I'm at wits end.

I'm new to the forum. I found the site after countless hours of watching how to videos on YouTube. I'm trying to figure out what is wrong with my 01 Chevy S10. It has a 2.2L motor, that absolutely will not start. I'm going to give as many details as I can think of, but I'm sure there will be something left out. For the past month, I've been spending every waking hour reading, watching how to's, and turning a wrench, when I'm not working. Here is my story...

This year, I got a pretty good tax return, so I decided to put some TLC into my truck. It was given to me by my father, when he retired. The engine ran great, but there were other problems. Very worn out suspension and tires, AC didn't work, and lots of little broken things all over. I decided to fix all of it. And I decided to put new everything, no junk yard salvages. I replaced the suspension, completely. I put new tires on it. I got a new AC compressor kit. I did pretty much all of the work myself, as I've always liked doing that kind of stuff. The only things I paid someone else to do, was mount the tires, charge the AC, and align the front end. Man, did it drove great. No more bouncing for a block after a bump, no more pulling left or right, depending on the road, and best of all, no more sweating all the way home from work. Center console/armrest was fixed, door panel no longer hanging off, hood actually popped when the release was pulled, and so many other things. It was great. For about two weeks.

When I brought it back from the shop, after getting the AC charged, I caught a burning smell. Like oil, coming through the vents. It lasted about a minute, and was gone. Hmmm. That's odd. The next day, I smelled it again, but this time when I got out, at home. I popped the hood, and the smell was gone. I had them do an oil change while it was there, because I'd had enough of it's underbelly for a while. So I figured maybe they spilled a little oil, no big deal. That went on for a few days, the smell, then it's gone. Every time I would try to look for it, it was gone. Then I had a few days with no smell. And ice cold AC.

So about another week goes by, and I'm on the freeway. It's crazy traffic, stop and go, mostly stop. Suddenly, it starts idling really rough. Then, the smell is back. I turned the AC off, and the idle smoothed out a little. I worked my way over to the right lane, just in case it broke down. Traffic started moving, and I was able to get up to about 45 mph. It seemed fine. After about a mile, the dash lit up like a Christmas tree, and it died. Once I came to a stop, I tried to start it. It turned over, but sounded strange, and wouldn't start. Got it towed home, and started looking it up online. I also talked to several people I know, at work, friends, and they almost all said the same thing. Timing belt. (Chain) I started looking that up, and the symptoms seemed to fit. Plus I found out about the faulty oil galley plug, courtesy of GM, causing the tensioner to go bad, so I felt pretty good that that was gonna be the problem. So I started tearing into it. Finally got that darn cover off, and, everything looks darn near new. There are a couple of things about the chain and tensioner that don't seem quite right, but all in all it looks fine. I started looking up other possibilities, and there's only about a thousand. After putting almost three grand into it, the truck is a very large paper weight. I'm overwhelmed, extremely busy with work, and I've gotten to a point where I'm dead in the water. I just don't know where to start. After watching a couple of the YouTube videos here, this seems like the best place to have a chance at getting some good info, and direction. The other night, while I was outside kicking the truck, it occurred to me that I need to step away, and see what the pros think. However my tax return is gone, sitting in my driveway. The last thing I did was rent a code reader, and it is not giving me any codes, at all. Oh also, I put Seafoam in the fuel and oil, a few days before the oil change. I've read that that stuff can mess up all kinds of things, from the fuel filter to the rings. After I used it, of course. I think that's everything. If I think of anything else, I will add it. Oh, it has spark, and it does turn over, and kind of makes a sputtering like it's trying to, or about to start. It doesn't turn over really fast, like they do with a broken chain. But it does sound weird. And, the marks on the gears the timing chain is on, do match up, but they are off, by the smallest amount. Like an eighth of an inch, or less. I have pictures, and a video of it cranking. 8 really hope someone out there can help. Oh also I put a new idler pulley and the spring loaded thing it connects to on it. That silenced a screeching noise it was making. And the motor was replaced in 06, right after my dad bought it. My odometer said about 140,000, the last time I actually saw it, about a year ago. And supposedly the newer motor has about 50,000 miles less than the odometer was reading....

