Hey guys. Per my previous thread here where I mentioned my timing belt snapped, I started pulling my spark plugs and looked down the holes to see if there were any signs of damage inside.

Coincidentally, I realized that I'm not even sure what I'm exactly looking for. I was hoping someone could help explain what I'm looking at here, and help me figure out what to do next.

I pulled the first 3 plugs facing the front of the car, left to right. They will be labeled left, middle, and right. Right being closest bank to the battery.

Left (one pic)



Middle (2 pics). To my untrained eye, this looks damaged, but i truly don't know.




Right (1 pic)



Thank you for any help.

 

i am a backyard mechanic and dont know proper terms but what i do know, the pistons are not supposed to look like that.
it is damage! the middle one being the worst

 

Haha, same, hence the question... I just didn't want to jump to conclusions without being sure, and getting input from those who are more experienced.

 

yours look like they are pitting. with some gouge in the middle one (metal shavings?)

mine had an impression where they kissed the valves in the head.



teh black gunk is carbon deposits from bad fuel, most likely. but circled in yellow is where the pistons hit the valve.

yours look like the coating on the top of the piston is coming off and pitting.

 

Thanks for that pic. That's what kills me, the cylinder walls look beautiful for an engine with 240k miles on it, and I singlehandedly ruined it. But yeah....

Exactly what I was assuming. I was doing about 45mph at ~4k rpm when it snapped, so I figured the pistons had to have made contact with the valves. Gonna start looking at used motors on ebay....

 

Since the belt broke you might as well pull the heads off.

 

yeah, if you want to investigate further, I would pull the heads and look at both valves and the pistons!!

or since you kinda know what happened, you could just replace the whole engine.
I tried to replace just my heads...but ended up seizing the block because I forgot to install the keyway back into the crank pulley....and seized the engine.
bought a used engine for $650 and had a local mechanic install for $650 and I was on my merry way.

 

I mean, I am already moving towards swapping the entire engine if I have piston and valve damage, just because I can get a running J32a3 for a steal. is there any further benefit of taking the heads off if the damage is going to be more trouble than what the engine itself is worth?

 

oh man, that sucks. Yeah I've already got eyes on another j32a3 that I can get shipped freight to my driveway for about the same price. Looks like that's what I'm leaning towards now

 

just for investigative purposes only.
if one is curious, one could pull to see what kind of damage happened.

but since you know that the timing belt snapped and you know you're having all of these troubles because of the snapped belt, I wouldnt hesitate to install a used engine into the car.
Junk yards usually give a 30-90 day warranty....and they test the engine for compression before hand. so you know you're getting a good motor. hopefully you install the engine before the warranty ends, just in case.

 

I found one on ebay that had a video of it running right before it was pulled, as well as a 90 day warranty. Looks like I'm on the search for an engine hoist now

 

Good man!
I would love to try engine swapping again (now that my confidence has came back up from seizing the engine lol)


try to borrow an engine hoist as they are too expensive just for one job.

 

I don't see clear marks left by valves. That crap on the cylinders might by anything. Most likely just standard buildup, that looks weird because of strong light and crappy camera. There shouldn't be any shavings, unless valves dropped into the cylinder. But then we would see much more damage.

Any reason why you decided to not throw a belt at it? From my limited experience I've seen more engines that survived than ones that didn't. $170 is not much money compared to pulling the whole engine, and worst case you can use that kit for the used engine that you buy.