I think I killed it :'(

[RayInStl]

Welp. I think I broke my engine good. After 2 weeks of changing gaskets, degreasing, scrubbing, and painting, I got her fired up and she was running good. Puttered around town for a little bit just to make sure there were no problems, then took her on the highway.

Only made it about a mile when something pops and the motor dies. Trying to turn it over gets nowhere. Cranks but no start. I check fuel and spark and everything seems good. So I start looking at timing and find the distributor has spun and has the vac advance pinned against the fuel pump.

I loosen the hold down clamp bolt and turn the distributor back to roughly the correct location. It's a little tough to turn. That should have been a clue. I fire her up and she runs, but rough. Timing's off. I decide to limp her to a gas station about a mile up the road. Right as I'm pulling in, she pops and dies again. Same thing. I ask the lady at the counter if I can leave it there for the night and have my brother pick me up.

The next day I buy a reman distributor and head back down. This time I can hardly budge the distributor. I'm able to get it out. I don't see any damage to the drive gear or oil pump drive, so I line everything up and plop in the new distributor. Initial startup goes well. She's running good as long as you keep on the gas, but dies when you let off. I start fiddling with the timing to get it evened out. Just as I'm dialing it in, there's a sudden clacking sound. Sounds like there's a marble getting beat around the engine.

I immediately shut it off. I take the plugs out one by one and find the #3 cylinder's plug missing a good chunk of the porcelain around the electrode. The grounding strap does not look bent or crushed. But either way, I think my motor's probably f*cked. I don't know if the spark plug just cracked and it fell in or if I dropped a valve or something.

Are these interference motors? Meaning when the distributor turned like that, is it likely the valves kissed the cylinders? It was running VERY smooth just before it started clacking.

Either way, this might spell doom for this truck. Between the motor and the frame (rust), I don't know that it makes sense to spend any more cash on it. I might find another 1st or 2nd gen and swap the bodies. I really love the way this truck looks. I hate to see it dead.

I'm crushed right now. I put so much work into making the motor nice. I can't believe all the problems I ran into. Someone upstairs does NOT want me to drive this thing.

 

[Mark_88]

Non interference so breaking a timing belt is not usually a problem...unless you've had the head shaved.

EDIT: wrong engine...lol...no bearings on this oil pump assembly...but common problem of distributor getting chewed...even though yours wasn't chewed...

EDIT: and I've had worse noises coming from under my hood...these are tough engines and can go through quite a bit...did you check the oil? Mine did that when the oil level dropped too low...

 

[Haywire6000]

I doubt the piece of porcelain hurt anything ( Steel is harder). I would try and rotate the engine by hand with all the plugs out, if she turns 360* by hand it is unlikely a valve issue. Next this I would do is figure out a way to get a small piece of hose connected to a vacuum in there and clean her out(Or pull the head) . After that hold your thump over the hole and have some some one turn it over by hand again, you should feel compression as the piston reached TDC on that cylinder, this test is to make sure a piece of porcelain didn't find it's way behind a valve and has it stuck open. After all this I would change the oil ( in case the locked dizzy decided to release the magic metal shavings) throw new plugs in it and giver her a go.

 

[Coldair]

Do you have a bore scope? I would look in #4 see if you can see any damage to cylinder/piston. Btw with your distributor being off time your valve won't hit the Pistons no matter what only thing that would make valve hit the pistions would be cam timing off. (Btw these engines you don't have to worry about valves hitting Pistons if motor the is stock )

 

[RayInStl]

No bore scope. I'll pull the head when I get a chance. I have a head gasket from that engine gasket set I bought that hasn't been used. It made a lot of racket, so I'm not holding my breath.

Thanks for the ideas.

 

[RonD]

As the others said 2.3l Lima is not an interference engine, the valves and pistons don't share any space in the cylinders.

How does the old distributor turn after it was taken out, could its bushings have seized?

Broken spark plug tip won't "ruin" the engine.

POP noise could be anything but most likely spark issue because distributor spun.
There is not alot of rotating weight inside a distributor, so AUX gear oil pump shaft changing velocity rapidly shouldn't cause distributor to turn, unless it was loose, but doesn't read like it was.

I would check out the old distributor carefully, if distributor shaft was tight/binding then it would turn distributor, for sure.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Are these interference motors? Meaning when the distributor turned like that, is it likely the valves kissed the cylinders? It was running VERY smooth just before it started clacking.

Turning the dizzy changes the ignition timing, not the camshaft timing.

They are not interference engines if you happen to break the timing belt.

 

[RayInStl]

The old distributor is completely seized. We had to turn the motor to get it out.

 

[RonD]

Well then my guess is that was what failed and made the pop noise.

Now that could cause AUX gear to drag and belt to slip, if possible check belt timing.
With distributor 2.3l you won't have to time AUX gear(no CPS), but crank and cam still need to be spot on,

Start from scratch timing new distributor

Distributor failure maybe could have effected #3 spark plug but long shot, not a no shot though, if plugs were new then it was already cracked and just failed at that time, maybe the POP was back or pre-fire in #3 that caused it to break.

 

[RayInStl]

We checked cam and crank timing when installing the new distributor and it was still perfectly aligned. I think the pop I heard may have been a backfire due to the timing getting so far off.

 

[Mark_88]

Went looking for that thread I remembered reading on this but it turned out it wasn't on TRS...and it wasn't the 2.3...but I did find some interesting information on the aux gear and the brass gear that tends to get chewed up...even though you said yours wasn't chewed up...

If it was my truck I'd drop the oil and run a magnet through it because it sounds like something might have been plugging the oil pump...which can negatively impact the distributor...according to a Mustang forum that I just read on the 2.3...and you might not even find anything in the oil but the pickup may be plugged...but unless you are going to pull the engine I wouldn't go looking for that right away.

 

[Captain Ledd]

Friend of mine that I helped with a GM 4.3L swap had a nut get stuck in the valve. Made an awful racket and the engine shook like crazy.

I've also seen electrodes do no damage to a cylinder. Heck, just 2 months ago my coworker did some tune up stuff on his 350hp Saab and somehow got a chunk of steel down in the cylinder. We couldn't tell what it was because it have bounced around so much in the cylinder, and he got it out with a magnet so it was definitely steel, but no damage.

Hope you find the problem!

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

We checked cam and crank timing when installing the new distributor and it was still perfectly aligned. I think the pop I heard may have been a backfire due to the timing getting so far off.

I had the rotor come loose on my 2.8, as it was just beginning to self destruct against the inside of the cap it backfired hard. Hard enough to swell the muffler and blow out two seams... so I wouldn't put it past a backfire breaking a spark plug too.

 

[Mark_88]

I had a distributor stop turning (can't remember what happened) and I sat cranking and cranking the engine and when it finally sparked it blew the muffler wide open because it was filling up with raw gas...

This actually happened to me twice...you'd think I would have learned not to crank the engine repeatedly with the fuel supply attached on a hard start...

No...I simply had an extra $100 that I didn't really need and wanted to have a bit of fun by blowing up my muffler...

 

[RayInStl]

This is what the muffler looked like when I bought the truck last year. So I can sympathize. Lol