Thank you in advance for any advice, help, or for simply taking a minute to read this.

In those pictures, the one with red shows a gap that I've read should be no more than 8mm. Mine is much more. The one with yellow shows the marks, and how they don't quite line up. I couldn't make straight lines, but they do show the direction.

The chain is stretched. I would replace the sprockets, chain, and guide/tensioner. A timing set for that engine is only about $50.

Would the timing chain stretching cause it to start idling rough, and then die completely within about ten minutes? I just want to be sure. Would there be an underlying problem that causes it to stretch?

does it run on alternative fuel?

No.

Hi Jeremy, sorry about your truck!
Just to clarify, in your opening post you said the truck absolutely will not start.
In your most recent post, you asked if a stretched chain would cause it to run rough then die. 
So is that what happened, or what is happening now?  If it suddenly started running like crap, and then died, and now cranks over kind of funny but won't start to save it's life, that doesn't sound like the symptoms of a stretched chain to me.  Chain stretch occurs over time, not all at once.  What you describe sounds more like right out valve train damage.  
The service info I have states that:
If the distance between the hole and the unworn surface of the timing chain tensioner shoe is more than 8 mm (0.314 inch) , replace the tensioner, timing chain, and both sprockets.  Your measurement is "Much more", and the timing marks are clearly off.  I wonder if the engine might jumped timing and bent some valves.
I wasn't sure if a 2.2 push rod motor was an interference motor or not, but a quick Google search showed instances of jumped chains resulting in bent valves. I don't want be a doomsayer here, but I think there is the potential for more damage than just the timing components.
Here's to hoping I'm wrong!

That's what I was thinking, that because it came on so suddenly, and now will not start, the chain isn't the main problem. I only had about ten minutes of "what's wrong here" before it completely died. Which I'm not sure, but that doesn't seem sudden enough for it to have been something like chain jumping, and valve damage. This is the problem I've been having. Every time I find something that sounds promising, something else makes it sound impossible. And back, and forth, back , and forth. It's been going on for almost two months now. I'm afraid I'm going to be junking a truck with three grand worth of new parts in it.

Even if it did bend some valves, you could pull the head yourself and send it to a machine shop. It probably wouldn't cost more than a couple hundred bucks. (I know, who has a couple hundred bucks)...
The oil smell keeps standing out to me. I don't like it.
If the chain is still on the motor, I would suggest pulling the valve cover and turning the engine to make sure all the rockers are moving. It would also be a good idea to pull the oil dip stick, or drain the pan and look for metallic specks in the oil...
This thing is giving me flashbacks of a Buick I diagnosed that just decided to snap a cam right off between bearings....

For some reason I was thinking that if the valves were bent, it was an extremely expensive thing to fix. I must have been confusing it with one of the many other repairs I've read about recently. The chain is still on the truck, since I decided not to try to hurry through any of this. I bought the tensioner from the Chevy dealership yesterday, but I decided to wait until I heard more from you guys to order the rest of the parts. I really appreciate your help. You're all giving me a much more focused direction to go, as far as diagnosing this. If I can get home at a decent time today, I'm gonna do what you suggested, and check for valve damage. I will update as I go. Thanks guys.

I quickly read over this and may be I missed it but a quick compression test would be good to have before pulling valve cover so you can identify a suspect cylinder then concentrate on the valve train find that cylinder (if not all) you may have to turn the motor over by hand(with a ratchet) to find the loose rocker as it's easy to miss when cranking it by starter. Also a leak down test would be a great addition to the compression test but would be less readily available to rent then a compression tester

Good thinking Ben, thanks!

I want to do a compression test, but I have the timing cover off. Would it be worth putting it back together for that test? If that's something that has a very good chance of identifying the problem, I will do it. I'd only be out the price of the gasket, I think. In a few minutes I'm going to check for metal in my oil, and start scraping the gunk and RTV that's by the oil pan, where the timing cover goes. Any tips on how to make that a bit easier would cool.

