I have a 2007 HHR LT 2.2 with 208,000 miles on it & i've owned the car for the last 45,000 miles. They car ran perfectly (like a new car) other than a timing chain noise on start up that only lasted 2 seconds. So I ordered a timing & balance set from Rock Auto & installed it yesterday. After I finished & started it up, shook very badly & made a loud noise as if the engine was misfiring on all cylinders, so I immediately shut off the engine. I also heard banging noises briefly before I shut it off.

I then rotated the engine several times by the crank bolt & there was no noise at all, & the engine just rotated smoothly. I then removed all of the spark plugs & cranked the engine over a few times & it just did the usual spin, but again, there was no engine noise at all.

I took the valve cover off today & the cylinder hood looked fine, & well oiled, with no broken parts.

When I took the valve cover of last nite before I did the job, the main chain's intake sprocket was two teeth off, & the chain was very loose, but the car still ran great. The balance shaft chain was very loose also, but there were no broken guides.

I brought cylinder one (the cylinder closest to the passanger) up to TDC on the compression stroke before I removed the chains. The balance shaft chain lined up easily & perfectly, but the main chain & camshaft took me forever to get them lined up.

I've watched over a hundred videos about these ecotec engines & I followed the cloyes video to the letter.

What do u guys think happened here?

 

You need to turn the engine over to align the timing marks, the safest way to avoid bending any valves is to remove the camshafts from the cylinder head. Then line up the #1 cylinder to TDC , then place the camshafts into position aligning the sprockets marks to 10 o’clock on the exhaust and 2 o’clock on the intake .

here’s a step by step how to the 2.2 is a little different, but the alignment of the marks is the same. You must redo the balance chain also



https://www.ddmworks.com/assets/imag...uild%20Kit.pdf

 

1st post states that you took off the valve cover and could see a very loose balance chain ?
How could you see it ?

 

I think you made a mistake.

What kit did you get, exactly, including what parts? What mistake, IDK, but first guesses would be you got the cam chain timing wrong, or you failed to activate the tensioner properly, causing it to jump time on startup.

I might be helpful for you explain how are were able to determine that the chain was 2 teeth off.

You might want to make a quick check and verify that you plugged in the MAP sensor after you put the air box back on.

 

Regardless. You’ll have to tear it back apart and find out what you messed up.
Either it’s out of time and bent some valves. Or, you got the balance shafts out of sync. (180 out from the crank ?)

Bore scope camera to check for bent valves.

 

Let me clarify more for u guys. The first thing I did when I started the job was to take off the valve cover & I saw the timing chain with a lot of slack just hanging under the top guide. I then took off the harmonic balancer & the timing cover, & I saw the balance shaft chain had a lot of slack also. All guides were intact. I then took out the #1 spark plug nearest the passenger tire. I cleaned off the surface around the #1 plug & covered the plug hole with a piece of duct tape, just as i did when working on my v8 engines when finding tdc.

I rotated the HHR crank with a big ratchet & when the key way was at 12 o'clock, the tape was still intact, so i rotated the engine again & as the key way was "approaching" 12 o'clock again, air started escaping from the taped spark plug hole. I did this about twenty times & the cam sprocket marks never lined up at 10 & 2 o'clock as all of the videos I've watched states.

On the exhaust stroke the balance shaft chain was already lining up with the intake mark at 12, exhaust at 6, & the crank at 6 lined up with the block mark, but the cam sprocket marks never lined up with intake at 2, nor did the exhaust line up at 10 during the compression stroke.

The last compression stroke rotation that I did, the balance shaft marks were all lined up correctly. But the cam intake sprocket mark was at about 12:30 instead of 2 o'clock, I misspoke when I said it was off by 2 teeth.

I ordered the complete cloyes kit with the water pump & balance shaft gears, but I didn't replace these, but everything else was replaced. All guides, both tensioners, oil nozzle, both chains, both crank pulleys, both camshaft bolts, new crank bolt, I also ordered & replaced the upgraded black timing guide's upper bolt, new timing & valve cover gasket, & timing cover crank seal. Also replaced the belt & belt tensioner. I pulled the pin on the one tensioner & activated the other tensioner with a long screwdriver with the tip wrapped in duct tape. Everything was torqued to spec, & I did reconnect the sensor on the air box.

I've done all of the work on all our cars since I was a teen, & this seemed like an easy task, but it was time consuming. It took forever to get the cam sprocket marks to line up at 10 & 2, but the balance shaft chain was very simple. I had to move one of the camshafts a little here, a little there, to get the cam gear marks to line up. I know it's an interference engine, but I moved the cams slightly to get the cam gear marks to line up.

I will redo the job again, & as Old Blue suggested by removing the cams & rotate to tdc, then set the cam gears to 10 & 2. Or do u guys think it would be best to just get the cylinder head rebuilt?

 

You shouldn’t have turned the crank 20 times to line up the timing marks . You set the timing marks when you place the chain once the crank is in position for #1 to be at TDC , you don’t move the crankshaft.

 

Please take my comments in this in the spirit of helpfulness; not trying to berate.

I too have watched a lot of YouTubes, and I can tell you that at least half of them contain in accuracies and some of them are pure horsehockey.

You should’ve been warned in many places that the timing marks won’t line up again when you rotate the crank, at least for a very long time. Hopefully, no one actually recommended your procedure of rotating the crank many times. I know the Cloyes vid does not.

Because you say that the car ran well before you began, I doubt that the valves were bent before you completed the change job. So I think it’s more likely you got the timing wrong and that there’s a good chance they’re bent now.

I know decent professional mechanics that aren’t comfortable doing timing chains on these engines. There are just too many ways to screw it up. It’s not for everyone.

 

If the valves are bent by moving the crank by hand you can pull the head and change the valves , guide seals and head gasket. I’m more optimistic that the valves aren’t damaged, just the timing is off a tooth or 2.

 

Wonder what he found ?