Good (Car)ma

An update from the shop... (this gets technical, and tough to explain without a picture.)

It's a good thing we got the timing chain taken care of.

Some background - Imagine, inside the engine, there are rails that help guide the timing chain on it's happy journey around the engine, keeping everything moving and firing at exactly the right time. This happens really fast - think of the RPM gauge in your own car, how fast those parts are spinning and you get a rough idea. The main failure mode of this equipment is that the single chain stretches and/or the tensioner starts to go, so the chain beats the hell out of the rails on its rapid journey. Eventually, a rail breaks, and some piece floats around and gets caught between one of the sprockets and the chain (remember, moving very, very fast...). This can lead to an instantaneous chain break. When this happens, the best case is that the engine dies because the whole internal combustion mechanism can't happen without proper valve opening/closing. Worst case - uncontrolled detonation in the cylinders, and some valve stems are shot into the hood like little bullets. The valves that are spared this fate instead are smashed against pistons (heavier, and still moving pretty quickly) and are bent like paperclips. The car is then parked in a front yard somewhere or parted on eBay.

Now you know why I have been somewhat obsessed about this particular repair.

On this particular auto, one rail did break at some point. Luckily, the automotive gods smiled upon us, and that chunk sunk harmlessly to the bottom of the motor, deftly avoiding whirring engine parts and providing us a chance to make it all good. So, the chain and associated hardware have been fixed. Since I had it in, we're also changing the oil and filter and a couple of belts that needed to be removed anyway. I tend to think of small dollar projects that can prevent big dollar problems later on. A belt is 12 bucks - losing a power steering pump, alternator or something else on the freeway is much worse.

Additionally, the distributor cap and rotor were in pretty bad shape (what do you expect after 26 years!) so we're getting those knocked out too. Finally, when the car went on the lift the mechanic "couldn't help but notice" that the driver side bracket for the front sway bar was missing (the sway bar connects the suspension for the two front wheels and provides some stability in that area). I was starting to think that there was a little too much play in the steering and that it wasn't quite handling like I expected - that could have been the issue. We'll check it out on Friday when I get it back.

The intention of course, was to do some of this myself, and document the work here. Practicality has taken over from here, so for this time, outsourcing was the way to go. I still have a list of fun things to do, so watch this space!