Interesting trip

diamondlarry · #1 06-25-2006, 12:09 AM

I have good news and bad news. The good news is that I traveled just over 288 miles today and used only 4.5 gallons of fuel. The bad news is that the last 85 miles of the trip, my car was attached to the back of a wrecker. :-( I was on my way home from Indianapolis today and things were looking good as far as mileage goes when, all of a sudden at 55-60 mph, the engine died. The first thing I thought of was that my injector kill switch had malfunctioned so I started jiggling that but, nothing. I took the relay off that I was using for the injector-kill and jumpered the wires just in case the contacts in the relay had went bad; still nothing. I then checked to see if I was getting fuel; I was. I checked all of my fuses; they were all good. I then checked for spark by puuling a plug and putting the wire on it and holding it against the A/C bracket while the wife cranked the engine; I had spark. By the way, my wires are still in good shape because I didn't get knocked on my butt. I ended up calling a towing service close to my home and getting towed back to my house. The tow-truck guy was nice enough to hook his car up to the wrecker before he left his place and brought it with him so the four of us would have a ride home. I'm not going to say how much the tow bill was yet but, let's say just that any fuel savings I have ever had with this car are gone, at least once over. I will pull the valve cover in the morning after I locate a torx bit and see what's waiting for me. Luckily, if that's possible to say, I have the next two weeks off for our summer shutdown.

tbaleno · #2 06-25-2006, 10:28 AM

Sad news. But think of it this way. Any fuel savings has subsidized your bill, Your bill didn't take away the fuel savings. I'm hoping it had nothing to do with any mods you did to the car for FE and To me it doesn't sound like it. Maybe the timing belt is bad or something like that. I'm no mechanic, but maybe it is something like that.

philmcneal · #3 06-25-2006, 01:51 PM

OH NO keep us updated! I hope this isn't a foreshadowing of things to come! ;(

diamondlarry · #4 06-25-2006, 02:02 PM

I just got the valve cover off and I don't see anything wrong with the valve train. I did notice there are peices of metal that have jammed themselves between the timing chain and the cam gear. I guess that does it for the simple fix.

brick · #5 06-25-2006, 06:45 PM

Yuck. If the top end looks OK but you are seeing metal shards, sounds like something on the bottom end went kablooey. Maybe something on the crank sheared? Or perhaps those metal shards came from somewhere else but caused the chain to jump a few teeth? Is there a tensioner that might not have been re-installed properly after your head mod? I'd start by checking the cam timing and looking the part that contributed the scrap metal. (Not that you need anybody to tell you that, I'm just thinking and typing.)

Good luck getting the Saturn fixed! It's too good of a hypermiling vehicle not to keep running.

diamondlarry · #6 06-25-2006, 08:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brick

Yuck. If the top end looks OK but you are seeing metal shards, sounds like something on the bottom end went kablooey. Maybe something on the crank sheared? Or perhaps those metal shards came from somewhere else but caused the chain to jump a few teeth? Is there a tensioner that might not have been re-installed properly after your head mod? I'd start by checking the cam timing and looking the part that contributed the scrap metal. (Not that you need anybody to tell you that, I'm just thinking and typing.)

Good luck getting the Saturn fixed! It's too good of a hypermiling vehicle not to keep running.

Hey, thinking and typing can be good. It gets the thoughts flowing. After talking with some other people, I'm leaning towards the possibility that the timing chain guides may have had a catastrophic failure.

On a Saturn anyway, they look very flimsy.
I'm not totaly giving up on the Saturn yet, but after doing some research on different cylinder head designs, I've found something very interesting. On a 2002 Dodge 2.7 V-6 there is a HUGE squish area in the combustion chamber. This could benefit significantly from the Smmender Singh grooves. Also, the intake runners are extremely long and the injectors are mounted a significant distance from the combustion chamber which would help in vaporization of the fuel. It may end up having even more mpg potential than the Saturn. I don't think it would be too much of a stretch to expect 45-50 mpg(or more) out of an Intrepid. As I said before though, I will give the Saturn a shot.

diamondlarry · #7 06-26-2006, 11:24 AM

I got the cover off and found a real mess. The chain guides had self destructed, one of the bolts is completely missing, half of one chain guide is missing, the timing chain is broken, the chain tensioner came apart, and three teeth are gone off of the crank gear. All of the missing parts are most likely in the oil pan.

It sounds like I could get a new car for what it would take to fix this one.

brick · #8 06-26-2006, 11:32 AM

Maybe the thing to do here is drop in a salvaged engine?

diamondlarry · #9 06-26-2006, 11:43 AM

I've started checking that. With my engine swapping skills/tools, I would have to have it done at a shop and I've heard that can run $1500-$1800. I'm going to do some more checking but will probably start cruising Ebay.

philmcneal · #10 06-26-2006, 02:58 PM

can you get any $ worth with your car?

**** the saturn had its moments.