the other day on my way home, I began to hear a belt squeel. i didnt think much of it since i knew that my ac belt wasnt connected properly. 2 minutes later, the car immediatly starts pinging. I pulled over and shut the car off immediatly.

So i tow the car home, and start taking her apart. timing belt looks fine (not shredded or falling apart), so i look on the ground and notice there is some drops of coolant on the floor. I take the water pump belt and pully off, the ac, the alt., the ps pump, all the accesories off. i start the car and it still pings.

I took the valve cover off, and everything seems to be ok in there (nothing is out of place, cracked, etc....).

i manualy turn the crank until the exhaust and intake cam marks are at 3 and 9 o clock. They line up perfect (put a ruler across and they are right in line).

what do I check now? It totaly sounds like my valves are hitting the tops of the pssitons.

HELP

What you hear is probably lifter tick. Was the car losing power when the noise started?

Your cams line up with each other, but is the crank at TDC when the cams line up? Also did you pull the plugs to make sure one didn't crack and fall into a chamber?

matt, I think it did in fact lose some power, but its hard to tell. I will check for the TDC and plugs sometime today. when i turn the two cams to 3 and 9 o clock, do i check the height of the pistons with somthing similar to a coat hanger in the cylinder to see if the crank is too at tdc?

The easy way is to check the mark on the crank pulley compared to the timing marks. That isn't 100% accurate, but is close enough to let you know if it is off. The real marks are on the crank, but harder to get at.

If you still have it apart, pull the timing cover off and check teh timing after lining up the crank sprocket. There is a mark on the pully which a metal piece points to. You can borrow my manual if you want. I believe it shows a pic.

where should these marks be in perspective to the cam gear marks?

where should these marks be in perspective to the cam gear marks? [/b][/quote]
When the cam gear marks are lined up, the mark on the crank pulley should line up with the timing belt cover at 0 degrees TDC.

Are the balance shafts still in the engine?

ballance shafts are still in the engine.

ok cam gears are lined up at 3 and 9 o clock. The crank pully is at "BTDC 10." is this correct/where it should be? did my timing jump?

the car HAS had its valves done once already at around 110,000 miles. the car now has 154,000 miles. also, i the oil level was short 3 qts too (kinda weird since i DO check it everyso often). but i filled it up and started it and theres still a tick noise, so i turned it off right away.

Make sure the dowels on the cam gears are at the top. Line the cam gear marks up, run a straight edge across the cam bolts and the marks. The straight edge should go through the center of the bolts. The mark on the crank pulley should be at TDC/0 BTDC.

ok so heres the deal, timing looks right, 5 degrees before top dead center, it all lines up...

Car turns over without mpi fuse in, and DOES NOT make tick noise. THen when MPI fuse is in, the car starts, and makes tick noise. also it wont go over 4500 rpms.

Anyone?!

i scraped the top of the pistons and they have dirty oily shit stuff on them, so im gonna get some combustion chamber cleaner and see what that does for me...

That dirty shit is carbon. Get MCCC to clean them. Are you still on the stock pump and the 550's?

190lph and 550's. Where do I get mccc? the autoparts stores dont carry it at all (or anything like it)!

Also, what kind of oil pressure should i be getting?

I believe we got MCCC at Dodge. I think it stands for Mopar Combustion Chamber Cleaner making it a dealer only part. It got rid of my phantom knock last year. I am not sure about the oil pressure though. I still have my stock gauge.

im thinking its a rod bearing now. I will pull the oil pan and hope that there aren't any metal shards just kick'n it in there!

Like ecoli said the crank mark should be at 0 not 10 or 5. Sounds like you
:beer: jumped 2 teethon the belt like mine was.Lack of power knock and low compression.
joe