Most liked posts in thread: 2004 R53 (re)Build Thread

also, you all are just awesome. thanks for hanging with me through this whole ordeal.

 

a friend of mine sent me a link to Chevy's small block V8 crate motor already... yeah I can dream

 

Ha - he’s in the UK and sent it saying “a real American would do this!”

 

I'm cursed. the place I ordered the camshaft from can't find it in their warehouse and has refunded the order. So instead of receiving it tomorrow and installing it this weekend, I'm shopping today and hopefully doing it next weekend. Can't win. Maybe good things come to those who wait.

oh wait, I forgot to dance naked in the moonlight this week. That's why.

 

I'm second guessing just about everything now. I'm starting to think (from the additional research I've been doing about timing) that I may have bent a valve. If I didn't get the new camshaft and rocker arm installed correctly, the car is acting the way it would if it bent a valve after the first startup the other night. I don't really know, because I can't think of anything I did wrong with the camshaft and rocker arms - there's just not that much to it. They all went into place easily, I didn't need to force anything. Same feeling on the timing chain - I did not remove the chain from the sprocket, and I never dropped any of it down into the timing case. Nothing should be out of sync.

What advice does anyone have for me on the following two options (or, would you point me in a different direction entirely):
If it were you, and you wanted to keep trying to get this car running well, would you now:
1. Re-do the timing completely - timing case cover off to confirm the chain marks are aligned on the crank sprocket, and then re-time from there as I did when I put in the new chain
or
2. Re-do almost everything - pull the cylinder head again to inspect the valves to confirm if I bent one or more of them.

Or, am I missing that there is a way to diagnose the valve from the top without pulling the head again? I'm willing to do the work, the problem I'm having is getting the parts - can't get anything delivered until next week and I'm trying my damndest to get this done this weekend. Maybe I just need to suck it up and wait for the new parts (meaning all the new gaskets I'll have to replace, along with new cylinder head bolts and new head gasket if I pull the head)

thanks everyone. I've come too far to give up but maybe I need to throw in the towel and just get it to a pro. Feeling defeated.