possible catastrophic engine damage? input please?

The_Ghost

Registered User
Okay, since I was finally feeling better I switched back to my stock MAF after experimenting with an 80mm Mk VIII MAF on my 1990 SC 5-speed.

It has 195k on the clock now, so Im not sure if it is age or what.

I pulled away from my stop sign right by my house and was at about half throttle at around 3000, when suddenly the car just went POP dundundundnndnndnn and quickly came to a dead stop. I tried to crank it over again, and it cranks, except it seems to be cranking a lot faster than its supposed to. This would suggest a loss of compression, but maybe its something else.

The sudden dead halt is indicative to me that some major shiznit happened, but I am hoping and praying that this is a false alarm.

Will a fuel pump or DIS do this?
What else would cause the car to just cut out dead? I the dead stop happen with my Fiero, except in that case it was the battery messing around. That wasnt the case here.

It may have just suddenly lost spark or fuel, or it may have dropped a valve, but after cranking it, I am not hearing any horrible clanging noises, so Im thinking more or less everything is in place? As far as I can tell from the outside, everything is still where it belongs.

Ideas?

Thanks,
Ghost
 
Is the bolt still on your balancer? Sounds like what mine did when I broke the balancer.

Something else for ya to check out.

Mike
 
is the harmonic balancer the primary crank pulley, you know, the main drive?
what's it look like?

i havent pushed the car back to my house yet, it's still down the block. though i am feeling a lot better than i was i am still recovering from being all kinds of sick, so i havent attempted it.

how hard is a balancer to change?

thanks,
ghost
 
youll probably need about an 1/8 inch drill bit to drill the broken pieces off of the crank after you remove the balancer i drilled several holes around the crank then ran a screw in one of the holes to split it and pull it out
 
so what I described sounds like a balancer?

did my SC incur any significant damage from the balancer destroying itself?
where can i get a new balancer?

and again, how hard is the thing to change?

thanks much,
ghost.
 
I was only saying it sounded like what mine did. By know means am I saying that IS what happened.

But Yes what your describing is the balancer, the crank pulley attaches to the front of the balancer. Just reach your hand down there inside the pulley, and feel for a BIG bolt head in the middle of the balancer.

If its gone, then it would probably be recommended to change the balancer rather then just replacing the bolt.

If it is the bolt that broke, then to remove it, youll have to drill a small hole in the center of the bolt, and insert an easy out, or a left hand drill bit, and back the bolt out.
 
okay, so just for clarity yours just kinda went POP and promptly quit as if there were no fuel or ignition, right?

Mine just made a little pop noise, I tried looking around to see if I'd lost anything. When I lost the balancer on my 280zx the thing went BANG and I saw my crank pulley go speeding away down the street. I eventually did find it again.
 
See mine went BANG as it backfired when the balancer was walking off the shaft, and cut out signal to the crank sensor.

Maybe your looking for something else here, just give it a look and youll know if its the balancer or not.
 
My head hurts reading this stuff. Doesn't anyone ever look under the hood after something like this happens?

Have a friend crank the engine and look at the crank pulley. Does it turn? I'm guessing it doesn't. Next find out of it's just the pulley not turning, or if the end of the crank isn't even turning.
 
dont know, what does each mean accordingly? if it's not turning, balancer's gone, right?

i think once it gets quieter around here (less traffic) I'm going to use my tow cable and another car to slowly pull it back down the street (with someone in each car to make sure the SC stops), I sure as hell am not going to try pushing it. It's just too damn heavy. I can push a 3200lb car, but 3800 is more weight than I can cope with by myself, and half a block is a long way to push by yourself, particularly uphill. :(

I think mine backfired, cos it sounded really awful and abruptly came to a stop from 20 to 0 in about 15 feet. I was sure I'd lost a valve or something.

the motor is definitely not siezed, as it still engages and turns over just fine, albeit more quickly than I am used to.
 
My head hurts reading this stuff. Doesn't anyone ever look under the hood after something like this happens?

Have a friend crank the engine and look at the crank pulley. Does it turn? I'm guessing it doesn't. Next find out of it's just the pulley not turning, or if the end of the crank isn't even turning.

