PUNTO 60S 1998 SP INJECTION. I burnt my head gasket after motorway excesses. Tied timing belt to crankshaft sproket using a wedge. Marked belt at crankshaft TDC notch. Took head off, cleaned with wetndry emory paper.Replaced head with new gasket [not Fiat part] replaced belt to original position, set rev counter TDC mark adjacent to TDC sensor at TDC using marks shown in Haynes Manual. [8 valve section,petrol]. Checked plug conection using same. Started engine but all I got was a sound like firecrackers going off. Any ideas wots wrong. Do I really need a proper resurface?

did you notice that the crank pully fits on a little pin?

edit: sorry forgot to say. welcome to the forum

When I went for a quote at my local garage to get my CHG replaced last week they told me that they always recommend getting the head skimmed on these cars in particular, and any car with a light alloy head in general.

I got mine skimmed on Friday afternoon, It took just over an hour from dropping it off, to pickng it back up and cost me £35. They removed 0.008" Thou.

For the main block I've just used some of thet 3M 'purple' scotch pad for metal ( B&Q £2) , it seems to do a good job of removing the gasket residue without removing any metal.

The only problem with these distributorless cars is that if you mess up your Ignition wiring it looks like its more difficult to put right.

I've been mincing about with mine for nearly a week now, but am hoping to get it back together tomorrow. luckily we only need one car at the moment and so ther's no rush ( and the weather has been crap ).

BTW,
To double check your timing marks also use the Flywheel marks on the bellhousing. they are under a rectangular rubber cover and very easy to see.

When I blew the HG (driving like a vicar) I got it done by our usual garage. He told me to change the oil again after 100 miles - and he was right, as it was filthy when I changed it. It's done 1,500 miles since I changed it and is still quite clean, so it was worth chucking that oil after it had picked up all the muck.

The man from the resurfacer is collecting the head tommorrow.I did not know about the pin on the rev counter wheel. This means the flat part is not adjacent the sensor at TDC. I am going to use the Bell Housing marks to do the timing. Will report back when done. Thanks to all. I may need more help to do this.

john have you took head off again? if so get a new cam belt and tenshioner(sp) before refitting its only about £15.
ask bloke to only skim 2 tho at a time untill flat, usally 2 thou is all it needs.

The resurfacer is going to take off the bit with the plug conection on it from the head and leave it off for me to refit it. Am I going to have problems with this? Does the crankshaft and head fit onto this in a special way?
john

not sure what you mean, is he taking tempature sender out?

The heads right side adjacent the battery [UK design] has an oblong metal part containing the plug conections. It supplies the plugs and would be the distributor on pre-injection models. This has been taken off by the resurfacer.Does its bolted conection with the head have any special arrangment inside it? Is its operation effected by the camshaft position where it looks as though it might conect with? OK I havend out that the coils are inside.Looks as though its just bolted on.

john

johnturner said:

The heads right side adjacent the battery [UK design] has an oblong metal part containing the plug conections. It supplies the plugs and would be the distributor on pre-injection models. This has been taken off by the resurfacer.Does its bolted conection with the head have any special arrangment inside it? Is its operation effected by the camshaft position where it looks as though it might conect with? OK I havend out that the coils are inside.Looks as though its just bolted on.

john

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The bit you are refering to is attached to the bearing cap for the camshaft and has an oil gallery behind it. For some strange reason the two end camshaft bearing caps don't seem to have any kind of gasket or sealant between the mating surfaces - is this normal ? There is no mention of any sealing in the Haynes book or the Fiat WSM CD.

It would be a wise move to fit a new 'O' ring seal to this housing you mentioned. Unfortunately for me the Head gasket set that i bought from a factors had the wrong size of seal , so i ended up getting one from the dealers . it only cost 57p ( Fiat p/n 14463980 for my car) , but involved a 30 mile round trip plus my bridge toll to pick it up, so not happy about this.

ah coil pack mounting plate, no its got no special way like a distributor, just bolt on

KwikPhix328 said:

For some strange reason the two end camshaft bearing caps don't seem to have any kind of gasket or sealant between the mating surfaces - is this normal ? There is no mention of any sealing in the Haynes book or the Fiat WSM CD.

