to me one or the other is off by 2.5 teeth. so im guessing either 2 or 3 teeth.

Is this enough to cause any damage?

 

depends on where the crank is sitting, 99% chance you got bent valves.
set it back in time half *** and see if its got compression then, if not change the head.

 

how do check for where the crank is setting? is there some mark on the outside to help me out? i coudnt find that info in the manual