RE: Hard Luck Day/Advice Needed. Long but plenty of Alfa content

["Brian Shorey" <bshorey@xxxxxxxxx>]

<snip>
>      So I go to the club meeting.  No Fabio.  Jerry is there, also Charlie
>      Thieriot, but no one seems to know much about GTV6 timing except to
be
>      interested to hear my story because some say it's an old wive's tale
>      that holding the car against the engine's compression can cause the
>      belt to go out of time.  All right, enough of this, I've had time to
>      calm down, now let's go back home and look at it again.

i've said it before amd i'll say it again - leave a v6 alfa in reverse when
pointing up a hill, and in forward when pointing down a hill.  it can, and
will, slip a notch or two if the engine rotates backwards.

>      Back to the GTV6.  Got home, looked at it some more, figured out I
can
>      remove tension from the mechanical tensioner with my 4-cylinder cam
>      turning tool, turn the camshaft with a screwdriver, and slide the
belt
>      back on with both hands and some grunting.  Do this, get the timing
>      right, turn the engine thru 1 rev, and the engine encounters some
>      resistance, then pops thru and back up...and the timing is off
>      again!..Do this one more time to be sure, and now I know I'm really
>      screwed (at least I think so...here's where the advice comes in).
>      Seems like for this to happen (resistance at one point in the engine
>      cycle and the belt goes back to 2 notches out of time) means one of
>      the valves is badly bent, and the head has to come off.  Also what I
>      forgot to mention is following the few seconds of running to get the
>      car back into the garage, there was a bad smell, like something
>      burning...valve guides? head gasket?

you're sure you're turning the engine forwards, not backwards, right?
resistance could be a bent valve, or it could be compression.  you might
pull the plugs and rotate the motor just to be sure.

also, you're aware that you're supposed to set the tension with the motor
stone cold, right?

good luck,

bs

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