Hi all

i bought an AU-I forte' from my step-dad a couple months ago. He knows nothing about cars and it appears his been running the car with no inhibitor for like four years. So i got it serviced one of the welch plugs needed replacing and the water pump. I didn't know what coolant had previously been in the car so i a standard techaloy acid flush, DI-water flush then filled it up with DI and concentrated coolant (yay for pretty green water in coolant reservoir).

Any way, a week later i decided to put some of the whiter globes in, because i think the whiter light is clearer at night. and HORROR theres all this horrible black s**t in my reservoir. I had recently been driving the car so aware that it was probably going to spew i opened the cap anyway and of course water all over the place. Did the cap up and there was sand in the water! i drained all the water and it appeared that there was oil as well!

So i figured that the acid must have taken off the smallest layer of head/block (even tho it was meant to be safe with the flush) and found a pocket of casting sand resulting in a bridge between my water and oil fortunatly no water has found its way into the oil so i'm guessing it was the result of hammering the car because the high oil pressure must be pushing into the water.

So i've taken the head off, and theres no indication of any gasket leaks.

I decided while i got the head off, i should replace the timing chain (BIG MISTAKE)
i ended up snapping the right chain guide trying to get the harmonic balancer off. so now i have to get the balancer off so i can replace the guide.

HOW DO I GET THE BALANCER OFF!!!!!????

You will need a puller to get it off. Put the car in gear with the handbrake on hard and undo the balancer bolt (It will be fukin tight), once you get the bolt off wind it back in a couple of turns so you have something to lever the puller against. Depending on what type of puller you use it can be a bit fiddly to get it on strait and started pulling, once it is though it will come off nice and easy.

I tried putting in gear with the handbreak on, but the car is an auto, i was hoping the torque converter would lock but it didn't. I even put it in gear and pushed the car forwards and backwards hoping the converter would lock but it didn't. Am i missing something? does the car need to be running when i put it in gear? because the heads off ? :'(

with a good socket on the crank bolt in a long breaker bar resting on the crossmember, and noone in the vicinity of the car, just kick the starter for a sec. itll crack the nut every time.

lol i did consider it breifly

okay thats what i'll do, thanks mate!

If you are going to crank the motor over, unplug the coil pack so it defiantly will not start.

what i do is get 2 Long Bolts that fit in the un threaded holes on the balancer and a piece of thick metal that is the size of a credit card with 2 holes in it.

put the 2 bolts through the metal piece (stops the bolts from moving about), then into the holes on the balancer. now jam a pinch/crow bar between the 2 bolts. put your socket and breaker bar on the crank bolt and push on the pinch bar(this will stop it from turning) and hit your breaker bar with a hammer.

easiest with 2 people but can be done by yourself.

lol, i can gaurentee its not going to start, the head is off

i might try your approach because i took the starter off hoping i could jam the flywheel

and the battery is disconnected

I can't see what the issue is? I've cracked the balancer bolt off with the engine out of the car sitting on a pallet. just got a nice long breaker and gave it a sharp kick, i would not suggest kicking your starter with the head off, if your guides are intact now, they will not be afterwards. seriously though, a good long breaker bar, with an extension if you have to, don't ease into it either. make sure you have soaked the bolt with some rp7 or wd40 type product, let it penetrate as best you can. then grab that crack bar and smack the b**ch, soon as you start easing into it your gonna move the internals as you have previously been doing.

Or another angle of attack, are you changing the timing chain at the same time? if you are, lock off the chain from movement towards the aux shaft, just find a tool your not too fond of incase it bends, lock the chain so it cannot move towards the aux shaft, then swing on that crack bar to your hearts content.

Both of these have worked winders for me in the past.

I've only done this with a motor out of a car, but the flexplate has extra holes in it from memory, put a bolt with some spacers on it through one of them, tighten, and rotate till it stops against something.

i got it off in the end, just used a solid bar and a hammer, used the inertia of the heavy crank to "keep the balancer still" then cracked the bolt no worries.

in the end i thought f**k it, so i replaced the engine with a AUIII XR VCT. IT all runs fine now, i just spilt a whole heap of tranny fluid because i tried topping up while hot and got it everywhere, the new engine is heavy as on fuel but its because its a series one computer running everything and i have an oil light on now. but i think thats either a loose wire somewhere or the tranny is low on fluid, or theres some difference in the wiring loom which needs the new computer