13-12-2014, 03:21 PM
Hello 306 fans. My first post, and looking for some help.
I'll try and keep this brief, although I do have a tendency to babble. The car is a 1997 cabriolet, facelift model, 2.0 16v auto. 80k on the clock, but not loved too much by the previous owner. I like to tinker with cars, but previous experience is limited to fairly simple jobs like brakes and servicing. The cambelt went on the 306, and since it's only worth a few hundred £, I decided to have a go at replacing the head myself. The biggest job I have taken on by far, but no time pressure, and nothing to lose really apart from some skin on my knuckles!
Anyway, I removed all the bits connected to the head, removed the old head and saw that indeed the valves were all banana shaped. There was also minor damage to the piston crowns, but they were not cracked, and still seemed to move freely in the cylinders so I guessed they were ok and gave the cylinders a good clean. We bought a head ebay from a breaker with plenty of good feedback. It seemed fine when arrived, so I gave it a good clean, bought all the gaskets, and other replacement parts, including head bolts, new tensioner pulley, idler pulley, head gasket, exhaust gasket, both belts, plugs, and new water pump. I didn't bother replacing the inlet manifold gaskets, but gave that all a good clean. I also thoroughly cleaned the throttle body, which was filthy, cleaned the injectors, water temp sensors and coolant elbow.
I watched some videos, read some forums, and followed the Haynes in putting it all back together. All seemed fine, and no spare nuts of bolts at the end! We tried to fire her up a few weekends ago, and she wouldn't start. There was some fuel leaking from one injector, and the vacuum pump. I refitted the fuel lines and the injector, this time no leaks, and the engine started! HOWEVER, it was very noisy, with a loud rattle like a diesel. I didn't let her run too long like this for fear that something major was going wrong.
Since then, I have refit the timing belt again to double check I had done it right, and I'm confident it's ok although I don't have the 'special Peugeot tool'. Obviously, I would want to get that done accurately asap, but from my reading I'm not sure that would be the issue and it is tightened to the 45* twist level. The only other thing that I didn't do 'perfectly' was refitting the exhaust manifold. I cleaned the surfaces of both, and got a new gasket, but there was one bolt that I couldn't refit - in the middle on the top row of bolts. All the other bolts are refitted ok. Not sure if this would cause an issue like this, the noise doesn't sound like a blowing exhaust.
I noticed the camshaft housing bolts were too tight, so refitted them to the correct torque, but that hasn't made a difference, not that I really expected it to. The engine still starts easily enough, but just sounds very loud and like there's something seriously wrong inside. I have revved, and it doesn't get any better. If I leave it running, after 30 seconds or so, it will stall. Doesn't seem to have done any permanent damage though. Oil was changed recently, and seems to be circulating ok, there was plenty in around the cams when I looked inside.
I know all this doesn't sound good and maybe the pistons were more damaged than I thought, but if it's something more serious like that I would have thought the engine would have ceased by now.. I'm just not sure where to go next. Something to do with the hydraulic lifters?? If so, how could I diagnose that, don't know much about how they work, but I can learn. Any thoughts? Let me know if I can provide any more info to help with the diagnosis.
Appreciate your thoughts.
Rob
I'll try and keep this brief, although I do have a tendency to babble. The car is a 1997 cabriolet, facelift model, 2.0 16v auto. 80k on the clock, but not loved too much by the previous owner. I like to tinker with cars, but previous experience is limited to fairly simple jobs like brakes and servicing. The cambelt went on the 306, and since it's only worth a few hundred £, I decided to have a go at replacing the head myself. The biggest job I have taken on by far, but no time pressure, and nothing to lose really apart from some skin on my knuckles!
Anyway, I removed all the bits connected to the head, removed the old head and saw that indeed the valves were all banana shaped. There was also minor damage to the piston crowns, but they were not cracked, and still seemed to move freely in the cylinders so I guessed they were ok and gave the cylinders a good clean. We bought a head ebay from a breaker with plenty of good feedback. It seemed fine when arrived, so I gave it a good clean, bought all the gaskets, and other replacement parts, including head bolts, new tensioner pulley, idler pulley, head gasket, exhaust gasket, both belts, plugs, and new water pump. I didn't bother replacing the inlet manifold gaskets, but gave that all a good clean. I also thoroughly cleaned the throttle body, which was filthy, cleaned the injectors, water temp sensors and coolant elbow.
I watched some videos, read some forums, and followed the Haynes in putting it all back together. All seemed fine, and no spare nuts of bolts at the end! We tried to fire her up a few weekends ago, and she wouldn't start. There was some fuel leaking from one injector, and the vacuum pump. I refitted the fuel lines and the injector, this time no leaks, and the engine started! HOWEVER, it was very noisy, with a loud rattle like a diesel. I didn't let her run too long like this for fear that something major was going wrong.
Since then, I have refit the timing belt again to double check I had done it right, and I'm confident it's ok although I don't have the 'special Peugeot tool'. Obviously, I would want to get that done accurately asap, but from my reading I'm not sure that would be the issue and it is tightened to the 45* twist level. The only other thing that I didn't do 'perfectly' was refitting the exhaust manifold. I cleaned the surfaces of both, and got a new gasket, but there was one bolt that I couldn't refit - in the middle on the top row of bolts. All the other bolts are refitted ok. Not sure if this would cause an issue like this, the noise doesn't sound like a blowing exhaust.
I noticed the camshaft housing bolts were too tight, so refitted them to the correct torque, but that hasn't made a difference, not that I really expected it to. The engine still starts easily enough, but just sounds very loud and like there's something seriously wrong inside. I have revved, and it doesn't get any better. If I leave it running, after 30 seconds or so, it will stall. Doesn't seem to have done any permanent damage though. Oil was changed recently, and seems to be circulating ok, there was plenty in around the cams when I looked inside.
I know all this doesn't sound good and maybe the pistons were more damaged than I thought, but if it's something more serious like that I would have thought the engine would have ceased by now.. I'm just not sure where to go next. Something to do with the hydraulic lifters?? If so, how could I diagnose that, don't know much about how they work, but I can learn. Any thoughts? Let me know if I can provide any more info to help with the diagnosis.
Appreciate your thoughts.
Rob
#nohelpwhatsoever
