I have a 91 wagon. This morning ( I live in winnipeg and we have been in a extremely cold spell -30, -40 celsius for a few days). I went out to start my car this morning, i do not have a block heater by the way, and the car was very very difficult to start, as expected. But in the end started up, and I went into the house to warm up, and let the car warm up. I came back out in 15 minutes or so, and the car wasn't running.
I ended up leaving it sit all day and when I got home from work tried to fire it up while boosting it. Now when I try to turn it over, something is not right. It turns over, I think very quickly, as if there is no compression, there is the odd pop or sputter, but it is as if the starter is turning freely. There is some amount of drag on the starter however, I have heard how a starter can whine when there is nothing that it is engaging to, but the sound this makes is as if there is no compression. I will investigate more tomorrow, but for now it is far to cold out, and I was wondering what could be going on? Anyone have any ideas?

 

You may have a broken timing belt. Remove the distributor cap and have someone turn engine over very briefly. If distributor rotor is not turning the timing belt has parted. You may have damaged some valves due to interference w/ pistons. I hope it's something else.

good luck

 

Well I took of the distributor cap, things still are rotating... I have a feeling perhaps the timing belt jumped some notches, how can I check the alignment of the crank and cam to see if they are outta whack?

 

Turn wheels to extreme left position. Access crankshaft bolt on harmonic balancer/crankshaft pulley through the wheel well cover (special opening). Use 1/2" ratchet, at least 24" of 1/2" extensions, and 19mm socket to engage the crankshaft pulley bolt. Turn engine slowly stopping toobserve timing indicator (under a grommet on front of engine I believe). Turn engine until TDC (red marker on flywheel) is aligned w/ pointer.

Best way is to pull valve cover and examine camshaft drive sprocket marks. There are marks on inside and outside of sprocket that should align horizontallyw/ top of head. A crude check would be to check that distributor rotor is pointing at #1 spark plug outlet, however you will not be able to tell if timing belt jumped 1-2 notches, but could detect massive misalignment.

good luck

 

Thanks a lot for your help TexasHonda, it is much appreciated.

 

Note, engine is turned CCW w/ ratchet.

good luck

 

you could have a blown engine easiest way to check is a compression test on each cylinder; i had a 91 camry blow up during warmup in winter 06

 

Lack of compression could also be a timing misalignment, could it not? If the valves are open during the compression, there isnt going to really be any compression, am I right?

 

Correct

 

well we pulled the timing belt covers off to find there was a bunch of slack in the timing belt, the other smaller belt was ok, but the big one was really loose. once we got the belts off, I compaired the two old belts with the new ones they were the same size, so its not as if the belt had stretched and came loose, the tension had dissapeard somehow. we replaced the belts anyways, got everything tensioned the way it should be, and lined up the cam and crank pulley as we thought it should be, reassembled turned it over, and still no compression on cylinder 1..... maybe we did the alignment of the cam and crank wrong? the spoke on the cam that says "up" was pointed up, and visually lined up with the key, in the crank pull, which was also pointing up. did we do this wrong, the lining up of the pullies? not too sure at this point.