Happy Friday rustlovers! Today we delve into the depths of the dual overhead cam piece of Korea’s finest engineering known as the Kia 2 litre!

Yesterday after work I decided to dig into the Kia and see if I could get it running. This being my first Korean car, I wasn’t familiar with its exact construction but was familiar with its symptoms: all signs point to timing belt. I popped the hood and was immediately put at ease by the longitudinal engine facing me properly and not slighting me by facing to the right or left. Everything seemed to be in about the right place, “this will be easy” I thought.

The first thing to do anytime you suspect a timing issue is to look up if you have an interference engine or not. If you don’t know, having an interference engine means that if your timing mechanism (belt, chain, or gears) fails and the pistons and valves are both left to spin freely at their own pace, the valves will hit the pistons and, at the very least, bend your valves up. The worst case is catastrophic engine failure or what I like to call “engine over, broken equals very yes”. 

     Although the Kia Sportage 2.0 was officially listed as an enterference engine there were fierce battles raging on various forums claiming that the pistons were relief cut so that the valves wouldn’t actually hit. Many claimed to have broken their timing belt and simply installed a new one without issue. Nobody on any forum actually mentioned bending their valves so I decided the best course of action would be to stick a new timing belt on and try to start the engine without putting it back together. If the car cranked without starting I would know that the pistons had become pin-cushions for valves: engine over. If it started and made horrific pinging and clanking sounds I would know a couple of valves were slightly bent. If it started and ran fine I would reassemble it and flip it like superman making pancakes! It’s like “The Gamble all over again! Let’s hope the odds are in our favor this time.

Digging into the engine I was simultaneously annoyed and impressed at the way all of the parts were integrated. It made for a well designed and compact package but I had to take off more parts than I wanted to; everything seemed to be connected to something else.

I pulled the fan and shroud (the fan clutch was bad), pulled the water outlet/thermostat housing, took off the belts (badly cracked) and got the timing cover off to find THIS:

I have seen timing belts lose their teeth, I’ve seen them unravel, I’ve seen them break, I’ve seen them shred but I’ve never seen one delaminate and snap like this. I continued pulling off parts but had a hard time breaking loose the big bolt on the front of the crankshaft. Normally I use an impact driver but I had no clearance. There was also no harmonic balancer to wrap a strap wrench around so I left the accessory pulleys on and pulled with my breaker bar and strap wrench until my strap broke. Great. The next thing I did was pull the radiator and A/C condenser to put my trusty impact on that bolt. It was out instantly so I went ahead and pulled the accessory pulleys to discover that there was no reason for me to pull the bolt out. Yep, I had just wasted an hour of my life, all the bolt held on was the timing gear. Anyway it was time to get that belt on and try to start it.

On this engine the water pump is driven by the timing belt and it is HIGHLY recommended to change the pump, belt and pulleys at the same time. I didn’t want to spend that kind of money until I knew the engine was actually not a boat anchor in disguise so I just bought he new timing belt for about $19 at the O’reilly. I lined up the timing marks on the crankshaft gear and each camshaft gear (“I” on the intake side and “E” on the exhaust side) then put on the belt and tensioned it. The tensioner tightens the passenger side of the belt so once it was tight I could see that it had pulled both cam pulleys exactly 1 tooth out of adjustment. I loosened the tensioner and fiddled them into place then re tightened. 

Even though the timing marks lined up just right the second time around I always like to use a ratchet on the crank bolt to spin the motor around by hand a few times to feel that everything is right and make sure the timing marks still line up. This is particularly vital if you have variable valve timing which can make the timing marks appear to be correct when they’re actually way off.

I put all the crank pulleys back on (they keep the timing belt in place), sat in the driver’s seat and turned the key. With no alternator, A/C, power steering pump, cooling fan, radiator or timing cover the engine started immediately. It ran smoothly and revved nicely but unfortunately made a sound that I recognized as a bent valve. It was minor but unmistakable. 

Until next time rustlovers, fix some cars and earn some scars!
Promotional consideration provided by Luke Van N