Refitting repaired head and new chains tomorrow...Help

joeyb

Hi,

Well I volunteered to have a go at fixing a family members 2.2 Zafira after it broke down. I found the timing chain had snapped...

Long story short I removed the head, that has now been repaired and is ready for refitting.

Now I've read the guides on here over and over but I just wanted to check if anyone will be online tomorrow to offer me assistance should I require it?

I'm just after a sanity check at each important stage really. Obviously I haven't had the luxury of aligning the cams before removing the chain as the engine kinda took care of that itself by snapping the chain!

How should I position the crank / cams before starting to refit the head etc?

colin002

make sure cylinders 1 and 4 are at the top ..fit the cams so the exhaust lobe at the gearbox side is at 1 o clock .. and the inlet lobe is at 11 o clock .. .. your pritty much timed up at that .. then once your built up u can fine tune the timing before fitting the chain

joeyb

Nice one, cheers Colin!

sandyc

Use Tippex or a marker pen to mark TDC on the crank pulley then turn it back slightly so that the pistons are all down the cylinders before you put the head on. That way you can rotate the cams without damaging anything while you set them up.
Then bring it back round to almost TDC before you fit the chain.
While the head is off I presume you've checked the piston rings. Its about another £125 in parts for rings, big end shells and bolts and not much extra work to do while the head is off. Well worth it in my eyes.
Ive just completed the exact same job and my engine is sweet now.

sandyc

How did you get on Joey?

joeyb

sandyc said:
How did you get on Joey?

Sorry only just seen this.

Well it fired up first time and was running smooth as anything.

However I got a call yesterday that the EML light came on and the car was in limp home mode. It resets OK after restarting.

I'm off to see the car now with my code readers and hopefully I can get some codes to go by. Its been fine for a month so I'm not too worried. I might just check compression etc on each cylinder whilst I'm there to confirm the head gasket has mated nicely etc

sandyc

Its probably just a minor teething problem which can be quite common after a job like that. Check all the electrical connections and the ECU earth.
Check it's coolant and oil levels too.If it's been using oil the knock sensor may be registering a knock and changing things.
Or it's been using water the Coolant sensor may be giving a duff reading.