Metrification

Some of you may know that we had a little 'incident' with the metro which involved a lot of heat and ended up with a warped head, blown headgasket, and scorched cylinders.  This occurred several months ago...

...fast forward to today.  The metro is back in action for the first time since the heinous events that led to the breakdown.  What has happened since then?  Well - it started with removal of the head to assess the damage.  We then proceed to deciding to replace the engine while we are at it.  Since we are replacing the engine, we might as well also replace: 

• Water pump
• clutch
• CV shafts
• oil pump
• fan & AC belt
• Timing belt
• Spark plugs
• Air filter
• Various hoses
• Various gaskets

I meticulously cleaned and replaced each piece taking extra care to clean all threads and torque all bolts to spec.  Unfortunately, I also got a bit overzealous in my "packing" of the oil pump with vaseline.  This is a practice I have used with success in the past.  The vaseline stays in the pump and then instantly primes the engine when it is fired up and dissolves into the engine oil harmlessly.  I say I got overzealous because I succumbed to the thing where if a bit is good, lots must be better...wrong!

I packed the oil pump and figured while I was at it I would also pack the oil pickup tube.  Once the whole thing was back together, I turned the engine over with the spark plugs out for what seemed like forever and could NOT get the oil warning light to go off (indicating that the engine was turning without being oiled - a very bad thing.)  After much consultation with relatives and internet sources, I decided to pull the oil pan (now a job that had to be done lying under the car - as opposed to when it was originally installed when the engine was out of the car and we could just flip the engine over and stick it on.)  

As expected, once the oil pan was back off, it was immediately apparent that the vaseline in the pickup tube was still there.  This means that the oil pump was spinning in a vacuum and the vaseline was preventing the oil from being sucked up into the engine.  I used compressed air to blow the vaseline out of the pickup tube and stuck a temporary (clear) tube into the block and had Jessica turn the engine over for a bit to see if it was pulling oil up the tube.  It was!  So, after gluing the oil pan back on and letting it set for 24 hours, I tried it all again.  No dice!

Now I was pulling out hair and dad even was lucky enough to call me right during that time and was treated to a very depressed phone conversation.  I decided that there were two possibilities:

1. The cold temperature was causing the vaseline to solidify and block up all the oil passages
2. Turning the engine over by using the starter (as opposed to just starting the engine up) was not getting enough RPM to suck the oil up the pickup

So, for the one/two punch to solve those, I decided on a plan to hit them both at once.  I waited till it was warm today - around 80 or so at noon and then constructed a temporary tent around the engine compartment of the car.  I then moved my portable propane shop heater into the tent and fired it up.   It was working great to heat up the upper part of the car, but the heat was not really getting down low (I think the concrete was soaking up a lot of it) so I added my portable halogen worklight right under the oil pan.  It generates a LOT of heat and it was only a few inches from the oil.  By around 5:00pm, it was time and the light had heated the engine oil to too-hot-to-touch and the rest of the engine was almost getting warm to the touch (instead of cold metal.)  

I turned it over for 30 seconds using the starter - still no oil pressure.  I decided to take the big gamble (perhaps out of exasperation more than anything else) and installed the spark plugs and fired it up.  Almost instantly the oil warning light went out!  Hooooray!  Another couple hours of timing and idle adjustments, fluid level checks and getting it back down off the jack stands (and clearing a path to remove it from the shop) and I was taking her for a test spin!

The results?  The car drives under its own power and I am almost daring to say that it runs better than it did before the overheating incident - although I am cautious to say too much at this point.  It does have great power, the temperature of the engine is consistently perfect, and it doesn't seem to smoke at idle (like it did before all this.)  Here's the bad part - the engine is making a lot of noise.  There are some ticking sounds that should not be there and that could very likely be the result of a motor that was run without oil for too long (even a few moments can kill it.)  On the other hand, there is an exhaust leak right in front of the engine (I had to reuse the exhaust gasket that goes between the exhaust manifold and the exhaust pipe since I didn't get a new one in my masker gasket kit) which could very well be the source of all the noise.  I'll see about a new gasket on Monday and should know then if the rest of the ticking is coming from inside the engine.  

I can say that I am very pleased tonight that this thing is back into driveable shape.  I learned a very good lesson in mechanics, and if anybody needs anything done on a metro, please let me know - I think I have just about everything under the hood under control these days.