NPZ

Gentlemen, I should have my tools confiscated for wasting your time. When I pulled the timing cover off, it was immediately clear that I had mis read the timing mark on the crank sensor reluctor wheel. I saw a mark where there was none. It was in fact two teeth off from where I had it, and was originally correct, as I’m sure you all yelled at your screens while rolling your eyes. Of course it was, how could it not have been and have still run fine? It’s now corrected and the car runs like it should. Man I looked so hard and long at it the first time I don’t know how I messed that up, but I did. Lesson learned. Foot in mouth. Thank you for your replies and your time. Nick

Thanks for the replies. I absolutely agree that whatever I touched is the problem, however I’m still puzzled as to why the engine liked being two teeth off of “correct” timing. I will be tearing it apart today, I’ll post pictures when I do. Good day gentlemen. Nick

Hi all, I’m new here. This is regarding my bosses 96 legacy with an ej22. It was due for a timing belt and he had me do the job. The car had no issues and ran fine, plenty of power, (for an ej22) etc. It does have a check engine light that has been on for years which I was told is for a cat/o2 sensor code, but I don’t own a scan tool so I couldn’t check myself. We live in an emissions exempt part of Oregon so that’s not going to be fixed unless it somehow turns out to be part of this problem, which I doubt. When I removed the timing cover and lined up the timing marks I discovered that the crank was two belt teeth retarded from the cams. The cams were correct in relation to each other. I removed the tensioner and belt, set the timing “correctly”, reinstalled the old tensioner and old belt, and the car seemed to run fine, maybe a little better, (hard to tell) however I didn’t drive it at that point since it was all torn apart, and I proceeded with the job. Once it was all back together with the new belt kit and the timing “corrected” I test drove the car, and it runs lousy. It’s now down on power, and the idle is slightly rough, although I don’t believe it is misfiring. It is worth noting that this engine was rebuilt by a guy who has a reputation for crap work, and although he sent the long block to someone else, I don’t know who installed the timing components. The crank bolt was tight, the key intact, nothing obviously damaged that I could see. I would love to be able to use a scope to look at cam/crank correlation waveform and a known good waveform and compare them, but I don’t have that gear so that’s not going to happen Has anyone ever seen this issue? I’m going to tear it apart again and put it back to the way it was, but something is up and it’s beyond me, and I want to know. Thanks for your help, Nick