I'm new here so I don't know where to begin. Recently I was called upon to help a friend out who was helping another freind out to get his GMC Sonoma 2.2L running. Of course no one had a repair manual and I'm expected to know everything about an engine even though I have never seen a 2.2L engine. The cylinder head was replaced and the vehicle had been sitting for a year because no one has been able to get the engine to start. I was told it's a '97 Sonoma but now i'm not so sure if the year is correct.
I was told by the owner that the mechanic who replaced the head performed a compression check on the engine and found no compression in the cylinders and he told the owner that the engine ( I'm assuming he meant pistons and rings) were no good. After towing the vehicle 200 miles for my friend to work on it, the owner contacted the mechanic by cell phone and was told to torque the head bolts to 70 - 90 ft. lbs. thinking that the compression may be leaking through the head gasket from the head bolts not being torque down enough.
I noticed that the rocker arm nuts have a crimp and began wondering if this was and an adjustable type valve train. The owner had been tighting the rocker arm nuts all the way down as in non-adjustable type valve train. For lack of any info as to whether these are adjustable or no-adjustable rocker arms, I decided to set each rocker at zero lash plus one turn. The engine won't start but acted like it was trying to start. So then I back off each nut a half a turn (zero lash plus 1/2 turn). Engine started and run great. Don't know why a half turn made a difference between starting and not starting unless engine was flooded from hours of cranking without starting.
I get home to do a search on the computer and found out that indeed these 2.2L engines have non-adjustable valve train. I also discovered on-line that the part numbers for push rods, rocker arm studs, intake valves and exhaust valves are different between a '97 and earlier heads and a '98 and later heads. Don't know whether there are differences in rocker arms.
Should I not worry about it and leave it with the way it's set up now (it runs great now with the rocker nut adjusted to zero lash plus 1/2 turn) or should I advise the owner to replace the push rods or what else??

well i dont know if this helps any.... but with my first cavalier. I did the opposite. my engine died, so I picked up a 2200 engine block with no head, got my 2.2 OHV head rebuilt, and installed it on the 2200 block..

it didnt work, for some reason, the timing was off. and i ended up with a broken cylinder for some odd reason.........

To be honest, I don't even know if it has the wrong cylinder head. It could very well have the correct head for that block. I was just wondering if it was possible for someone to install a 2200 head on a 2.2L block or install a 2.2L head on a 2200 block. It did seem very strange that the engine wouldn't start until the rockers were adjusted to a certain preload on the lifters, considering that this engine is suppose to have a non-adjustable type valve train.

Sounds to me like the valves are bad. If you had low compression on a couple of cylinders. I'd bet the botttom end, but NO compresion in any cylinders, valves.




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I do belive it was because the valves weren't closing that cause no compression in the cylinders. If I hadn't by accident tried the "old school way" of adjusting valve lash (actually it's called lifter preload on hydraulic lifters) this engine would have never started. The reason I said by "accident" was lucky for me I didn't know if this had an adjustable type valve train or a non-adjustable type valve train. If a mechanic was to assemble the rockers "by the book", he would tighten the rocker arm nuts all the way down on the studs til the nut bottom out and then torque the nuts to 20 ft. lbs. In this partiicular case, doing it by the book had resulted in keeping the valves off their seats. I suspect that this problem was caused when the cylinder head was replaced with another head.

Well after countless hours of searching the internet I discovered that the Chevy S-10 and GMC Sonoma didn't started using the 2.2L OHV engines until 1994. And if the info I gathered is correct from the Advance Auto Parts website, the Chevy S-10 and GMC Sonoma didn't use the roller rockers arms nor the notched rocker pedestals after 1997 like the J-body cars do. The Chevy S-10 and GMC Sonoma did change push rods afters 1997. The 92-93 2.2L OHV engines also used a different push rod, but that I assume was because of the different lifters they used in those two years. Gee I feel sorry for you owners of 2.2L OHV engines who decides to swap out parts. Oh by the way, how does one check the fuel pressure in those engines that doesn't have a fuel rail with the schrader valve?