After new timing belt, valve job, car wont start. I need help!

I have a 2005 Aveo with 112K hwy miles and had the idler pulley break which jammed in the timing belt and it stripped. Bent all the exhaust valves, so I had the head at a machine shop for a valve job and new valves. I installed new water pump, idler pulley, tensioner and belt. I was told by the machine shop that the hydrolic lifters take some time to settle in and don't be alarmed if no compression in the begining. The car wont start, just cranks over. Ran the battery down twice. I triple checked the timing marks as far as shinning a light on a straight edge to see the shadow on the marks and are perfectly in line with the sprocket bolt centers. The fuel rail has preasure and the engine has done maybe one or two backfires. All the connections are accounted for and, well, I'm out of ideas. Any suggestions?Thanks.....

I just did a compression test and only the number 2 cylinder (second over from timing belt side) has compression (125 lbs.). All others have 0 lbs.. Could the valves be way off of adjustment?

Thanks for "any" ideas.......

Zero compression is serious. Double check timing marks, if you're lucky that is all it is. If timing is set correctly, the install was done correctly, and machine shop did their job correctly, you might have very serious damage (i.e. holed pistons, broken rings, even broken connecting rods). It's strange to have 125lbs on one cylinder and zero on the rest. I would do the following in this order: 1.- remove and replace timing belt, taking extra care to follow instructions EXACTLY and triple checking everything. 2.- If that doesn't cure issue, remove and replace head, triple checking each step along the way. On other engines, I have seen a head gasket installed upside down cause a lack of compression and a leak from the oil gallery into the cooling system. While the head is off, check the tops of the pistons and the walls of the cylinders for visible damage. Holes in the tops of the piston are pretty obvious, broken rings will create scratches on the sides of the cylinder. If your fingernail can catch on a scratch, it's a problem and the block should be torn down and honed oversized and new pistons installed. Finally, with the head off, push down on each piston. If a rod is broken, the piston will have gotten pushed to to TDC but not pulled back down. If that is the case, it will easily push back down (not turning over the entire engine, just pushing one piston down the cylinder). I sincerely hope it's just the timing belt being mis-aligned, everything else is a major PITA! Good Luck!

Thanks for the response. Yea, I've triple checked timing marks, left it over night and checked it again in the morning, rotating the crank 2 times each. I spent hours setting timing and maybe one tooth off, and taking the belt off and setting again till perfect. I've rebuilt engines before and even changed the belt on this car in the past. Also, when I removed the head gasket, I set it just to the right without changeing the orientation of it before installing the new head gasket, so they match up perfect. Then torqued head in the correct sequence, 45 ft lbs, then 60 degrees, 60 degrees, 10 degrees. Pistons had marks on top but no damage. They all moved up and down and cylinders were in perfect condition.
I have a feeling, it the valve lifters being stuck or no oil in them yet. From the time I fiirst put it together, it feels like it has more compression now. I also recal that the last time I replaced the belt, it was difficult to set the timing marks since the cams wanted to fall off the lobes. This time was easy on my first attempt. The next day, a little more difficult. Maybe I'm imagining things.
Today, I will remove the valve cover and try to pour oil ovcer lifters.
Thanks again for the response.

Ok, today I now have 2 cylinders with compression. So I have 2 at 125 lbs. and 2 at 0 lbs.
The car will start and run on 2 cylinders but not well and not drivable. When I have it running, the engine light and hold light both flash on and off.
I'm starting to believe it the lifters are stuck and freeing up one at a time. The flashing lights, no clue.........

Sounds like your theory about the lifters is right. In a SBC, I would prime the oil pump with a cordless drill, but the EcoTech is a different design oil pump. The MIL and Hold lights are a side effect of 2 cylinders not firing, the PCM is detecting the misfire and raw fuel in the exhaust stream plus about half a dozen other malfunctions. Once you get everything straightened out you should be able to clear the error codes.

I'm not sure about the head design, is it possible to prime the lifters by putting them in a container of oil and pushing on the top until they get filled with oil? Again, going back to my LS1 roots, but the basics are the same. Just don't know how easy or difficult is is to get to the "lifters".

if it is running, even on two cylinders, for any amount of time, then the oil should have gotten to the other lifters..


Which two cylinders have compression? Your doing compression tests, which is good. Are you allowing the engine to "run" in between?

