E30 Zone

Hello again everyone.

After putting my engine back together with the new Camshaft and eventually pluggin gthe plugs in the right holes everything appeared to be just fine.

However trying to start the engine up again tonight and I am finding a serious lack of compression ... none! I was planning on warming it up and putting in some nice new oil, however it just whines but there is jsut zero compression.

Now we are assuming that the tappets are stuck open or something along those lines. I put in all new tappets and rocker arms with the new camshaft.

Does anyone have any ideas as to other possibilities or solutions? I checked that the cambelt hasn't slipped but all seems ok there.

Any suggestions would be very much appreciated! Thank you.

Regards,
Marco

Well looks like it's time to take it apart again.

these can take a while to pump up the hyd followers, and low comp is an issue if its been stood a while, especially in bits

pop a tiny bit of oil into the bores done the plug hoiles( not easy I know on the M40) , spin her over a few times with the plugs out, refit and try for fire up, the oil will help seal the bores and pump the CR up a little.

Thats all assuming the cam timing etc were all correct of course ?

Hi. Thanks for you reply. I think I didn't make it clear enough as to what happened ...

After rebuilding the head it started ok and we had it running for about 30 mins to make sure everything is working and it doesn't overheat.

Trying to restart it a couple of days later it seems like it wanted to go at first and then it jsut turned into a whining, rather than trying to fire (ie no compression at all)?!

The cambelt hasn't slipped, I have already checked that.

That puts a whole new spin on things! OP suggested an engine that had never run.
Why are you so sure it has zero compression? If it wasn't for that, I'd be telling you to check for spark and/or fuel pressure.

I had this once before.

the knob cheese wodruff key in the cam had sheared, and all rotated, but the cam

worth a peek anyways ?

Indeed. The little notch in the Cam pulley broke and now all my pretty valves are now not so pretty. Engine is in bits again - new vales needed ... does anyone make a vernier for the M40 engine?