[jdk81]

^^^^ Good point!

Does it have injector relief?
if its off a 1.6 tbi swift it doesnt, and could possibly be screwing it all.

I think it should run/cough at 100 psi etc.

Otherwise
G16v single cam heads vit 1.6, baleno 1.6, coilpack 1.6, g13bb, swift 1.6tbi heads are the same in chamber.
They have diff rocker covers, diff cam shafts and in swift tbi few bolts and injector relief different.

[Rossco]

It's the whole top end off a vit g16b, identical to the one I removed. I haven't done a leak down test. While this is a good idea I don't know anyone who has one and they are about $200 to buy. Might as well get it pressure tested at the reconditioners.

This is the third day of trying to get it started and we have only heard the sound of the starter motor cranking. How about stuffed injectors? But The plugs smell like petrol when you take them out after cranking.

[JrZook]

I don't think there is much point trying to get it started if the compression is genuinely that low. This is of course assuming that the cam timing is correct and the tappets have sufficient clearance at TDC eg the valves are closed and the headbolts are torqued correctly and not just bottoming out in the thread.

Seems like its head off time.

[Rossco]

Agreed, Bit the bullet and bought a leak down tester. This will help diagnose the low compression problem. I will report back tomorrow arvo.

[vet 180]

My guess is the valves and valve seats are cut at different angles on the reconditioned engine. To be so consistent a cross all 4 it has to be a machining or timing issue

[Rossco]

And the culprit is... The valves are not seating properly. At tdc with all 4 valves closed we were getting a very noticeable amount of air coming from both the manifold and the exhaust pipe, hence the low compression. So it's head off time to get the head to the machine shop. Someone clearly fucked up when they were rebuilding this one. Thanks everyone for your help! I will report back when it's up and running again.

[vet 180]

Rossco wrote:

And the culprit is... The valves are not seating properly. At tdc with all 4 valves closed we were getting a very noticeable amount of air coming from both the manifold and the exhaust pipe, hence the low compression. So it's head off time to get the head to the machine shop. Someone clearly fucked up when they were rebuilding this one. Thanks everyone for your help! I will report back when it's up and running again.

Damn. We'll at least you know now.

[Rossco]

Took the head in, the vac tested it came up 100% sealed. They asked for the cams to run some more tests. I grabbed the one that came out of the previous head and the one we had been using that came with the new head. The locating dowel was on the I for the cam we had been using. WHAT A DUMB MISTAKE! Machine shop decked it and we put it back on. Immediately we had compression back and it was sputtering and backfiring. Moved the dizzy around to try to find the right timing, it was one tooth out and coughing ( I would say it ran for one second). Then suddenly there was a lot of resistance in the engine, The starter motor couldn't turn it over and was just clicking. We thought the batteries had died so hooked them up to the charger and had a beer.

Tried again, still clicking and sometimes the cam would turn very slowly. We pulled the rocker cover and there is coolant in the oil only in the head. There is none in the sump. Pulled the plugs to help the engine crank over and gave it a crank. It was slow for five seconds or so and then sped up again to normal cranking speed (something it hadn't done since we put the head back on). By this time the oil was very milky and there were puffs of white coming out of all four cylinders.

All roads lead to a failed head gasket. The previous gasket sealed fine so I'm not sure what went wrong with this one. For now we have pulled the head again and ordered a new head gasket. Unfortunately living in north Queensland it takes ages for anyone to do anything up here and I stupidly went back to the shop that eparcels packages up once per week.

Our next move is to refit the head and try again I suppose. I don't know why the cam had trouble spinning, and I don't know how coolant was getting into the oil. I'm also not sure if the white puffs we were seeing was coolant, actually now that I think about it it was probably petrol. So, coolant was entering the oil on the way into the head, and becoming visible around the cam caps. when we pulled the head off there was far more coolant coming out of it than oil.

We have not put a straight edge on the block yet but the car never really got that hot. I'm assuming that if the head had warped I would have had some sort of head gasket problem in the past year since the crack opened up.

[jdk81]

Headgasket go in wrong, block the oil gallery and mean the cam has no lube?

[JrZook]

So was the low compression caused by the valves not seating or incorrect cam timing? Trouble with the cam not spinning is quite concerning. Id be checking the cam and journals for galling. A flipped headgasket will cause the cam to run dry

[Rossco]

The low compression was caused by the cam sprocket dowel on the I instead of the E. So yes incorrect cam timing. Someone had put it back together wrong and I didn't notice until I was holding both cams.

Besides being decked nothing has changed on the head and the cam was spinning fine before. Very puzzling. I am sure the head gasket was put in correctly. A diagram came with it and it was put in the same was as the previous head gasket which we did not have any trouble with.

The cam wasn't running dry because the coolant/oil mix was coming out of the lubrication ports under the cam shaft. There was oil getting to it and we lubed everything with oil when we put it in. Valve lash was also done, made no difference.

What makes things even more confusing is the cam was spinning slowly/the starter motor couldn't spin it since we put the engine back together. Then suddenly it was fine but coolant was pissing into the head. Until we get it back together again next week I won't know if the cam is a problem or not.

[itdepends]

Did you turn the engine over by hand before firing it up?

I'd also be wondering if you could have the head gasket back to front or upside down RE the coolant issue.

[Rossco]

It was very difficult to turn by hand, much harder than the last time the head was in. This would point to something changing between the head going to the shop and now, but I don't know what they didn't work on it.

I really hope people are right about me putting the head gasket on wrong. That would be an easy problem to fix. The problem being that the oil galleries are asymmetrical across the head so it is very clear which way the gasket goes and the flat side goes to the front as per the destructions that came with it.

Fingers crossed I did it wrong because I don't know what else could be happening.