Hello rustlovers!

So, this Kia… this kia has been a pain.

While researching what these cars sell for (on Craigslist) I kept finding them in great condition with a bad head gasket or other straight forward problem at ridiculously low prices. I even found a few that were 4 wheel drive in the 700-800 dollar range. I thought they might make a great niche market to flip. Yeah, that was before I actually worked on this thing. If someone wanted me to fix their Kia’s head gasket today I would laugh. No wonder they were so cheap! I would charge more to do a head gasket on this car than its worth.

Anyway, we live and learn. Although tricky and time consuming, in the end I’m still making money.  

Over the past week I have accumulated the needed parts and have been putting humpty dumpty back together again. The valves came a bit earlier than I expected so the first thing I did was get busy rebuilding the head. I pulled out my trusty valve spring compressor and realized… It wouldn’t work! As a dual over head cam engine the cams push down on “cam followers” which push directly down onto the top of the valves. This means that not only do the valve springs NOT stick up out of the head, they are down in little holes!

In order to compress the valves and still access the keepers I went out and bought an oxygen sensor socket; a deep socket with one side cut out. 

you can clearly see the valve keepers

One of the intake valves was sticking open almost 1/8 of an inch and was actually sticking out 1/8″ higher than the other intake valve for that cylinder in all positions! What the heck? Did they send me a valve that was too long? I took that cam back off of the head and reinspected all the parts. All normal. In fact with the cam off the valve seated perfectly. I knew exactly what to do! To the Internet!!! I almost immediately discovered that the cam followers were hydraulic which meant they would pump up with oil to maintain proper contact pressure between the cam and the valves. As soon as I read it, it made perfect sense. Not only had there been no valve adjustment, there were oil ports in the followers and their seats. Look rustlovers, we’re learning together! 

I put the cam in and waited an hour and, sure enough, the cam followers had all bled down and the valves were seated.

I reinstalled the head, torqued it down, put on the intake manifold, then the exhaust, the new water pump, new NGK spark plugs, new timing belt with idler and tensioner pulleys. New, new, new. This will be a nice reliable car for the buyer.

As of right now I’m down to the last of parts. Belts, hoses, radiator, fluids. I’ll give a brief update when I’m done on how long it took, how much it cost and hopefully very soon how much I sold it for. Yes, the title of this post was misleading but I like to make myself feel clever.  

Get out there and fix something!