Drove to the_shmoo’s house and performed the compression test, yep, bent valves! We removed the head, no piston damage just bent valves, so, time to order up some parts.



See the exhaust valves have marks on the right

This is #1 piston, very minor marks from the valves Compression was 45# psi

This is #4 same marks, compression was 25# psi

 

Just jumping into Blues problem.
How did this happen ?
A.K.A. timing chain ?

 

Yes timing chain problem.

 

Guess I called that one.. BUMMER.. But doesn't look too bad, lot of clean up & inspecting. Ex valves look to have hit the worst.

Blue- did chain break, or just jump some teeth ?

 

Jumped

 

I wish I had the skills like a bunch of you guys do ! I love reading about the repairs you all do ! Pretty cool. Wish I could watch all the work you do ! Thanks for posting these updates

 

Wish I had a garage again so repairs could be done in poor weather.

 

I’ve thought of a similar setup, but I only have a one car garage!

 

I was on the way to the home center and clutched in for 2nd to 3rd. Heard a funny noise and felt little resistance going into 3rd. Clutch out, hey still in 2nd. Clutch in, nothing happening with the shifter. Ouch.

Pulled into a strip mall and walked home - not bad only 3 miles. Luckily I had bought a few parts based on forum recommendations and had a shifter cable onhand. Got it towed Monday to the local mechanic(yeah, swapping out and adjusting a cable is above me) and dropped off the part. Two days later got the call it was done. What a difference in shift feel. I'll take the 3 mile walk for this upgrade.

Thank you for the suggestion to get one of these. Lead time on it was two weeks if I recall correctly. I don't think I am going to buy another. Now I only have spare L & R control arms, but still considering axles.

So, thats what I did to my HHR today - broke it.

Erik
2010 HHR SS 5sp

 

Gee, looks like when I did repairs in shops and people wanted to learn.
And yes I taught them if they wanted.