v6 engine went pop now it runs crappy

Yup, I agree, timing problem.

 

May be something to this Timing Chain business. If the timing is several degrees off, your timing chain might have jumped a tooth or two on the upper timing chain gear.

The first time I replaced the timing chain, gears and chain dampers, in a Dauntless V6 it took me quite a while to figure out what was actually wrong. It started out with a little clicking that sounded like it might be coming from the fuel pump. I placed a dowel on the fuel pump and and put my ear to the other end of the dowel and could clearly hear the clicking coming from the fuel pump. It was the fuel pump making the noise but not because it was bad. My guess is the preasure being put on the cam from the fuel pump was holding the cam back just a little because the timing chain had gotten so sloppy and then when the fuel pump arm reached the top of the cam lobe the timing chain slop was taken up in the other direction so fast it let the fuel pump arm slap back down on the lobe instead of following the lobe smoothly. Hmmmm............ Always sounded in my head like I knew what I was talking about. Now that I have written it out, it sounds like I might not know what I'm talking about. Oh well.

So I changed the fuel pump. Still the same clicking. So I decided it might be coming from the distributor, which aslo runs off of the camshaft, and sounding like it was the fuel pump. So I took a hard look at the distributor which looked fine to me. Even though the timing mark would jump back and forth several degrees I couldn't find anything loose or worn in the distributor. Oh ya, and the manifold vacuum would not hold steady and was a few pounds low.

Yep, I'm a little slow on the up-take I guess.

I kept wondering what was causing the clicking noise until I took the jeep out for a little spin close to home and a couple teeth crumbled on the upper timing chain gear. The gear on the front of the cam shaft. I was able to limp home. This happened about a half mile from home after a weekend of hard jeeping in the middle of nowhere.

When I got the timing chain cover off I was surprised to find that the upper timing gear was aluminum with nylon looking teeth formed on it. All of the teeth were very worn and two or three were broken and the timing chain had jumped two or three teeth. Luckly the timing chain hadn't jumped enough teeth to have valves open when they shouldn't have been so that the valves could come in contact with the pistons. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than smart I guess.

So I replaced the timing chain, both gears and both chain dampers. Replacement gears are all steel. I also rebuilt the oil pump at the same time because it was easy to get to with everything apart.

No more clicking. The timing mark holds steady, intake manifold vacuum is higher and holds steady, and the engine sounds better and has more power. Manifold vacuum can be affected by intake and exhaust valve timing. Solppy timing chain, sloppy valve timing.

If you end up doing all of this and include the oil pump rebuild, before you re-install the distributor, I would find a steel or aluminum rod that you can beat somewhat flat on one end. Put it in a drill with the beat flat end in the slot in the oil pump shaft that the bottom of the distributor shaft fits into. Now you can spin the oil pump and pump oil up into the new oil pump gears. (You might want to turn the engine over a little to see which way the oil pump turns.) The starter might not spin the dry gears fast enough to suck the oil up from the pan even if you have oiled the gears ahead of time. And by the time the engine spins enough after it starts, to suck oil up into the pump, dry parts might be damaged. Just takes a second and will for sure save you some time if you might have to take the distributor back out and do that anyway.

About the manifold vacuum....... Did you know you can use a vacuum guage to adjust the carburetor idle screws? Work the screws back and forth until the vacuum is as high as possible. As the carburetor idle adjustment gets better the engine idle speed will increase so be sure to keep adjusting the throttle idle adjustment screw to get the idle back down where it belongs.

With the other Dauntless V6 I replaced the Timing Chain as soon as I noticed the little tell tale clicking sound. Sure makes them run better. Both engines had about 50,000 miles on them.

This might very well come under the heading of, "Way more information than I needed to know." I hope not, and SORRY if it does.

Good luck