00 astra

muddle84

Lucifer wrote: »

To do a compression test you would need one of these. Perhaps your mechanic friend could lend you one.


To carry out the test you need to remove the spark plugs, screw this into cylinder 1, crank the engine for about 2 or 3 seconds and the guage should rise to about 10-14 bar roughly. then let off the pressure, remove and repeat for the other 3 cylinders.

Is the engine running smoothly? or is it shuddering and shaking excessively? does it seem like its idling normally apart from the noise? If you have bent a valve the engine will be idling very rough.

I have had an astra that I needed to leave running for about an hour before the hydraulic tappets went quiet. but this would not affect the power so this may not be your problem, although you may have 2 seperate problems.

Would you know a missfire? can you say if it is or not or not sure?

Did you sit the little leg on the tensioner into the hole to stop it moving? it is at about 8 o'clock on the tensioner. If this was not in the timing could slip and you could bend valves.

yeah i sat the leg of the tensioner into the slot. i don't think its backfiring anyway! i've seen and heard cars doing that! its like a bang yeah? isn't that when petrol ignites in the exhaust!!! its idling smooth. It feels grand except for the noise! I was thinking about the power loss and it could be that i haven't driven it since march when the belt snapped and i've been driving my new car since then and thats a nissan 200sx 2ltr turbo so it could be that i'm just used to the power of that and the astra feels dead in comparison!!!! i'll see can i get hold of one of them to pressure test it!!!!

Lucifer

if it seems to be idling fine then its unlikely your down on compression. I was talking about a missfire, when combusiton doesnt take place properly (either due to poor/no spark, poor fuel delivery, or no/low compression. if it seems to be running ok then you can rule this out. If it was due to no compression the engine would be shaking badly as it would only be running on 1/2/3 cylinders. If it was poor spark/fuel or low compression it may idle ok but cough and splutter under load (when accelerating).

If you think its not doing this and the power seems ok, I still think the noise may be due to hydrualic tappets. I presume you changed the oil after doing the head? Some times they take ages to go quiet. Best way is to just let it warm up and idle for a while and they will eventually go quiet. Dont rev it as it will take longer. Can you record the noise send it to me?

One other thing, is there oil getting up to the head? Are you sure you put the head gasket on correctly? one side is marked top, but on the astra it will sit either way (top mark at timing belt and top mark at gearbox) and most of the holes will appear to line up but one wont and if put on incorrectly can block the oil port going to the head.

muddle84

Lucifer wrote: »

if it seems to be idling fine then its unlikely your down on compression. I was talking about a missfire, when combusiton doesnt take place properly (either due to poor/no spark, poor fuel delivery, or no/low compression. if it seems to be running ok then you can rule this out. If it was due to no compression the engine would be shaking badly as it would only be running on 1/2/3 cylinders. If it was poor spark/fuel or low compression it may idle ok but cough and splutter under load (when accelerating).

If you think its not doing this and the power seems ok, I still think the noise may be due to hydrualic tappets. I presume you changed the oil after doing the head? Some times they take ages to go quiet. Best way is to just let it warm up and idle for a while and they will eventually go quiet. Dont rev it as it will take longer. Can you record the noise send it to me?

One other thing, is there oil getting up to the head? Are you sure you put the head gasket on correctly? one side is marked top, but on the astra it will sit either way (top mark at timing belt and top mark at gearbox) and most of the holes will appear to line up but one wont and if put on incorrectly can block the oil port going to the head.

i'll see can i find some way or recording it for you! yeah theres definately oil getting to the head i checked that when it was ticking over after a few seconds the cams were covered in oil. Yup changed oil aswell. I'm still not sure about the power like i said i'm gonna have to get someone else to take it for a spin to see. and i think i found someone who has that thing to do the compression test.

For the tappets i did let it warm up and toke it for a short spin but the noise didn't go away and get quieter at all!

muddle84

First of all i'd like to apologize for not updating you all sooner, as you've all been a great help to me!! Things got very hectic in the last week in college and after that moving out etc, i manage to do a compression test and everythin was fine. but i did have to move out of the house in galway so had to get a trailor and towed it down home to achill and left at my neighbour, another mechanic. After having a look around the engine and inspecting the tapets he realised that there is two bungs that plug the oils ducts that feed the tapets were missing. He got new bolts and showed them to me and they're very unusal looking so i'm 100% sure that i didn't remove them so it must have been the place that did the valves for me!!! once they were replaced the tapets filled up in minutes and the engine was runnin lovely and smooth and quite as a lamb again!!!!!:D, one last small problem a small oil leak developed at the crank shaft seal. I figure this is from when the timing belt snapped and rapped around the timing belt pulley as it was mangled in behine this and all over the place. So it must have damaged seal, so replace that and jobs a good'un!!!



So anybody want to buy a 2000 reg vauxhall astra with new timing belt????????:D