Looking at that picture of my timing chain, it seems obvious (now that I know) that my chain is stretched. But I'm wondering about whether or not it did jump teeth. My sprockets don't line up, but they are so close, if I were to somehow move one gear, just enough to adjust one tooth, it would pass the line up marks and be off on the other direction. The gap, or distance, I'm not sure how that would be measured, is less than the distance between teeth on the gears. It seems like the only way to line them up, would be to shorten the chain a tiny bit, otherwise it would move too much. For instance, if the chain jumped one tooth, and that would take the timing off by 10 degrees(random number for example), then the marks are currently only about 5 degrees off. So if I adjusted the chain one tooth, it would be either 15 degrees off of center in the clockwise direction, or 5 degrees off of center going counter clockwise. By looking at it, it appears that it's only off because the chain stretched. So, taking that into account, unless there's something I'm not understanding, or seeing, It doesn't seem like it jumped. And if it didn't jump, the pistons wouldn't hit the valves, correct? I apologise for being like "well if this, what about that", this is what I've been going through for the last several weeks. I greatly appreciate you guys taking the time to help me figure this out. It seems like everyone I know is more in to Facebook, than mechanical stuff. Hell my brother graduated from motorcycle mechanic school, and had to ask me if red is positive. So there's really nobody I can ask for help.

Other questions that keep coming up, are why was it idling rough? What was the burning smell about, and why did it come and go, and only started almost immediately after I started running my AC for the first time in years. Was something in my motor going bad, and the compressor forced it to finally fail? I think I forgot to mention I also had just put a new idler pulley assembly in. The spring loaded part and the pulley. Did that and the now working compressor put too much stress on something that was already about to break?

I'd also like to hear about that Buick that had the cam snap at the bearing. Is that a possibility? Also, I have a short video of the engine cranking, and you can hear it sounds strange, and almost sounds like it's sputtering, trying to start. Or maybe misfiring? I tried to upload it, but this site requires formats that I've never even heard of. Not MP4, M4A, 3GP, or AVI. So I will do a little searching, and see if I can get it uploaded. I'd like you guys to hear it.

Thank you guys. This has been extremely stressful. Bumming rides to work and back, isn't easy, and definitely isn't fun. But I'm thinking those days are almost over.

I uploaded it to Dropbox. Here's the link, hopefully it works and you can here the craziness that is my engine.




www.dropbox.com/s/j7tqfz3u5o1kwpi/Trying%20to%20start.mp4?dl=0

Ben is spot on about wanting to do compression test next. That will be the deciding factor whether or not all of the cylinders are sealing enough to support combustion.
Also, like Ben noted, a cylinder or cylinders with low compression could then be checked with a leak down tester to verify exactly what part of the system is allowing compression to pass.
I'll link a video when I'm not on my phone...

I was thinking about how much you've already disassembled, that pulling the valve cover could be a quick visual check. A rocker not moving while the motor cranked would suggest a bent pushrod or a worn cam lobe, some kind of mechanical damage beyond the timing components.
The oil smell you mentioned kind of lead me to think of an oil starvation scenario, (which would end up with metal in the oil) but in all actuality, could be totally unrelated. I might be reading to much into it!

Sorry, coming into this thread late. :blush: Just watched your cranking video (thank you, by the way ), and it definitely doesn't sound quite right. I hate to be picky, but was the serpentine belt flapping around on the crank pulley? :huh: I only ask because I'm trying to distinguish the engine from the belt.

I just drained the oil, and there isn't any metal in it. However, I had the shop do an oil change when they charged my AC, and more than five quarts came out. And that's not counting the oil in the filter, galley, and wherever else there might be some. So they put almost six quarts in it. I'm going to get the timing chain and sprockets, so I can do a compression test.

No the belt is in good condition, and I just put a new tensioner pulley, which I think I mistakenly called something else in an earlier comment. That should be quiet as can be.

And please, be as picky as you need to be. I appreciate your help, and I will do whatever is needed to make that possible.

Any suggestions on the timing chain and gears? I got the tensioner from GM. I've read in multiple places not to mess around with that, and get OEM. But aftermarket chains and sprockets are ok. I've heard horror stories.anoit Cloyes, and I don't know anything about Sealed Power, or Melling. Are they good quality?