In case you don't know, in September, I swapped in a 3.0L, it was a straight swap using a full 2001 block and 3L heads. Anyhow 1000 miles after install, and 700 miles from home the engine blew
.
Well I finally got the courage (and rid of the laziness) to work on my car without putting a wrench through the windshield.
Pulled the engine, then dismantled it. Originally I knew the timing chain snapped, removing a valve cover you could see it, what I didn't know was what else and why. Well After putting the pieces together and attempting to retrace the steps inside the engine, this is what I beleive happened.
The timing chain did indeed snap. Once it broke it got snagged, since it's connected to a sprocket on the crank, and it was snagged, this caused a break on the keyway on the crank and the sprocket to break in half. The crank now has a nice groove. I was lucky that the sprocket pieces went to the oil pan and stayed there. 4 intake valves, and 2 exhaust valves are bent, more may be bent but i need to remove them from the head to be sure. Also since i broke the timing chain on the left head (water pump side), and the engine was still running on the right bank but without water pump, there was a time when i couldn't figure out the why it was missing, and was still running the engine to find out. Well in the process I beleive the extra heat made the right head gasket to let go and introduce some water/coolant into 2 cylinders. Well needless to say the bores now need to be honed. The bottom end and pistons look flawless besides that.
Conclusion - although my experience is just that "MY" experience I will still stand strongly behind my opinion that if you want to build a motor up DO NOT USE THE 2001+ timing system. The chains are thinner and in my opinion far weaker than the previous years chains.
Nearly all suspension mods
Big ass stereo
...and more...
