4x4Wire's TrailTalk Forums: Getting sick of the 6G72

I'm a bit conflicted at the moment.

I'm bicycling to work now. Not because I need to, although I do. I've put on 20 lbs. since I quit wrenching for a living

No, I've started riding my bicycle to work because my engine is broken yet again.

It hasn't been extremely unreliable, come to think of it. I'm just dreading taking all that crap off to replace the timing belt. I've done so many 6G72 timing belts in the last 2 years I don't even want to think about it.

What happened this time? I'll tell you.

This goes back to the time I bought my truck. Every time I drove it, I could smell burning rubber. Usually faintly, but still there and only when the engine was running or immediately afterward. After a while I got tired of the smell and investigated. I found that the timing belt was burned and checkered on the smooth side.

Not one for broken belts on the road, I ordered a new belt and idler from the back counter guy at work. Upon completion of the tear-down portion of the project I found that the idler pulley had been improperly installed during a previous timing belt job, preventing the pulley from turning. Thus, my burning smell and bad belt.

I removed and cleaned the pulley, determined that it still worked just as new, and reinstalled it. This saved me about half the total cost for my repair.

I took a good hard look at the water pump and decided that it must have been replaced, since there was RTV squished out around the mating surfaces.

I reassembled the front of the engine, taking extra time to replace the valve guide seals, and lived happily. For a while.

Then the transmission burned up on my wife's Plymouth Grand Voyager. So my parents gave me their Dodge Caravan (with a 6G72) until we could get a better car. I say "until", but when I asked my dad if he wanted it back the day before I sold it, he said something like, "you aren't even thinking about making me take that thing back, are you?" Anyway, they gave me this van and the first thing I did was replace the timing belt since we had no real history on the vehicle and I really didn't want my wife driving around with my kids and have the belt break.

We were pretty short on cash at the time, and I distinctly remember telling my wife that the water pump looked old and we should think about replacing it. She thought for a bit and decided that we should just take our chances.

I reassembled the front of this motor (again taking extra time to replace the valve guide seals) and lived happily, but not for long.

The engine had a knock. Not the "bottom end death" knock, but more like a top end "sumthin' just ain't right in there" knock. This wasn't the lifter tick we are all so familiar with in these engines. This was an arrhythmic knock at idle.

One day, I was driving the van to work in order to smog it. I'm a smog tech, so I get to do that as long as they haven't figured out it's my car. Anyway, I'm cruising along the freeway when the chime sounds. I look down to see what was up and saw the temp gauge pegged in the red. I was in an area with no shoulder, so I put the transmission in neutral and coasted for a bit. The temperature dropped very rapidly, so I figured the thermostat stuck momentarily and put it back in drive. Then the temp climbed again, the chime sounded and then... Nothing.

I coasted to a stop behind a CHP motor officer and tried to restart the engine. It would spin very freely, but wouldn't start. I could tell it only had partial compression on 2 or 3 cylinders. My timing belt busted.

I called my wife and had her wake the kids, then bring out my truck. I towed the van to a nearby parking lot and continued to work.

There's a whole story about getting the van back to the shop, but it doesn't matter for the purposes of this story.

Anyway, after I let the van sit for about 4 months while my frustration subsided, I pushed the van into one of my stalls and took the front of the engine apart. Turns out (I'd known for a long time) that the water pump had seized, overheating and breaking the timing belt. And when I say seized, I mean there wasn't anything I had that could turn it without taking the housing along for the ride. Nothing. I have big tools. It wasn't going to budge.

So, I got to replace the water pump and timing belt. The knocking noise was the impeller striking the housing. It only happened at low RPM until the bearing got so sloppy it dug in at speed and welded itself into one piece.

Fast forward another year, that POS van is gone. Now my wife drives a Chevy Venture (it was in good condition and only cost us $500) with a good, old-fashioned OHV pushrod engine with an honest to God timing set in the front.

Anyway, I think I got a little off-track. Back to my truck.

I was driving to work the other morning, stopped to pick up a co-worker (he'd just dropped off one of the company trucks for some work) and headed onto the freeway. About halfway there (to work) I noticed the temp gauge was nearly to the red and the heater was blowing cold.

Since there wasn't anything I could do except keep going, I did. We made it all the way to the office, with the temp gauge nearly pegged out and the heater blowing cold. Hopped out and saw coolant streaming from the front of the engine. The smell of burning rubber and coolant was everywhere. I started the engine and drove into the dirt so there wouldn't be standing coolant where the boss's dogs would drink it and went to work.

After work I started the engine for a minute or so and confirmed my suspicions. The water pump seized. This time, it evidently put a gap in the seal, so it leaks under pressure.

Anyway, there's rubber smoke coming out of the timing cover whenever the engine runs, so I know where I'm going with this.

The problem is this: my wife and I are trying to move into a house right now, but it's about a month and a half out. If we were there now I could just park the truck in the garage and fix it at my leisure. It's still at the office now, and I could fix it there too, but frankly, I don't want to spend the money on parts so close to getting into a new rental (house).

The worst part is that I've done so many I know exactly what I have to do and I don't want to.

What I really want to do is drop in a GenIII SBC with a 4L60 and an NP231, but I have neither the time or money.

Drat

--------------------
1990 Montero RS (In pieces... for now)

KG6VNX

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