:00000732: Welcome to the forums, elantragls2. Hate to hear this news.

I would be very suspicious of #4 cylinder (whichever measured 0 PSI, be it #1, #4, whatever.) You could have a bent valve(s) in that cylinder that is not closing on the compression stoke. Piston is pumping air/fuel right past an opening, down exhaust manifold, and out the back.

If you buy a used cylinder head, you're going to have to remove the old one, anyway. So, start calling around, and see what a machine shop would charge you for a valve job (assuming the head made it thru unscathed). Take the old head down and have a machine shop check it out. If you're going to do this, you'll need a head gasket kit, too. Take the new valve seals from the kit and give it to the machinist to insert when he cleans up the head and puts the valves back in. You might be out a few bucks for a valve or two, also.

The one puzzling thing that I keep looking back to your post is this: "No noise. Car just shut off." And at 65 MPH. I would expected it to have uttered a few syllables under there.

 

timing belt elantra 2004

I agree with OkieRich.
The 140 psi is the minimum limit but say OK. The 0 psi and what you said show bent valve(s).
Without fuel injector plug namely without gasoline we have not combustion. For that ran better.

I have a question. The belt had it ever change?
The belt had few teeth cut or cut completely and left from his position?

I, in your position will remove the cylinder head, and I would see the situation and then decide.

I do not know if you want to do it yourself but you can get an idea from here:

Playlist:How to Replace a Head Gasket Part 1-8

If you change the bent valves and gasket I believe will be fine.

 

So the belt completely snapped in half when it broke. But yeah I heard 0 noise when it happened. Of course my kids were in the car so maybe i just didnt hear it. When it happened, i had no idea of anything happened until i saw that my pushing the gas was not doing anything.

I called a machine shop just now and they said it could be as low as 200 if just one valve needs replaced, but would go up from there depending on the extent of the damage. But they guessed based on what i told them from $200-500.

I'm reading on some other sites about piston damage. What is the % chance you would say that I have damaged pistons? I'm planning to take the head off this evening, but I dont know what I'm looking at to know if I have piston damage. Should it be obvious to me, or would a pro need to make that call? Guess i wouldnt want to spend all that money rebuilding the head if other pasts of the engine is still damaged.

Also, any ideas why it would run so rough when i disconnected the injector on the bad cylinder? Pretty sure I have the timing exactly right. If i have 3 good cylinders, would you expect it to run real rough or fairly smooth? It was making a lot of noise, I dont know what "pinging" sounds like exactly, but maybe I would describe it as loud pinging.

 

could be the #4 piston just barely tapping that bent valve. it won't be able to retract fully remember.

there's no way to tell if a piston is damaged until you get in there....unless you have a scope handy. some aren't expensive now, i managed to get one for $50 while back. not great, but does the job. no screen, i need to hook it up to my laptop.

just a suggestion. i'm willing to bet okkie is right spot on in saying that you've got bent valves. i think the head has to be pulled regardless.

although nobody can say for sure until the head is off, in all likelihood your pistons are fine. a small dent or nick in the surface should be just fine. any more damage, i'd expect you to be hearing more noise from the engine.

if you decide to do the head gasket yourself, i have only one caution: follow the repair procedure exactly. most important would be the torque on the head bolts and the tightening pattern. failure to do so can mean the new gasket won't hold and you get to do the job again. a torque wrench is absolutely necessary! i believe this procedure also calls for an angle guide, but that is not usually an expensive tool.

 

So good news...I think. I got the head off tonight. Here are some pictures of the piston and the valves, for the cylinder where I had 0 compression. May be a little hard to see, but theres 2 little dings on the piston, and on the valves i didnt see any dings but on the edge of the metal frame next to where the valve comes out, there is a little ding. Not sure how bad that is...will take it to a machine shop tomorrow and see what they say. But I'm hoping for the best. Seems like it could have been a lot worse.

Speaking of the head, should I take the cams off or leave them on when i take to the machine shop? Again, I'm a newbie, so i dont want to be the one taking them off unless I know its easy to get them back on right without any special tools or without risking messing anything up. I've taken a lot of risk us to this point since I'm new to this, but figured its an old car, if i screw up an old dead car, i'm not losing much! But i'd absolutely love to revive it!

 

You may have dodged a bullet! Remove the cam. Get it down to base head, springs, valves. Off to the machine shop you go.

Just a note to help you down the road. I hope you took everything off in order and put them in a logical sequence as you removed them. AND in a place where they can't be disturbed! That way, if it takes several days to do the valve job or get the head back, having everything logically placed in order will jog your memory of "what goes where." Otherwise, it could look like a jigsaw puzzle.

