SR20 motor won't start

[Wayne Cox]

At 08:22 PM 9/30/2002 -0400, you wrote:
>The compression test was done correctly, but after taking off the valve
>cover today I got a visual confirmation on what was wrong. The problem was
>a few rocker arms, some snapped and two just came off. Two cam lobes were a

Cool!  Well, not cool.  But a lesser of the evils at least.  Usually the
only way that happens is over-revving it badly by stuffing the tranny into
a lower gear than you intended.  Did you downshift as you were coming to a
stop?

There have been different levels of success (or damage if you're a
half-empty type) on the rocker thing.  Sometimes, you can take out the
cams, replace the rockers and shims, reassemble it all, and be good to
go.  Other times, there's valve damage.

Back in 94 or 95 I stuffed mine into 2nd instead of 4th at red-line in
3rd.  Probably spun to about 11,000 rpm.  Two or three rockers spit out,
and a couple shims went down the oil return passages.  One cylinder had low
compression afterwards; not terrible, maybe 130 psi.  But I pulled the head
off and got the valves reworked, and did some port & polish work.

Try replacing the rockers, it's not too difficult or expensive.  Be sure to
use the excellent trick of ty-wrapping the cam sprockets to the chain.  If
it's still messed up afterward, a used JDM motor is probably your cheapest fix.

    -Wayne    '91 NX2k - '93 NK2k - '92 SE-R (parts car?)