Please help the new guy! lol

[sekse]

Hey, everyone! I have a problem, hopefully somebody can help. I bought a 1996 Grand Am with 3.1 v6, and the heads were shot. I replaced them with remanufactured heads. Everything is connected that I can find, every hose and connector. It ran before the operation, but now will not start. It is getting fuel, I get spark when holding the plugs against the motor. When i tried turning it over it turns over VERY smoothly and evenly, almost like it doesn't have compression, but the heads were professionally remanufactured and tested for leaks by a well reputed company, and the head bolts were torqued to 95 ft lbs in the correct order. Timing is perfect, valves are opening and closing. I have been racking my brain for a week now and I am out of ideas! Can anybody help tell me why it isn't starting? Does anybody have a link to a downloadable repair manual for this motor? Anything at all! lol. I need this car running ASAP and can't afford to take it to a shop, so any help would be HUGELY appreciated! Thanks to everyone for any input they have!

[SappySE107]

95 foot pounds? Doesn't sound like the right spec to me for torque to yield bolts.

Do a compression test to see if you have a compression.

[sekse]

I am not sure what the proper spec is on the head bolts, can't find it anywhere and I am nowhere near a parts store to buy a manual, but I know it took 95 ft lbs to break the old ones loose. Can't do a compression test because my compression tester is like 3 hours away and my car isn't running, lol. Can't imagine why I wouldn't have compression though concidering I did b4 the swap, and the timing is right, unless my shiny new heads are totally shot which is unlikely.

[bszopi]

http://wiki.60degreev6.com/index.php?title=L82_Fastener_Tightening_Specifications

33ft-lbs +90º for the head bolts.

[davida1_hiwaay_net]

How about the valve adjustment? If this motor has adjustable rocker studs with nuts, could the valves be too tight and not closing all the way?

[TazMan]

The rocker arms aren't adjustable. Did you make sure not to mix up the pushrods?

[davida1_hiwaay_net]

Doesn't mixed-up pushrods cause nasty things like bent pushrods, broken valvesprings, and bent valves?

[TazMan]

Doesn't mixed-up pushrods cause nasty things like bent pushrods, broken valvesprings, and bent valves?

Yes it does. I don't think that would cause the problem he's having but I thought I'd mention it anyway since the consequences are so devastating.

[sekse]

First off, thank you all very much for your input! I think I finally found the problem. I finally found someone to loan me a compression tester, and the cylinders had zero compression. I ripped everything down to the heads back off and found that the intake valves are not completely closing! There is about a 1/32 inch gap. If I back the nuts off the lifters a half turn they seal up. Question now is will there be any problems if I leave the nuts a half turn loose? While I have everything off I will torque the bolts to proper specs, thank you bszopi for telling me what the spec is. So is it a bad idea to leave the rocker nuts a little loose? Will they loosen even more while driving?

[pontiacdohc@gmail.com]

if the intake valves are not closing all the way its because you have the exhaust push rods in the intakes place the exhaust push rods are longer then the intake which is causing them to stay open! there isnt any adjustment for the rocker arms you just tighten them down to 12 ft lbs or it might be 18 i don't remember

[TazMan]

if the intake valves are not closing all the way its because you have the exhaust push rods in the intakes place the exhaust push rods are longer then the intake which is causing them to stay open! there isnt any adjustment for the rocker arms you just tighten them down to 12 ft lbs or it might be 18 i don't remember

Do not run the engine until you are 100% sure the pushrods are in the right place. You will damage your engine. I don't know if just cranking it like that would cause any damage though. Hopefully someone more experienced than me can chime in on that. Good luck.

Exhaust pushrods are longer than the intake pushrods. The rockers are staggered and the ones closer to the middle of the engine are the intake.

Rear head passenger side to drive side
EIEIIE

Front head passenger side to driver side
EIIEIE

[sekse]

Lol, the push rods ARE in the right place! I know enough to make sure of that, lol. The intake valves on the new heads just were a bit longer than supposed to be i guess. The car runs great now. Again, the push rods ARE in the right places, I just needed to back the intake rockers off 1 full turn and everything seals and runs great. I had a friend who put them in backwards on a firebird, and yeah that almost made me cry, so I know to put them in right. Will have to give the place I bought the heads from a piece of my mind, though

[sekse]

And yes just cranking it with them in wrong will damage the push rods and the valves. The motor will seem to be locked up, and the pushrods and valves will bend.

[davida1_hiwaay_net]

Glad you got it running! So you DO have adjustable rocker studs? If the studs are not designed to be adjustable, you may need shims or else they will continue to work loose and break off.

[SHOoff]

I thought there was an actual procedure to tightening the rocker arms? I put a set of 660 arms on my LN2 and had the same thing happen because I went with the torque spec for the engine. But the 660 had adjustable rocker arms, since I was using studs for a 2.8, i had to do the adjustment procedure.