So I blew a headgasket and took it to a shop because I'm 18 and have no real knowledge on this work. The shop I took it too was my girlfriends dads friend, so I thought he was legit. Anyways after it was all said and done I spent 1250 on the job, He had the heads resurfaced, new timing, new valves, new distributer and fan, sparkplugs.

When I got it back it idles with low oil pressure until I hit the gas, it makes a loud click, has significant less power... What the hell did he do? It runs terrible going up hills, it lugs in all gears when going up hill. Barely gets to 45 miles on the highway if there is a slight slope... It just runs like hell. I had him recheck the timing which was a tooth off but even then it runs like crap ... Any ideas on what to change or fix?

 

what's your compression? After spending $1250 I'd be pissed.

 

Sounds like the timing is off.

 

He said he checked the compression and it was fine.


And the timing was off and when it was adjusted it actually runs worse now. If I knew anything about this crap I'd do it myself.

 

It sounds like the belt may be in time, but the dist. timing may be off.

 

ck valve adj also

 

Whatever it is I'm going to make this guy do it free of cost...

Any other things to check while he's at it?

 

sounds like the timing belt/ chain is one tooth off somewhere. What motor are we talking about here? Its a veezee try putting the timing at 14 instead of the factory recommended 10.

 

Yeah it's the 3vze... I'll have to try that. What's the advantage of setting it at 14

 

With everybody talking about timing, don't forget the difference between ignition timing, and cam timing.

Both will make a motor run poorly when set incorrectly. Cam timing will affect compression and of course running, and ignition timing will only affect running.

Don't accept "the compression is fine" for an answer. Demand to see the numbers from each cylinder. If any cylinder is low, ask for a leakdown test to be performed, and also demand to see the results on paper.

 

Also he said there was scoring on the heads which causes it to have low oil pressure on idle. Is this true, if so... Why

 

Scoring on the heads? Do you mean on the cam bearing/saddle surfaces or what? If that's the case, then scoring would throw oil tolerances off. Run a google search on oil pressure and what affects that. Should answer any questions there. Oil pressure depends on a numbers of things. Oil tolerances being one of those factors.

If it runs like crap, the mechanical (cam/crank) timing is easy to check. The ignition timing will never be correct unless that is. I suppose it's easy enough to get the mech. timing wrong considering the process of installing the belt, but a good mechanic really shouldn't have that problem and know how to avoid getting it wrong.

Advancing the IG timing changes the point at which the pistons are being fired in their up and down movement. Another google search there on ignition timing, for you. But, like I said, unless it's positive the mech. timing is correct, advancing won't solve the issue.

So, have him recheck the mech. timing making sure the belt didn't jump a tooth or something. Then, go back to the IG timing. As for the heads, that's kinda stupid on his part if there was scoring and he didn't have it addressed when the head were resurfaced. At that point, the valves should've also been inspected and adjusted, if need be.........which is often the case.

Lastly, when the IG timing is being set, there are two very important terminals that must be jumped on the diagnostics port in order to get the timing set correctly. I can recall that being overlooked by folks in past threads, and possibly it's been overlooked in your situation. The TE1 and E1 terminals.

Another point to consider is with all the vac lines on the 3vze, it's happened often enough that some of them get misrouted. But, get the timing positively squared away first, I suppose.

 

$1250 for a HG is a great price!! I shoulda taken my car over the border to get it done. I was being quoted a min of $2500 CAD for it over here.

 

ya man, the headgaskets in BC are rough haha. cost me about 2k back when i bought the thing.