David, I have seen this quite a few times working at the dealer and everyone broke in the same exact place, between the intake and exhaust lobe of the #1 cylinder.
While I haven't seen it in a few years because of the decline of the 2.2 and 2.5 powered cars every once and a while it will pop up. A cam swap was all that was needed and the cars went back on the road. The first one got a new cam but after that they would come to me for a deal on a used cam for the car. You don't even need to change the followers, just the cam and you on your way. Hope this helps. Cliff Ramsdell In a message dated 4/4/2006 9:15:50 AM Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > Last year my sister had her high mileage car break down for good and she > was > in need of a new daily driver. A local friend knew of a good deal on a 2.5 > powered minivan so I thought it would be a dependable vehicle for her. I use > one myself for m company minivan and it's been quite good with me. > > It's been pretty reliable thus far but recently she's been had an unusual > problem that's been making her feel that it may be headed for a serious and > expensive engine repair (which she can't afford since she was laid off > recently). > > Last month without any prior warning signs it stalled out and wouldn't > restart. I went to take a quick look at it for her and discovered it was a > pretty simple problem, the timing belt had broken. Well that was common > enough > and it wasn't complicated or expensive to repair so I didn't feel it was an > unusual. > > The repairs went fine and it was back on the road and running fine within > days > but what happened next I thought was real unusual. Again it stalled out and > wouldn't restart. I pulled the inspection plug from the upper timing belt > cover and the upper cam gear was turning so I knew the timing belt was > turning. > > She had it towed to a shop where their immediate diagnosis was a blown head > gasket. This made little sense to me since there was no warning signs and it > had no history of or sudden last minute overheating or smoking. They said > they > ran a compression check and two cylinders were getting little to no > pressure. > > I didn't feel that was the right diagnosis so she had a mechanic friend of > hers work on it at his house. He somewhat agreed with their theory but when > the head was pulled the head gasket looked perfect. Upon further inspection > (which should have noticed once the valve cover was removed) he discovered > that the roller cam had snapped between the area around the last 2 lobes. > > In a regular stock setup without extreme driving conditions I don't seem to > recall seeing camshafts breaking like that. I supplied a decent 2.5 used > roller cam that he reinstalled the head gasket &cam and it's back to running > normally. > > Someone told her that this was a sign that the bottom end of the motor would > be going out soon and the engine was on borrowed time. I was thinking that > the > cam breakage was just a fluke and possibly due to stress caused by the > timing > belt breaking and wouldn't have a direct influence on the lower end of the > engine. Has anybody had any experiences with camshafts snapping under > routine > driving? If so are they having other engine problems later? > > David Salamone > Positive Impressions > Jacksonville, Florida > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > 1982 Rampage (dual carb ongoing &taking forever project show car) > 1987 Shelby CSX #172 (awaiting front end bodywork, but with low miles) > 1994 Voyager 2.5 (the company minivan, alive once again with another 2.5) > 1979 Dodge Omni 1.7 (backup getaround car when other stuff breaks) -----------------------REMOVE-FOOTER-WHEN-REPLYING---------------------------- Questions? Visit http://www.sdml.org/ To be removed, visit http://www.sdml.org/pages/leave.html