I would've, but at the time I was late to my damn polygraph examination.
I had enough time to try cranking it over, and went back to the house and got the 3.8 splitport stang and hauled ~~~ out to west covina.

I went back on the way home to survey things, popped the hood, gave it a cursory glance and tried cranking it again but then my girlfriend called again and asked where I was and I promptly had to head home.

I've had maybe 2 minutes to survey the damage.

i can't have a friend check it because I'm by myself. My girlfriend, my usual 'hey help-me-test-this' friend, is sick with the same crap i had all weekend, shes been bedridden all day, and unfortunately my buddies are all out doin crap far away today.
when my brother gets home a little later i'll have him give me a hand with it.

by the way, I imagine people probably don't look under the hood because they're afraid of what they might see or are too panicked to think about it. I considered it, figured I'd spend 5 minutes screwing with it to no avail and would probably get my suit dirty. I decided against it since I was in a serious rush. I simply didnt have time :(

-ghost
 
Same thing happened on my 35th. Left a light under normal throttle and all of a sudden the car started bucking really bad and shut off. The balancer bolt had sheered off. Fortunately there was no other damage done to the motor. Had to tap and drill the old bolt out. Replaced the bolt and balancer and that fixed it. It would be good if you knew someone with a lift, as this is a job you will want to do from beneath the car. As stated earlier I think this may be your problem. Good luck, let us know what you find!
 
well, fortunately i now work for goodyear tires/lube, so weve got one of those.

at least its not some hardcore bad stuff.

thanks guys!

-ghost
 
update + more questions

Its confirmed, it is the balancer.
During daylight today I was able to give it a look, and while the motor cranks the accessories do not move at all, hence the faster cranking.

The head of the bolt is still there, meaning that the bolt must have sheared off, and thus the balancer will have to be replaced too, right?

Now about getting the parts together,
it appears that autozone lists a balancer for a 93 SC for 127.99 but does not list a bolt kit for either that or a 98 mustang like gldiii-dude lists in the BHJ faq (what is the advantage of the bhj unit?).

what parts store sells the balancer and what do i need to look it up as? there is a difference between the 89-93 and 94-95 balancers, right? maybe i just didnt see the right faq, but that seemed to be the only balancer related faq. i figured there'd be a balancer faq but i guess not.

thanks,
ghost
 
Its confirmed, it is the balancer.
During daylight today I was able to give it a look, and while the motor cranks the accessories do not move at all, hence the faster cranking.

The head of the bolt is still there, meaning that the bolt must have sheared off, and thus the balancer will have to be replaced too, right?

Now about getting the parts together,
it appears that autozone lists a balancer for a 93 SC for 127.99 but does not list a bolt kit for either that or a 98 mustang like gldiii-dude lists in the BHJ faq (what is the advantage of the bhj unit?).

what parts store sells the balancer and what do i need to look it up as? there is a difference between the 89-93 and 94-95 balancers, right? maybe i just didnt see the right faq, but that seemed to be the only balancer related faq. i figured there'd be a balancer faq but i guess not.

thanks,
ghost

goto http://www.spinningwheels-sc.com
or http://www.supercoupeperformance.com
 
I'm sorry, I put that in an order that was confusing-- which stores (outside of autozone) sell the correct factory balancer?

i looked at the BHJ balancer, but I am still unclear on what the advantage is--
Is it that a stocker one will break in another 20k and that the BHJ wont?
I need to get my daily driver running again, asap, so finding the part locally as soon as possible is a definite must.

thanks,
ghost
 
I'm sorry, I put that in an order that was confusing-- which stores (outside of autozone) sell the correct factory balancer?

i looked at the BHJ balancer, but I am still unclear on what the advantage is--
Is it that a stocker one will break in another 20k and that the BHJ wont?
I need to get my daily driver running again, asap, so finding the part locally as soon as possible is a definite must.

thanks,
ghost
It's completely unpredictable whenever the stock balancer will go out. Mine has 163K miles on it and it's holding on strong. I wouldn't recommend a stock balancer to anybody.

A BHJ will never break and a stock one will at any given time. That's the difference between the two.
 
If you plan on keeping the car for more than a year, spend the money and get the BHJ. Otherwise, you could be starting a new thread in a couple months stating "I can't believe my new stock balancer failed after only 4,000 miles!" :)
 
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