lowkee
Lieutenant Commander
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2008
- Messages
- 1,890
I have little fear of tearing apart my Merc 3.0L or any small engine on the planet, but when it came to replace the timing belt in my 2000 Neon, I was sweating bullets.
These newfangled engines with more plastic than metal resemble giant watches to me. Watches which, when dismantled, explode with springs and parts, never again to be reassembled without a hefty dose of hot glue. So when I realized my car had an interference engine with a timing belt, the anxiety level began to rise. I scoured the net for any tidbits of wisdom as to how to swap out the belt well known for draining bank accounts both in failure and replacement. $600 is an average price for a new timing belt, and that is $500 more than I am willing to spend on this car. So I set out to do the heaviest maintenance I've ever done on a fuel injected engine.
Now, I'm not fearful to tackle a project due to lack of proper tools, as any reason to buy a missing tool has been found and taken advantage of over many years. So when I dug in I had the sockets, wrenches, torx and surprisingly, ply bar I needed. Yep, there sure was a pry bar involved. This job is not for the feint of heart, it seems. In order to dislodge the engine from the engine mount you must jack one side of the engine up a full 6". Sounds like small potatoes? Try saying that when you see your engine tweaked at a 15 degree angle; I was waiting to here some sort of loud *snap* the whole time. Luckily it went smoothly, with no bent or broken parts (that I noticed).
Putting it back together was pretty easy compared to removing parts in a strange arrangement. Torquing the bolts went well and after adding new coolant and a quick oil change, I started her up. More on that in a moment.
While I was in there, I took the opportunity to replace the water pump, which runs off the timing belt and the timing belt tensioner, the most expensive part, weighing in at $93. All the other parts combines barely exceeded the cost of that single part. Other parts replaced were two serpentine belts, coolant (due to water pump replacement), valve cover gasket (with spark plug tube gaskets), standard oil change and spark plugs. With all 10 hours of labor being free, the entire project cost me roughly $170, far less than bringing it in and with more parts replaced.
Okay, on to the moment of truth, the start up. As an ounce of prevention, I sprayed some mystery oil in each plug hole prior to installing the plugs, just to help de-sludge a bit. Knowing this, I assumed there would be some pinging on initial start. So I turned the key and the engine cranked over, and.. "varooom.. ping ping ping knock knock knock". After a sweat bead or two formed on my forehead from the pinging and knocking noises, the engine quieted down and began to sputter while the oil was burned away. After 30 seconds, the giant beast of a 2.0L was purring away without a hitch and, more importantly, without an explosion! After a day of driving it, I went to get it inspected. It passed with no engine computer complaints. Success!
The only real issue I have had was an engine "clunk" when I would shift, which cleared right up with some tightening of the engine mount bolts using my latest tool acquisition, a dog bone wrench.
Will I do this again? Maybe, but I won't be counting the days. My next vehicle will surely have a timing chain.
These newfangled engines with more plastic than metal resemble giant watches to me. Watches which, when dismantled, explode with springs and parts, never again to be reassembled without a hefty dose of hot glue. So when I realized my car had an interference engine with a timing belt, the anxiety level began to rise. I scoured the net for any tidbits of wisdom as to how to swap out the belt well known for draining bank accounts both in failure and replacement. $600 is an average price for a new timing belt, and that is $500 more than I am willing to spend on this car. So I set out to do the heaviest maintenance I've ever done on a fuel injected engine.
Now, I'm not fearful to tackle a project due to lack of proper tools, as any reason to buy a missing tool has been found and taken advantage of over many years. So when I dug in I had the sockets, wrenches, torx and surprisingly, ply bar I needed. Yep, there sure was a pry bar involved. This job is not for the feint of heart, it seems. In order to dislodge the engine from the engine mount you must jack one side of the engine up a full 6". Sounds like small potatoes? Try saying that when you see your engine tweaked at a 15 degree angle; I was waiting to here some sort of loud *snap* the whole time. Luckily it went smoothly, with no bent or broken parts (that I noticed).
Putting it back together was pretty easy compared to removing parts in a strange arrangement. Torquing the bolts went well and after adding new coolant and a quick oil change, I started her up. More on that in a moment.
While I was in there, I took the opportunity to replace the water pump, which runs off the timing belt and the timing belt tensioner, the most expensive part, weighing in at $93. All the other parts combines barely exceeded the cost of that single part. Other parts replaced were two serpentine belts, coolant (due to water pump replacement), valve cover gasket (with spark plug tube gaskets), standard oil change and spark plugs. With all 10 hours of labor being free, the entire project cost me roughly $170, far less than bringing it in and with more parts replaced.
Okay, on to the moment of truth, the start up. As an ounce of prevention, I sprayed some mystery oil in each plug hole prior to installing the plugs, just to help de-sludge a bit. Knowing this, I assumed there would be some pinging on initial start. So I turned the key and the engine cranked over, and.. "varooom.. ping ping ping knock knock knock". After a sweat bead or two formed on my forehead from the pinging and knocking noises, the engine quieted down and began to sputter while the oil was burned away. After 30 seconds, the giant beast of a 2.0L was purring away without a hitch and, more importantly, without an explosion! After a day of driving it, I went to get it inspected. It passed with no engine computer complaints. Success!
The only real issue I have had was an engine "clunk" when I would shift, which cleared right up with some tightening of the engine mount bolts using my latest tool acquisition, a dog bone wrench.
Will I do this again? Maybe, but I won't be counting the days. My next vehicle will surely have a timing chain.
