Quote:
Originally posted by Jim Williams:
Only one cylinder was hitting the valve. I don't know if it was #1. It happened at 8:30 pm while idling at a busy intersection. I tried to keep rpm's up to around 1k so it wouldn't stall, but it seized as the light was changing. Carlsbad police had to block off the intersection so I wouldn't get hit as this is a 55 mph street. We sat for 1 1/2 hours waiting for a tow truck that could accomodate the H3 while my neighbors watched. Worst part was a ride home with my girlfriend in the back of a police cruiser, she's not too happy about that and neighbors are talking now!
I don't work engines hard, mostly because of $3 gallon gas prices ( I do 65 on the freeways) and I don't want to stress engine parts due to wanting long term reliability. I've never hit 5k rpm's other than a passing situation which was brief.
Now I have to deal with obtaining a buy back, ordering another custom car and waiting another 2 months after the buy back which could take months as well. This is the second H3 that I ordered as the first one, custom ordered 7-7-05 was sold off the lot August 15, 2 days before I was to pick it up by a mis-informed salesman that couldn't read the "sold" sign on the windshield.. They did add some goodies to keep me from going to another dealer while I waited for another custom H3.
Now I have to deal with the removal of my flat black Pro Comp 16x8 wheels and the 33"x12.5" Pro Comp mud terrrains (luckily I kept my original Dueler tires and rims) and the removal of my K&N air filter and intake. I haven't figured how to do this as my other car is a very reliable '04 Jeep Wrangler X and I can't fit even one wheel in there.
Any sane person would call it a day and walk from Hummer, but this is my dream vehicle so I'm going to get a third one ordered. Since I know what I want, Green, green interior, no leather, Adventure package, front brush guard, auto tranny, XM radio, monsoon sound, no chrome, I'm willing to wait as I had intended to keep this car for 200k miles or 10 years. I've bought 6 new cars/trucks in the last 11 years and have had not one problem with any of them, although none were GM vehicles.
Soory for the long post but I thought telling the rest of the story might help explain my frustration.
Pray for me.
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Definitely not the same problem. With the problem everyone here is having, the intake valve guide wears for some reason, causing the engine control module to see a misfire and set a code P0300.
This bring you into the dealer, they do a leakdown test and find number one cylinder leaking. So, the remove the cylinder head, and install a new head with new valves and seals. Seats are already installed (checked today, wasn't sure yesterday).
If the engine sucked a valve, it was improperly installed by the tech. Most likely if only one valve, the retainer on that valve was not installed correctly. Technician error...but still it is a good reason for a buy back, and honestly, I would do the same thing, if in your position.
New cylinder heads have hardened valve guides and this solves the problem.
Why it does not happen on all engines is the mystery no one can seem to answer.
Right now it takes over 16 hours to remove/replace the cylinder head. In a few weeks it will take about eight hours, we worked on a new method to R&R today, and hopefully, it will be finalized in a few weeks.
Cylinder heads should become more available as time goes on, so the wait if it happens to someone else in the future, should be a few days, versus a few weeks.
There is no need for the head to go to a machine shop. All is required is the valves be lapped to the new head, and this take a few minutes per valve (20 valves x 2 minutes - 40 minutes). Installing seals, valves, springs and retainers is not hard, but if the retainers are not installed correctly, the valve will fall and be sucked into the engine. May or may not damage the piston, depending on if it stays free and just bounces around. In your case, locking the engine, makes be believe the valve jammed, the piston failed, the engine locked.
At least you would probably get a complete engine out of the next repair.
Good luck...