After new timing belt, valve job, car wont start. I need help!

[torakki]

Tops of pistons were in good condition. You could see marks where the valves hit but no damage.

I've been cleaning plugs and gaping them and got it to run pretty good. Smooth at idle and revs smooth. Once in gear and a little gas, it started to miss and a few seconds later engine light comes on. Went around the block and when I got back, it wouldn't even idle. I'll try new plugs tomorrow since cleaning and gapping made a differrence for a few minutes. Maybe a coil pack? Not sure why a broken timming belt can cause all the electrical problems unless related to no compression for the first few days causing a few cylinders to run very rich.
To be continued.......

[petrified.rabbit]

I imagine you possibly damaged the wires taking them off. Thats one of the evils of having to remove them.

[torakki]

petrified rabbit - Turns out, you were on the right track. I was holding off on responding till I was done throwing parts at the car. I first decided to replace the coil pack. Since I had a Chevy Metro once that would oil up one spark plug and cause the coil pack to go out. After the new coil pack went in, it ran worse and then could not keep it going. Only thing left was wires and plugs. Swap them out and it runs great now. The wires were so easy to take off, it was hard to imagine damaging them. I even misted them and looked for arching and they looked good.
Anyway, THANKS to all for helping me get this thing back on the road.
Bob

[ronjh12]

Hello !!!! Got this SAME problem with mine...... ZERO compression in all 4 cylinders..... Curious as to how you got the lifters to " pump up " ???? Is it just a matter of pouring oil OVER the lifter area ?????? and that will " soak " them good enough to pump up ????

[torakki]

Hi ronjh12, Yea, after the valve job, the lifters had no oil in them. It took about 4 days of coming home after work and cranking the engine. Each day, I would get another cylinder to get compression. I also took the valve cover off and poured oil on the lifters and let it soak. Also, taped on the valves to make sure nothing was stuck. Even after all cylinders had compression, there was a tapping sound from one lifter. I added an oil addative and within a day, all was quite and back to normal.
Hope this helps......

[pistonbroke]

The timing belt broke on my 2007 hatchback. I bought a set of pistons. took the head off threw away the old bent ones and ground the new ones in. I made a device from a piece of steel pipe to compress the springs and fitted the new valves. Installed the head back on with a new gasket. Took the right front wheel off with the engine blocked up I took the engine bracket off so I could get at the plastic covers, remove them, remove the pulleys and water pump, install the new ones. You will need a special tool to turn the water pump in order to tighten the belt once you have the inlet and exhaust valve sprockets lined up and the sprocket on the end of the crankshaft's arrow pointing at 6 o clock. RE-assemble. The engine started first time and runs like a sewing machine.