Hey guys,
Well its all fixed. Long story. I called the mechanic yesterday, and he said
the rings were bad. He said he did a leak down and that was the results, air
coming out the crankcase. He taped both the intake and the exaust. I think
this may have provided false results. Anyways, when I was talking to him, I
asked him how long it would take to pull the valve cover. He said 2 hrs. I
asked him to do it. He refused, and said the leak down told him everything
he needed to know. I was very fustrated, as a leak down and compression test
took him a week and a half. He said it would need a new long block or short
block. I thought "BS" in my head, and went down there late last night after
my night class, and pulled the valve cover. Took me and a friend about an
hour. As soon as I got it off, I nooticed something. The shaft that the rear
4 rockers rock on, the tube that goes down the middle of the head, is held
in by 2 bolts. The bolt near the rear, or #7 piston, the one that had lost
compression, was loose. The bolt had worked itself out, and was cauing this
metal tube to bounce up and down and cause the clicking noise I heard. This
made the valves on #7 not work correctly. I tightened it, hooked the
injector lines back up, and it ran fine. I left the valve cover off, drove a
very short distance to the fire station I live at, and put a new valve cover
gasket on. Put everything back together, and a few things happened. First,
it seems to be fine. I seemed to get rid of a slight tick I have had for
almost a year, I think. Second, it sounds like its running nice, with a nice
rumble at higher RPM's. This seems to cause a very slight high speed
vibration, at higher RPM's. I am not sure if this it good or bad. I have a
feeling it might have been loose for a very long time, and when it broke
down, the bolt finally loosened itself enough to cause major troubles. I
will let you guys know how it turns out in the next few weeks. Second, I
drove it back to shop last night, parked it, and this morning came in and
told them I was taking it somewhere else, and wanted to settle up. $242 for
a compression check and a leak down. And a false diag. I was not happy. They
did not know I had fixed it. I waited till the service manager got back, and
explained everything that had happened. He immediately dropped all service
charges. So that fiasco is over. A big thanks to everyone on the list who
helped out!
Caleb