Apexbutcher - That's what I wanted to hear. And, today I have 3 cylinders with compression. I'm thinking by Wednesday, I'll have a V6. Originaly, the 2 cylinders with compression where second one over from timing belt and fourth one over. Now, the hold out is the one right next to timing belt. That is the one that is raised up the most since I have the passanger front tire off and the car is jacked up on that corner. So, tonight, I jacked up the driver side so the oil will drain towards the cylinder with the stuck lifter. It seems like, just letting it sit over night with oil soaking in, is the way to fix it. I do run it for a few minutes but not sure if it will hurt any stuck lifters. There's no obvious clatter noise.
I'll follow up with what happens. Thanks for the responses.

On the 4th day, I expected the 4th cylinder to have compression. Nope. I took off the valve cover, tapped on the tops of the lifters, poured oil on them and let then sit over night. Next day, started it and had compression in all 4 cylinders. Great!!, but had a bad miss. I took out all the plugs (since it had been running rich on most cylinders) and cleaned them. Ran much better but still has a bad miss-fire. Engine light is flashing but it's drivable (barely). Tomorrow, I'll work on this issue............

Quote:

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Originally Posted by torakki

On the 4th day, I expected the 4th cylinder to have compression. Nope. I took off the valve cover, tapped on the tops of the lifters, poured oil on them and let then sit over night. Next day, started it and had compression in all 4 cylinders. Great!!, but had a bad miss. I took out all the plugs (since it had been running rich on most cylinders) and cleaned them. Ran much better but still has a bad miss-fire. Engine light is flashing but it's drivable (barely). Tomorrow, I'll work on this issue............

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what were the Condition of the Piston Crowns when you had the Head Serviced? any damage from the Timing belt snapping?

Tops of pistons were in good condition. You could see marks where the valves hit but no damage.

I've been cleaning plugs and gaping them and got it to run pretty good. Smooth at idle and revs smooth. Once in gear and a little gas, it started to miss and a few seconds later engine light comes on. Went around the block and when I got back, it wouldn't even idle. I'll try new plugs tomorrow since cleaning and gapping made a differrence for a few minutes. Maybe a coil pack? Not sure why a broken timming belt can cause all the electrical problems unless related to no compression for the first few days causing a few cylinders to run very rich.
To be continued.......

I imagine you possibly damaged the wires taking them off. Thats one of the evils of having to remove them.

petrified rabbit - Turns out, you were on the right track. I was holding off on responding till I was done throwing parts at the car. I first decided to replace the coil pack. Since I had a Chevy Metro once that would oil up one spark plug and cause the coil pack to go out. After the new coil pack went in, it ran worse and then could not keep it going. Only thing left was wires and plugs. Swap them out and it runs great now. The wires were so easy to take off, it was hard to imagine damaging them. I even misted them and looked for arching and they looked good.
Anyway, THANKS to all for helping me get this thing back on the road.
Bob

Hello !!!! Got this SAME problem with mine...... ZERO compression in all 4 cylinders..... Curious as to how you got the lifters to " pump up " ???? Is it just a matter of pouring oil OVER the lifter area ?????? and that will " soak " them good enough to pump up ????

Hi ronjh12, Yea, after the valve job, the lifters had no oil in them. It took about 4 days of coming home after work and cranking the engine. Each day, I would get another cylinder to get compression. I also took the valve cover off and poured oil on the lifters and let it soak. Also, taped on the valves to make sure nothing was stuck. Even after all cylinders had compression, there was a tapping sound from one lifter. I added an oil addative and within a day, all was quite and back to normal.
Hope this helps......

The timing belt broke on my 2007 hatchback. I bought a set of pistons. took the head off threw away the old bent ones and ground the new ones in. I made a device from a piece of steel pipe to compress the springs and fitted the new valves. Installed the head back on with a new gasket. Took the right front wheel off with the engine blocked up I took the engine bracket off so I could get at the plastic covers, remove them, remove the pulleys and water pump, install the new ones. You will need a special tool to turn the water pump in order to tighten the belt once you have the inlet and exhaust valve sprockets lined up and the sprocket on the end of the crankshaft's arrow pointing at 6 o clock. RE-assemble. The engine started first time and runs like a sewing machine.