Well, the maiden voyage on my little '84 didn't go so well. The Titanic fared better.

I think, but am not entirely sure, that I spun the timing gears. But first, a little background:

I received the 2M4 about four months ago and was told it needed a valve job as it was knocking. Car had been sitting for about six months. Got it home and found the ex. manifold was cracked. Replaced it (new bolts and all), the radiator, starter, plugs, oil, trany fluid was topped off, egr and valve cover gaskets, v-belt and battery. A/C is non functional.

Started it a couple of days ago and had a bit of a knock in the top end. Figured it might be a stuck lifter (Marvel Mystery oil included in oil change) and would work itself out. Other than that, no leaks, smoke or anything else. Took my daughter to my wife's office (about a 10 mile trip) without incident in the rain. After I left, the v-belt started squealing, then let go. Had a spare and tools and was soon rolling again. Arrived at My Dr. appt in one a heavy downpour. I found out after it was too late that the entrance was about one and a half feet deep in water. Rather than stop in the middle, I eased through and made it without swamping the car. I let it run for several minutes to make sure things had a chance to dry out.

Fired right up after I was done and left the lot by a drier exit. Made it about two miles and was waiting at a light when the engine died. When I tried to restart it, I was greeted with a whirring noise instead of the normal cranking sound. Got it pushed off the side of the road and called my company to send a wrecker. Still had a 12 for the code. The ticking was still there, but had become intermittent before the end came.

After poking around here in the search engine, I've come to the conclusion that it's the timing gear.

Any thoughts? Murphy has never been more correct...

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If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one to cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong. -Murphy

[This message has been edited by Murphys Law (edited 08-03-2002).]

I bought a 88 coupe with that whirring sound
on cranking, i thought it was a timing gear
but i pulled the valve cover and found no
valve movement, so to me that was a sure indication that the timings gears had gone.
the big gear had about 10 teeth missing on it. before buying the car i had asked the previous owner how the car had "died" and he told me that he had stopped at a stoplight
when the light turned green he let the clucht
out and the engine just died. if it is the timing gears and if you need help theogre
has a nice article on his cave about the procedure involved, I did mine a little different mainly because the lack of certain tools needed for this job, good luck.
Ed