Looking for some advice guys.
Picked up a fairly clean red 04 LS sport with the stripes and spoiler package with 85,000 miles.
Car ran horrible and sounded even worse... had an obvious timing chain problem. Had another Cavalier project going so this car sat here for around a month.
Last night I pulled it apart and the timing chain upper guide was in a couple pieces and the chain had a ton of slack between the cam sprockets. Everything else for the timing chain looked normal. I was able to pull 6 rockers out without removing anything so I knew that was bad news. The top of the engine is very scuzzy looking.
One weird observation was that the cam lobes are pitted really bad. Pulled the intake manifold off and the EGR hole was crusted completely shut on the intake. All the intake valves are bent which wasn't a surprise.
I know this isn't a ton of info, and I can get pictures if any one would like... but would you all trust putting this engine back together and trying it out? I have a fresh head ready to go and a new timing set/head set to finish the project. I don't have a ton of experience with Ecotecs so its hard to make a good decision whether or not they survive something like this or if they will have an ailment like massive oil consumption afterwards. Its tough when its already broke and you cant run diagnostics.
Thanks much for any help guys!
JLP
04 LS Sport Sedan
I would seriously consider a new engine if you get one from the junkyard it won't be that much. If the engine looks that bad my worry would be what did the owner do to abuse it that badly.
2002 Pontiac Sunfire SE Sedan 2.2l Ecotec 4 Speed Auto.
The more I look at it, kinda seems like the top end might have been starved for oil with the way the cams are pitted. Guess I'll see more tonight once I get the head off.
JLP
04 LS Sport Sedan
Sounds to me like they ran it low on oil until it blew up.
"In Oldskool we trust"
I was thinking the same thing especially after you posted that it looked starved for oil. You might as well just start finding a source for a new engine right now.
2002 Pontiac Sunfire SE Sedan 2.2l Ecotec 4 Speed Auto.
The only thing I'll say is that I saw a similar situation once in an l61 saturn vue. The same timing guide broke and all of the smaller pieces lodged in the oil galley going to the valve train and completely starved the area for oil. We put a head and timing set on that and it ran like new after cleaning everything out.
"In Oldskool we trust"
Got the head off last night and the cylinder walls still look nice and the piston tops and underside of the head are fairly clean, so it couldn't have been burning massive amounts of oil I'd say. Minor rings in piston tops from intake valves, but the damage happened at idle and wasn't taken much above idle since.
I'm gonna toss it together and see what it does. Probably throw a new oil pump in it also just to be safe.
JLP
04 LS Sport Sedan
