sounds like trouble - God, I wish I could say for sure but internet communication is slow and I can't get intoyour carand see it for myself.</P>


Did you physically remove the timingbelt or the distributor at all? </P>

 

No, both belt and distributor remain untouched, I replaced the cap and rotor, but those seem fine after a quick check. The wires are in the correct order and on the correct plugs. I'm not 100% sure about the gap for the plugs, what should it be? (stock coil) My concern with the timing belt is if one of those chunks of rubber got between the belt and gear and made the belt jump a tooth or two. But I am unsure how to tell if the crank and cam timing is correct on this engine. If it were a tooth off, the engine would still run, just very poorly, like it is.</P>


Anythoughts?</P>


Drew</P>

 

Check cam timing and distributer timing. You will need to set the motor to TDC and then check to be sure the crank and cam gear dots line up where they are supposed to. Get a repair manual to help you with this if you havent done it before. Once you get that set, break out a timing light and check ignition timing. Once again get a repair manual to help if you are new to this.</P>


Remember, the most basic troubleshooting procedures are:</P>


ignition, fuel,and compression. </P>


If its getting spark, gas, and has compression, look furthur into all three. Once you determine where the problem is, you can continue furthur down the line until you find the problem.</P>


Ignition includes having solid spark and firing at the right time.</P>


fuel means proper fuel pressure and fuel is getting into the cylinder.</P>


compression means the cylinder pressure is good, a blown headgasket and improper cam timing are just some of the things that can cause this.</P>


If after checking every aspect of these things you dont find the problem, look harder or have someone else look. Try to completely eliminate one of these before going to the next one.</P>


</P>

 

Turns out the timing was way off, both cam and dist. I don't know how that car ran. Anyway, I'm going to have to replace the timing belt, it's in pretty rough shape. It has been rubbing against the timing cover for quite a whileit seems. </P>


Anyone have any suggestions/tips/tricks for removing the crank pully? Or recomendations on other repairs/PM while I'm in there? I'm sure there is a toolI can rent or borrow, but if there is another way I'd like to try it first (getting a rental tool is a pain in the butt). </P>


Thanx again.</P><edited><editID>Critical</editID><editDate>37874.3737847222</editDate></edited>