04 Aveo Hatchback getting new engine!

[gone-Jonphilip]

its more than 1000 page iirc, so printing it isnt really ink friendly, plus i think it is the $15 ebay manual, just free.

No one will come to you for ac, i can not tell you to let it into the atmosphere, but if you are really really careful, you can tie it up to the rad support.

Are you doing the whole engine or just putting a head on? i would probably start with pulling the head and seeing if its rebuildable. less money, less work, in a sense.

My dad keeps telling me I should pull the head off as well, but I'm really leaning towards just pulling the whole engine and replacing it since I never even heard the car run. Plus there is another post on here where a guy replaced the head and the car still didn't run right. I think he determined it had bad main bearings or something. So, I will pull the head off out of curiousity, but I think I'm going to focus on getting the engine out 1st. I'd like to have the car running in the next 6 weeks before it starts to get cold. JP

[thehunterooo]

good lord that is a lot of pages, never knew it was so big :/

[daug1502]

Might be able to save paper and just print out the materials covering your project. I wish we had a hanes or chiltons on our cars, but that probably won't happen for a long time.

That's great to hear of someone going so far out of their field of work and see what they can do. There are too many people who won't go out of their comfort zone and try something new. Best of luck with your project, and welcome to the forum.

[gone-Jonphilip]

Might be able to save paper and just print out the materials covering your project. I wish we had a hanes or chiltons on our cars, but that probably won't happen for a long time.

That's great to hear of someone going so far out of their field of work and see what they can do. There are too many people who won't go out of their comfort zone and try something new. Best of luck with your project, and welcome to the forum.

Thanks Daug. I appreciate the warm welcome from everyone. I think this will be a fun project! JP

[GoneRD]

"Daug":

Found this link on another forum (Chilton's Library, online.. and free!):

https://elibrary.mel.org/validate?ur...ch%3Fdb%3DCHLL

Michigan Department of Education, eLibrary (free access to Michigan residents)

To enter, all you need do is provide a MI driver's license number... or "generic equivalent" - one letter and ten digits...

This example is easy, and works every time: A1234567890

Search by inputting year, manufacturer, and model.

Select "repair", "maintenance", or "bulletins/recalls" - and you're off and running!

[petrified.rabbit]

I would pull the head and check the condition, what is the cause of failure? timing belt? the guy with the bearing problem ran it with no oil. If it is not running due to a failed timing belt you need 4-8 valves (up to 16). And a new belt. Unless someone cranked the car over and over until the top of the piston fails when the valve sheared off. But you would see that with the head pulled.

[gone-Jonphilip]

Thought I'd give update on my project. Been a rough week with the kids being sick, so I didn't get as much done as I wanted to. I continued to unplug and label connections. A good buddy from work gave me a good tip to help with labeling hoses. He said to get some colored plastic ties and tie them on a hose that is taken off and 1 on the connector it came off. I thought this was a good tip to share.

I have been needing to buy an air compressor for years but have kept putting off buying one. So I managed to get the bottom pully off by wrapping the serpentine belt around the pully and then hooking it onto a tie rod. This held the pully from spinning and allowed me to get the pully off. Then when I tried to remove the cam sprockets, of course they were spinning and I messed around for a long time trying to come up with a good way to hold them to get the bolts out. After wasting about an hour, I finally decided it was time to break down and buy an air compressor. I bought a Husky 26 gal. from Home Depot for $239. It came with a hose and connectors, an air ratchet, and an impact gun. I thought that was a pretty good price for everything I got. It's not a professional air compressor, but should work good for the little use it will see in my garage. The cam sprockets came off with the impact gun in about 10 seconds!

[gone-Jonphilip]

My dad and Rabbit both suggested I take the head off 1st to see what it looks like. I was pretty sure the engine was toast based on what I've been reading about this problem but I thought it would be wise to take their advice. Plus it should make it easier to get the engine out with the top part of it out if the pisons are in fact ruined.

I followed the instructions from the DVD service manual I bought on Ebay. I really wish Chilton or Haynes had a manual because the factory GM manual isn't very detailed and the illustrations are crap. So I followed all of the steps, which say the head, exhaust manifold, and intake manifold should all come off in 1 piece. I got everything that I could find unhooked and put my floor jack under the car and a 2x4 on it and jacked to break the head loose.

There was something I missed behind the intake manifold that was still connected and I worked for hours trying to find what was holding it. Finally, I decided to unbolt the intake manifold. That was a real challenge getting the 9 bolts out. I finally got them all and was ready to try to pull it out again. My neighbor suggested we use his hand winch to lift it off. We needed something to hang it from so we used 2 step ladders and a 4x4 piece of wood. DISCLAIMER**** I am not recommending anyone use this method as it is not safe. But because I'm a backyard mechanic, I have to be creative! But it actually worked very well and head finally came off.

I spent 5 1/2 hrs. on this today, plus another 4 or so previously getting the timing belt off. I know all of the professional mechanics are rolling at this because this should probably only be a 2 hr. job, but for someone that sits behind a computer all, it's a 9+ hr. job. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy the pics. Me and my neigbor were joking and having a good time admiring our ladder/winch system, and I hate to imagine what people driving by and looking in my garage thought but in the end it worked and the head is off!

[gone-Jonphilip]

After getting the head off and looking things over, all 4 pistons are ruined where the valves smashed into them. The valves don't appear to be sheared off, but I'm guessing they are bent???

I guess my next step is to continue working on getting the engine and transmission out and start looking for a good junk yard engine. I had found 1 on Ebay about 2 hrs. away that only had 43k miles on it that I was watching but someone bought it so I'll have to keep looking.

I'm going to take a break tomorrow since it's Sunday and the Lord's day. Plus my hands are awefully cut up after today, my back hurts, and my kids are needing some quality time spent with them. I can understand why garages charge up to $2k for a job like this. It's alot of work, and it sucks. But it's rewarding when it's finished and all comes together. Hopefully this project will have a happy ending! I'll continue to post as I make progress. Hopefully these posts will be helpful to someone working on a similiar project.

[petrified.rabbit]

lower end looks fine to me. i know its just pictures..

those are notches in the pistons, not smash marks.