Restoration of a 1987 Bertone

aarpcard said:
Was the belt replaced at the same time the tensioner was? How high did the temp gauge go?
Click to expand...

Belt and tensioner were both replaced at the same time when I redid the engine. They have maybe 40 miles on them. Temp gauge was at about 190 when the engine quit and then sitting on the side of the road, engine off, it rose either at or into the red zone. I'm not sure exactly how high it got but it was much hotter than normal.
 
When the engine quit, did you take it out of gear as you coasted to the side of the road? If not the bottom end may have been starved for oil for a lot longer than a few seconds. That's the only thing I can think of that would cause the temp to rise that dramatically. Hope its not the case.
 
It was still in 4th gear but the clutch was in so it should have been alright.

Apparently, timing belt tensioners for the 1500s have suddenly become the rarest thing on the planet. I can't source one anywhere.
 
I now know what happened and it ain't good. Camshaft locked up tighter than a drum. Lower cogs on the timing belt stripped allowing the crankshaft to continue turning. Engine turns but cam does not.
 
The temp spiked due to it running at speed with proper water pumping and then immediately shut down with immediate heat soak from the relatively high speed run. I wouldn’t be too worried about that and would just get the timing reset up with new belt and bearing to see how it is.

I took a few tentative runs after changing my timing belt but so far so good. I do need to retention my new water pump and alternator belt however as I can hear it periodically.

Bummer on the cam being bound up. Time to remove the cover and see if anything is adrift. Hopefully a valve didn’t drop hopefully it was some other thing catching the cam and keeping if from turning.
 
I'm sending the head assembly to Matt at MWB for the full treatment. I'm running out of nice weather so I hope I can still enjoy the car before the snow flies.
 
Removed the head. First couple lobes of the cam were dry as a bone so obviously an oiling problem. Head assembly is on its way to Columbus, Ohio for the MWB treatment. This will give me some time to attend to some back burner details.
 
Got the rebuilt head and cambox assemblies back from MWB the other day. Once again, I am blown away at the quality of their work! Everything looks amazing and I'm sure it will work very well. Now that the head is shaved, they tell me that I have to use a 1300 timing belt and tensioner. They also tell me that my 1500 is now an interference engine. But it will eke a few more horses out of the engine!
 
Huey said:
Got the rebuilt head and cambox assemblies back from MWB the other day. Once again, I am blown away at the quality of their work! Everything looks amazing and I'm sure it will work very well. Now that the head is shaved, they tell me that I have to use a 1300 timing belt and tensioner. They also tell me that my 1500 is now an interference engine. But it will eke a few more horses out of the engine!
Click to expand...

Hopefully the cause of the lubrication starvation has been figured out and corrected?
 
Huey said:
Yes. It was a plugged oil hole.
Click to expand...

That's not good. Is this an engine/car you have had for many years? Oil Clogging suggests lack of maintenance, as I'm sure you're aware. You may want to try flushing the entire motor, maybe run it with a diesel oil / rotella or seafoam type flush...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top