- Joined
- Mar 19, 2003
- Location
- Denver, CO
Hey guys. I have been cranking on my B23 w/16v head and turbo the last few days and haven't been able to start it. I was checking everything, fiddling with ign. timing. Checking the cam timing, and anything else I thought might be wrong. It never sounded quite right when cranking, like it was spinning too smoothly. Well, Now I think I finally discovered why my car won't start. Or at least I have a very solid theory now. The weird cranking sound was due to not having any compression. I put my compression gauge on every cylinder, turned the key, and I would sometimes get a tiny blip on the needle on the first compression stroke. But as soon as the motor cranked for more than a split second (think oil pressure here) I would get nothing on the compression gauge. The first thing I thought, was that I might have somehow bent some valves during assembly. But on all 4 cylinders? Unbelievable. But then I came to my senses and had a little more faith in myself to assemble a motor carefully without screwing up something THAT bad. What I am quite sure is happening is that the valves are hanging open once I get some oil pressure. The hydraulic lifters pump up to their normal spec when cranking and they start getting oil and are keeping the valves from touching the seats. Somehow, the machinist that performed the valve job on my head must have screwed up the valve stem height on the motor. He ground the valves, and the seats I'm sure, which sunk the valves maybe 20-100 thousandths? But maybe he didn't grind the valve tips down to set the proper tip height again? Maybe he was thinking they were adjustable somehow?
Darnit! In an attempt to salvage this problem without tearing the head completely out of the car again I was thinking of doing the solid lifter conversion. Has anyone pulled this off in the US yet? Can I get the lifters and shims somewhere? Even if I have to order them from sweden or something?
I have a feeling the right thing to do is get the head over to the machinist and let him fix it. Does anyone have a spec for the proper valve height on a B234?
Darnit! In an attempt to salvage this problem without tearing the head completely out of the car again I was thinking of doing the solid lifter conversion. Has anyone pulled this off in the US yet? Can I get the lifters and shims somewhere? Even if I have to order them from sweden or something?
I have a feeling the right thing to do is get the head over to the machinist and let him fix it. Does anyone have a spec for the proper valve height on a B234?