Milkshake friends suck!!

[Hubie]

My girls sohc ka gave out the other day. I haven't looked at the car yet but the engine only has about a 100k on it. She was driving in traffic when she noticed her temp guage skyrocket. She doesn't drive her car hard at all so I can't imagine the head gasket giving out all of a sudden. So I did some research and found that the timing can eat through the cover and dump coolant into the oil pan. Is the anyway I can make sure it is one or the other....other than checking the compression?? I always noticed a nice rattling/metallic sound whenever I rode around in her car so I'm thinking that the likely culprit.

Also, If I have to replace the front cover, is it absolutely necessary to drop the oil pan or can I just unbolt whatever is attached to the front cover?

Thanks for any help.

[ms!3]

to pull the front cover your going to have to pull the pan, which includes jacking the motor up and dropping the crossmember, then youll have to get a new front cover or if your lucky you can weld the whole shut. theres a write up somewehre to drop the pan if youve never done so. good luck

edit, didint mention the guides and timing chain youll have to buy also. shouldnt be too bad.

[snappy]

Yeah you might as well swap out the engine for a Ka24de DOHC. It'd be less of a headache.

[swift_style]

is it leaking fluid?? like coolant?? check water pump than.

[SDS13COUPE]

Check the weephole on your waterpump, if it's leaking swap it. Compression test the motor to verify the HG condition. The rattling noise is most likely the timing guide tensioners which are of course problematic with KA's. GL with it.

[Hubie]

Nope not leaking anything, the waterpump is fairly new. I know it's the tensioners causing a loose chain but wanted to know how many other people have had their chain eat through the front cover. Also, didn't want to drop the pan b/c it's a pita. Thanks for the help guuys.

[w0nderbr3ad]

its a pain to put the front cover on w/ the oil pan still on. When I was changing out my timing chain and guides it was a real problem to put the front cover back on without it hitting the bottom of the head or the oil pan. Its just easier to drop the oil pan and stick it back on.

[420sx]

why are you being lazy? dropping the oil pan would be the easiest part of this. and you have to do it to drop the front cover

[ixfxi]

My girls sohc ka gave out the other day. I haven't looked at the car yet but the engine only has about a 100k on it. She was driving in traffic when she noticed her temp guage skyrocket. She doesn't drive her car hard at all so I can't imagine the head gasket giving out all of a sudden. So I did some research and found that the timing can eat through the cover and dump coolant into the oil pan. Is the anyway I can make sure it is one or the other....other than checking the compression?? I always noticed a nice rattling/metallic sound whenever I rode around in her car so I'm thinking that the likely culprit.

Also, If I have to replace the front cover, is it absolutely necessary to drop the oil pan or can I just unbolt whatever is attached to the front cover?

Thanks for any help.

the timing chain wont cut through the cover without making some SERIOUS noise. i never reached that state back when I had an sohc. worse thing that happened to me, was that the timing chain started making a lot of noise during idle. its normal for sohc motors that are driven hard to make timing chain rattle during cold startup, especially since the oil pumps go back very easily on that motor. i ran through maybe 3-4 oil pumps due to starvation from heavy cornering. one time i came out of a corner and you could hear the lifters clacking for maybe 5 minutes because they were dry of oil from the pull of the turn.

anyway... chances are, your chain didnt eat through the cover. however, if you're going to do any maintenance.. simply remove the valve cover and take a look. when doing timing chain swaps, you dont need to drop the cross member to access the oil pan. i simply jacked the nose of the motor upwards in order to pull the pan out. done deal.

[vvtisupra]

why don;t you just drain the oil and check if you see coolant in it ? My guess is stuck thermo or bad water pump

But knowing girls she probably drove on it with the temp needle pinned for a while