Cascade Crew

Demon · Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 8:52 pm Post subject: non F-Body...

Not sure what the problem is... bought an 88 Cutlass Sierra from a guy on LS1tech and have had a problem with in the last few weeks. It was running somewhat rough after awhile, for a few weeks anyway... it'd idle rough then stutter and shut off, but while driving it was fine. After a short trip from home to daycare, it was turned off for a short while then wouldn't start up... it'd just turn over a few times but wouldn't fire, just made a metallic clunk and stopped. It was getting spark, getting fuel... now its at a mechanic and they're saying it has no compression, the timing chain is screwed and the motor needs to be replaced ...

at first, just because it was cheap, I replaced the fuel filter... no problems there at all.
my next thought was the starter, never got to replace it as I ran out of time.
so...
am I being given a line of shizzle or should I pay another 65 bucks and tow it elsewhere and waste more of my money...

it sounds like it really wants to fire... but then when you think its going to, it clunks and is done.

air, fuel and fire are all present...
what the f**k am I missing here?

i've considered alternator and battery, but according to the papers as far as I can tell they're still fairly new...

I'm at a loss.

90droptoproc · Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 9:24 pm Post subject:

timing,
if the timing set is done then you wont get any compression, and it is more then likely an interferance head(meaning valves hit pistons when the chain snaps)

DBL_TKE · Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 10:04 pm Post subject:

The exact same thing happened to my buddies old '83 Mustang 5.0. The timing chain had snapped taking with it the timing chain cover as well as getting dozens of little pieces and flakes of metal in the oil pan. turn out he had some cam walk but I can't remember if the valves hit the pistons or not. He pulled the engine and tried doing a complete rebuild himself but the car became a financial drain so he sold it. When he tried starting it up after the incident, it made the sound that you are describing.

Sellmanb · Member Joined: 30 Nov 2004 Posts: 727 Location: Tigard, OR

concour with above statements. You can always go down and ask to see the timing chain, or atleast how they diagnosed it. People do that all the time at my work, it just gives them more peace of mind knowing we aren't jacking them for all they're worth for nothing. lol.