Hey all, I have a 1986 Trooper with the 2.3 gas motor, previous owner botched a timing belt job and destroyed all the valves. I have several questions.
*Is replacing the valves something I can do without special tools.
*Where can I source valves (and other parts)
*Does anyone have any good links to other threads from rebuild jobs
*I am planning on removing the head and replacing the head gasket, is there anything to know about this in advance?

TIA
Skiddles

 

How did you determine that all the valves are destroyed if the head hasn't been removed yet? The 2.3 isn't a high compression motor, there's plenty of room for error before you tear up the valves and pistons and if the timing belt was that far off the motor probably wouldn't start.

 

The previous owner (God bless his heart) told me that these are interference motors, and because it will crank freely without issue with the timing 180° off, the valves must be ruined.
If I can just adjust the timing and be done, it's gonna ruin his day but make mine complete. I was taking him at his word, I've never owned one of these before

 

Don't take anybody at their word. I had an 86 years ago with the 2.3 and I don't believe it's an interference motor. Do the easy thing first. Install the belt correctly and do a compression check. Shouldn't take more than an hour. I currently have a 94 trooper that used to have a 3.2 v6. In case you didn't know, the 3.2 is available in sohc and dohc. To the casual observer they look identical, they even use the same timing belt. I got lazy and asked a mechanic to change the belt and water pump for me. He got confused and thought I had a dohc model when I in fact had a sohc. He completely ignored the marks on the sheet metal for aligning the cam gears and aligned it as if it were a dohc motor which are drastically different marks. When he brought it back to me it sounded like a diesel. Needless to say I never used him again except to take my cars to be inspected and ended up re-doing the timing belt myself.
No damage but, I ended up replacing the motor with a 3.1 turbo diesel at a later date.
If the timing belt is not new then buy a new one and watch for the arrows on the belt indicating the direction of rotation.