New to the forums, but not new to mechanic work, I really know my stuff, but this one is kicking my a$$. I have a 2000 Chevy Metro with the 1.3L 16V motor and it flat out wont start. I just bought it and had to trailer it home, so I have run the motor for about 2 minutes tops, but it was running fine. It was smoking pretty badly, which I thought was odd since it only has 86K miles on it, but once I saw the spark plug holes filled up with oil, I figured that someone took the plugs out before and the oil got in the cylinders. It also had serious oil leaks, so I drove it in my garage bay to change out the front seal, the oil pan gasket, and the valve cover gasket.
Took the timing cover off, pulled the belt, and changed out the seal. I also took the crankshaft position sensor out and changed the oil pan gasket. I then changed the valve cover gasket out and put it all back together. I never moved the crank, or the cam, so I just slipped the belt on, tightened it down and the alignment marks lined up.
I tried to start it and it just kept turning over, wouldn't start. After re timing it several times, I checked to see if I was getting spark. I wasn't. I then checked the crankshaft sprocket and discovered the keyway pin had slid back some when I torqued it down, not allowing the srpocket to go all the way back. I put the pin back in and it slid all the way back, viola, I had spark.
I put it all back together and tried to start it, and it still wouldn't fire. Worse than that, it was backfiring into the intake.
I then went back to recheck EVERYTHING that I did and got my mechanic Dad to help. His eyes found nothing either. I then noticed that there were two E's on my camshaft sprocket, so I tried the other E and it still wouldn't fire and it was backfiring even worse. Starting fluid just gave me a bigger backfire and caught my fender well on fire
After trying both of the timing marks out several times, I searched here and found that you use the E that's on the end of the sprocket leg, not the one nearest the camshaft sprocket bolt. I cranked it over and it fired right up, smoked like hell and was knocking in the valvetrain, so I killed it. I adjusted the valves to the correct specs to stop the knocking. Thinking that I had victory, I got ready to put everything back together and fire it right up, but that wasn't in the cards. It still wont start and is backfiring in the intake again.
So I went back through the same stuff as above and still nothing, so I called it a night and decided to post this novel of a thread here. Does anyone have ANY idea whats going on here? So, the notes here:
Checked the timing and it's confirmed to be correct from everything that I have read.
I have spark
I have fuel
I have air.
I have the valves spaced properly.
I have compression, but my gauge broke, so I can't say how much.
I have quadruple checked everything and tried different variations of the above.
2000 Metro 1.3L stopped running after changing the front oil seal.
Linear Mode
