Hi, about 5000 miles ago I put new cylinder heads on this motor with new head and intake gaskets, new head bolts, and new push rods and it has ran great until today. My wife took it to Burger King and it stalled on her once while sitting at the drive through. She started it up no problem and came home and it was running normal/good. We just got in it to leave and it will not stay running and the oil pressure light won't go out when it does start. It will run for a few seconds put it's stumbling very badly and I don't think it's getting any oil to the top end because the lifters are rattling very loud along with other sounds in the engine from lack of oil. It was running perfect when she got back here and shut it off though. Do you have any idea what could be wrong with it? Do you think it could be the timing chain jumped? And if it could be the timing chain would that cause the lifters to rattle like they are? That's all I can think of, unless the camshaft broke but I know that's highly unlikely. One other thing I wanted to mention is that for some reason this van has never wanted to rev up. It will hit a certain RPM and then not want to go higher, it will, but it's slow to do so. But I think that is because when she bought it it had bad head gaskets and I think the catalytic converter is plugged up, or at least partially. She didn't have the money to do anything with the exhaust (yet). Thank you very much for any help you can be.

I just wanted to add that it now has 185,000 miles on it.

I'm thinking the problem's not with the timing chain - although a professional mechanic I am not. I'd be real concerned about the bottom end; based on your description - I'm thinking some bearing surface is gone at this point.....what's the oil look like?

It looks normal. It needs to be changed but it's only a few hundred miles over. But yeah I guess it could have spun a main bearing, that would block oil flow off for sure. I hadn't thought about that.

just my 2 :2cents: ,I've had a few of these engines come in like this,had 3 of them with a broken camshaft and a few with one or more rocker arm blown off.I would find which side has the noise and pull the valve cover,crank the engine and see how much up/down movement you get from the rocker arms.if you only get movement from half the rockers the cam is broken.you might get lucky and only find 1 rocker arm blown off.just a little fyI.post back with what you find.

Ahhh...yes, a broken camshaft would match the symptoms - expecially the oil light on - the cam drives the oil pump....and our cams are hollow, right?

Hey does anyone know if you can change this with the engine still in the van? Can you cut (or even need to cut) a hole in the wheel well or something to get it out? I just wanted to ask if anyone has done this? I'm hoping someone has but if not I'll post pics when I do it. Because I'm not pulling the motor out. :screwy:

if you could loosen suspension cradle and lower that side a bit should give clearance through wheel well. never tried it that way before....always dropped cradle all the way out with engine and trans on it.

I had something very similar happen to this when I had my 99 Montana. I had been putting off the intake manifold gasket job and I guess I waited too long. The syptoms were exactly like yours, right down to stalling in the drive thru, then I was able to start it long enough to get it in the garage, but running very rough.

I figured it was just a blown head gasket. I won't bother telling you what all I went through to figure this out. Suffice to say the cam was broke.

I had it figured that I could remove the windshield washer tank (I think) and use a hole saw to cut a hole in the fender to access the cam, however look everything over good first!

I guess the dex-cool diluted oil caused the cam bearings to gall on the cam and spin in the block. They spun long enough to chew the block out, essentially trashing the engine. Look carefully in the lifter galley for metal particles around the cam.

The cam (at least in my Montana) was a hollow tube with lifters pressed on! Once the bearings were gone I suppose the valve spring pressure was enough to bow and eventually break the cam. By the way, it comes out just fine in two pieces without a hole in the fender!

Just look things over good before handing over $200 for a new cam.

Hope this helps.

Tom:runaround:

How did it run after you replaced the cam? I just verified that it is the cam. Now I just gotta come up with the money to fix it. :runaround::screwy:

I didn't end up fixing it. The cam bearings had evidently spun so long it chewed out the inside of the block where they press in. It needed a new motor. Ended up trading it for an '02 Venture. Thanks to the good folks on this forum I have now done 4 Intake gasket jobs and 1 head gasket job and they have all turned out well. (one of those was my 02 Venture) which is now running fine and doesn't smell like anit freeze everytime you come near it!

Good luck with yours.
tom

if you end up dropping the subframe watch the fascia [the front bumper ]as you lower it or it will bust it if it grabs it. the only way i ever seen the camshaft pulled and replaced was with the motor / trans dropped out the bottom.