My 93 has died. or has it?

So I lost a lot of power on Tuesday and I did a tune up on it, cleaned the injectors, etc. Nothing helped. Finally ran Seafoam through the gas hoping and praying that would fix it. Turns out it didn't. I was driving along and it finally just cut out. I was able to get it started again but it cut out almost immediately afterwards. So I had it towed to the mechanic who today told me that the pin gear came off the distributor rod and probably screwed up the drive wheel and possibly the camshaft.

They said the only real way to go about fixing it is to replace the engine. The engine has 215k on it, so it had a good run if it's truly toast.

My question though, can it be repaired? I've seen it on OLD 4 engines that it could be done, a PITA, but could be done. Is the mechanic right in saying that a replacement is the only way? If that's the case, and I'm really attached to it, I would still probably part it out.

Thoughts?

 

Any engine needs 3 things to run. Compression, spark, and fuel. You need to check for all of those before making any assumptions. Check for fuel by turning the key to acc. and listen to see if you can hear the fuel pump hum. If there's no hum, the fuel pump could be bad. Check for spark from the coil by pulling the wire off the top of the distributor coming from the coil and grounding it out. Crank over the engine and you should see a blue spark. Use a compression tester to test for compression in every cylinder. You should have at least around 150 PSI. After you test everything, we might be able to figure something out.

 

Pull the distributor your self and see if what he says jives,, sounds like he knows his ****, but some mechanics just don't know whats wrong so they say R+R the entire motor. New dist. is like 125.

 

x2 Just because he says he thinks the pin gear came off, doesn't mean it actually did. Like I said, do some testing and see what happens. Yea, he's a mechanic, but it's only an educated guess and until you tear everything apart to see what's wrong, you'll never know if he's right.

 

Did any of the parts not come out when he pulled the distributor?

Dowel pin failure and drive gear is not all that common but not unheard of either. Personally i'd be trying a good used distributor before i wrote off this engine.

 

he didn't really relay any of info besides that. I know I'm getting spark, I don't know what the compression is at. Can you check that when you cant start it? It'll crank, but wont start.

 

Is the rotor turning or is it stationary when cranking the engine?

 

with that many miles, is it possible it slipped the timing chain?

 

You said you are getting spark,is it consistent?if it is I would do the compression check first. Yes the compression can be checked without it running,just needs to be able to turn over at a fast rate so pull all your plugs before you start. If it is ok I would check the cps

 

I'm going to call the guy again tomorrow to get more info and do my own checking this weekend. I refuse to give up.

 

If he has spark, it's not going to be the CPS. When mine crapped out I had no spark at all. If it's on it's way out, it may be possible that the spark isn't strong enough. Should be bright and blue.

 

get whats wrong in writing

then post it

you would not need a complete rebuild if the pin sheared on the distributor unless the gear came off and caused internal damage

 

I have good news. The weather finally got good so I went out there and pulled the distributor. The gear was on the pin! I inspected it and it looked like the gear was filed down pretty bad, but couldnt be sure without comparison. To confirm I went to the JY and pulled another one and sure enough, the old gear looked like hell in comparison then they JY pull. SO, I'm calling it a day and tomorrow putting the JY one in.

I suspect I'll have to find TDC and recalibrate timing if that gear wasn't catching, or will I? Can I just drop it in and try to turn it?

 

I put the distributor in, still wouldn't start. It cranks but doesn't start. I checked again to make sure I had spark and I do. I replaced the plugs, still nothing. Then I replaced the Crank Position Sensor. Still nothing. I just don't get it, I'm getting fuel, I'm getting spark, I tested the first cylinder and hit 115psi on compression. I haven't checked the rest of the cylinders, but hell, I should be getting something. WTF?

 

just because you have spark doesnt mean *****. Its gotta be at the right time. Check injector pulse and spark pulse. I just did a 2000 altima at work had all 3 things working spark , fuel compression, and it turned out the rotor was broken, i installed a distributor and it worked fine.

He might be trying to sell you a motor so he can make labor swapping out your motor.

Ask to see the broken part.