I've broke my engine.....

[elj737]

Hello everyone. I am having severe problems with my 1.6 r-series after attempting to change the head gasket. In a nut shell, the timing chain fell off the bottom pulley and I also managed to drop the tensioner into the sump. All of this has been rectified and the engine has been built back together, but I just wonder if someone with some knowledge of these things could clarify a few things for me.

Firstly, I have put the engine back together with the timing mark on the bottom crank pulley aligned with the relevant mark for TDC.This is the last pointer on the scale. I aligned the cam sprocket mark with the mark on the cam carrier, so botht timing marks are aligned, both crank and cam. I have had to remove the distributor drive gear (due to dropping the tensioner) and have refitted this. However, the haynes manual seems to imply that with the engine timed to TDC, the rotor arm should point towards the position of no.1 ht lead on the distributor cap. I have done this, but the car wont start at all, I assume due to the timing being out. I have twiddled the distributor a bit in either direction, but this still doesnt help. I then turned the engine over by hand until the crank pulley was aligned to TDC, but found that the rotor arm was not pointing to no.1 cylinder like it should be.

My question is; does the rotor arm do one complete rotation against one rotation of the crank pulley?

I have checked the the engine is receiving fuel, and the plugs are sparking, but probably not in the right place.

I dont want top scrap the car, but think I may have to if I cant get it sorted soon.

thanks for your help

martin.

[threelitre]

Hi!

The rotor arm should do a half rotation to one full rotation of the crank. I have once bought an MG 1600 with the distributor spindle inserted the wrong way, so that it did not want to start like yours. The following description helped to get my car running without getting the distributor drive off again, although not really proffessional. But assuming your error is the same, it will lead to a running engine in about 10 minutes...

1) get the crank to TDC. Now ether cyl 1 or cyl4 (assuming 1-3-4-2 as firing order, please confirm) should have fully closed valves. It is possible to feel the lobes of the camshaft of cylinder 1 (at the end of the timing chain) through the oil filler neck. If both lobes are 'up' then the cylinder is closed and should be firing.

2) After finding which cylinder is closed and ready to fire, take off the distributor cap and see which cylinder the rotor is pointing at. In my case it was pointing at 2 when 1 should ignite.... So attach the lead from the cylinder to ignite to the place on the distributor cap where the rotor is pointing to. After that change all the ignition leads on the distributor, so that the correct ignition order is re-established.

3) Set the timing.

4) put a notice in your car/brain: "Never remove all ignition leads at once".

Hope that helps,

Alexander

[derekjl57]

I had a similar problem with my R-series. Eventually turned out the distributor was set 180 degrees out.....

[elj737]

Thanks to everyone who helped me with this. The car is back on the road, once again thanks to maestro forums.

martin.