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tis normal

Well I got the head back today and they took off "12 thou" and it cost £35 cos I didnt take off the camshaft. They said it was the limit for this operation cos the camshaft could bend. It looks as though this work of mine has been saved by Dave who explained about the pin on the rev counter, cos Ive done this several times before on my previous car. Ive painted the head aluminium with spray [the resurfacer does this normally but I still had dirt on the outside.] Tommorrow I will attempt a restart. Naturally it was no good marking my belt without knowing about the pin on the rev counter. When I turn the camshaft the marks I made on the belt enable the crank and camshafts sprocket alignment marks to align with their respective block marks. So Im feeling confident. Lets hope D day goes well, and the camdshaft doesnt snap.
john

dave said:

john have you took head off again? if so get a new cam belt and tenshioner(sp) before refitting its only about £15.

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worth it imo

johnturner said:

Well I got the head back today and they took off "12 thou" and it cost £35 cos I didnt take off the camshaft. They said it was the limit for this operation cos the camshaft could bend. It looks as though this work of mine has been saved by Dave who explained about the pin on the rev counter, cos Ive done this several times before on my previous car. Ive painted the head aluminium with spray [the resurfacer does this normally but I still had dirt on the outside.] Tommorrow I will attempt a restart. Naturally it was no good marking my belt without knowing about the pin on the rev counter. When I turn the camshaft the marks I made on the belt enable the crank and camshafts sprocket alignment marks to align with their respective block marks. So Im feeling confident. Lets hope D day goes well, and the camdshaft doesnt snap.
john

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The place where i had mine resurfaced said that they can go upto about 20 thou, but any more than this and you start to problems with compression, detenation, etc.
I started my baby up for the first time today. I turned it over a few times with the sparkers out and the two ECU connectors off at first, just to get some oil moving and a bit Oil pressure. When i re-connected everything it started first turn of the key - good job too as the wife and kids were watching.
Been messing about with it nearly all day again though as i decided to use some of that 2 part flushing stuff to clean out the coolant and replace with some new water/Anti-Freeze.

Gav eit wash and thats me finished until the next drama....

Bad news, I cant turn the engine even by placing in gear 1 and pushing. I have taken out the plugs, loosened the generator belt and timing belt. Still no luck, this reminds me of when I had a Ford car years ago ,I was always freeing the starter motor. Ill have to take the head off again and rub oil into the cylinder walls. Any thoughts?

wd 40 down plug holes, did the bores get rusty when head was off then?

johnturner said:

Bad news, I cant turn the engine even by placing in gear 1 and pushing. I have taken out the plugs, loosened the generator belt and timing belt. Still no luck, this reminds me of when I had a Ford car years ago ,I was always freeing the starter motor. Ill have to take the head off again and rub oil into the cylinder walls. Any thoughts?

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The good news regarding this engine is that it is safe and therefore the valves don't hit the pistons f the belt snaps ( Being a doubting thomas i also checked this out with my DTI ) .

I would remove your timing belt again and see if you can revolve the two halves of the engine indepentantly. First of all the Cylinder head using the Cam sprocket, then the bottom end using the crank sprocket, this will at least give you a better idea of where your problems lie. It might also be an idea to turn them in reverse in case something ( like your starter ) has jammed up, this might free it.

Did you check all of your Valve/camshaft clearances before you fitted the head ? When i checked mine i discoverered that one of my Shims had been dislodged and jammed in the holder, probably when i tapped them all with a hammer to settle them after fitting. This meant that i had no clearance on one valve, i also had to swap two shims over to get everything within tolerance ( i'd more likely mixed them up during the strip down).

I started the car today after getting a second pusher to turn the engine over. Very surprised that the belt tensioner has no bearing race. Cleaned it with emory to paper and it goes round after oiling. I agree a new one would be fine but its clean now. How is one going to oil it with the cover on? I am now getting an oil presure warning light on. I am going to retighten the head bolts with the engine hot tommorrow as aluminium has a lower expansion coefficient than steel. Wonder why oil pressure is down. I renewed the thermostat as well as the radiator wos cold after running for some time. this caused the initial overheating. Its still overheating perhaps because the bolts nedd tightening again. Thank you all helpers.

the belt tensioner is bearing race, its a sealed bearing, if it only went round after oiling its buggered, get now one asap

dont re tightern the head if you did it proppa 3 stage tighterning in corect order it will be fine