Go by the repair manual. STEP-By-STEP! No shortcuts and don't detour. Zero_Gravity is right: By The Book! If all else fails, read the repair manual. Thre will be a section in there dedicated to torque values for each specific bolts. If you follow those directions, you'll be just fine. Before you know it, you will be back up and running in no time! Smiling and thumping your chest! And saved a small fortune! :thumbsup:

 

that actually looks pretty good for what happened. the damage to the piston appears to be superficial. i can clearly see the valve on the right in your pic isn't seating down correctly, but as far as bent valves go that isn't bad. it'll have to be replaced for sure, but the damage wasn't catastrophic.

you'll have it back on the road in no time have the shop check the heat for flatness and machine that as necessary. they probably will, but worth mentioning.

 

Took the head in this morning. The estimated work including a $78 head gasket kit is $443, not including $15 per valve that needs replaced. Apparently he said because this head uses shims on the valves, there is a lot of labor involved in getting them all re-adjusted. Cant remember the specifics but he's charging $160 labor for that, whereas some cylinder heads on other cars dont require that. Estimate attached.

 

Not sure on the individual item pricing but if you can get this job done in the $500 range I think you came out lucky.

 

timing belt elantra 2004

2092023c20 includes gasket head, intake, exhaust, thermostat, valve stem seals and some others as I see:

Becasuse I did not understand they changed and (HLA) hydraulic lash adjuster?

The only point that requires attention is tightening the cylinder head bolts and the positioning of the camshaft timing chain.

 

Becasuse I did not understand they changed and (HLA) hydraulic lash adjuster?

The only point that requires attention is tightening the cylinder head bolts and the positioning of the camshaft timing chain.

This reminds me of the wife's 86 Volvo 240 4-banger. Shims of varying thicknesses were used to achieve the correct valve lash clearances. What a pain in the arse they were. And only available from Volvo Parts, of course...cha-ching.

Back on topic: Whatever you do, REMEMBER THIS: Just before you pick up that head and sit it down onto the new gasket, LOOK DOWN INTO THOSE CYLINDER HOLES, ONE LAST TIME. One thing you don't need is a rag, nut, bolt, washer, socket, piece of metal, remnants of the old gasket, you name it/anything, inside those cylinder walls. Feel free to laugh if you must, but I have actually used a vacuum nozzle and cleaned around the piston domes and edges inside...as well as the top of the block and surroundings. (Might be good for an additional 5 mpg? )

NO! Before any of you ask, I've never left anything in any of mine when doing this. Don't know anyone who has. But if I can think of it...you know somewhere in the world, it has happened.

 

The price seems about right (maybe a tad high unless they're the only ones around) if you're getting the gasket set along with it. You're incredibly lucky. Probably the luckiest person I've seen that threw a timing belt on an interference motor.

 

i got it all back together, and it runs awesome! Thanks everyone for the help. One question though - about the timing belt not staying in the middle of the camshaft pulley... when i put the timing belt on and turned the crankshaft 2 rotations (making sure it was timed right still), the belt where it goes around the camshaft pulley slid to the back of the pulley and the edge of the belt is hanging off maybe 1mm or so. I gradually pushed and pushed the belt back to the center of the pulley with my hands. I rotated the crankshaft again and the same thing happened, so it will just not stay centered. I looked down and the idler, tensioner, and crankshaft pulley, and they all look ok - as in the belt was centered fairly well on those. Should I be concerned? Is there a chance i didnt put something on right? I dont think it is going to come off, as either the tensioner or idler (cant remember which) has a lip on the back that it looks like it cant go past. But still i want to be sure. I've spent a LOT of work in the last 1.5 weeks for it to go bad at this point. Thanks everyone!

 

Well i've driven 300 miles on it, and so far so good, so i'll keep my fingers crossed.

 

Congrats!

 

The belt should not be hanging off the pulley. Is the tensioner installed properly?

 

I think so. When i installed it, it seems there was only 1 way it goes on. There a way it could be installed incorrectly to cause this?

 

It's been a few years since I changed mine so I don't remember exactly. But I *think* there is a washer or spacer that goes on the back side of the tensioner. Are the parts OEM? My belt does not hang off and I can't imagine anyone designing an engine that would allow that. I can't find a parts diagram online but if there is one it should be shown there.

 

Ok, no spacer or washer that I can find. I'm at a loss as to what could be causing it.

 

If it is not riding square on the tensioner pulley then the tensioner base is bent or there is foreign matter behind it.

 

Wasnt OEM, but i compared the old one to the new when I put it on and didnt see any difference.