timotee

Hello all,

I have a general question and was hoping some of you civic guru's could help point me in the right direction. I have some experience changing timing belts on civics.

Today, I changed the timing belt on a 98 Civic LX (1.6 SOHC). All went relatively smoothly without any major hassle. With exception of that pain in the *** crank bolt (I hooked up a bunch of extensions to a torque bar, set it on a jack, and jumped my 280lb fat *** on it and finally broke it loose), everything went fairly smoothly.

I got every thing back together and the car fired right up after turning over several times. The car idles like a dream and cranks immediately at the turn of the key.

The customer is reporting a slight loss in power in 3rd through 5th gear, and a strange "tinking" sound under heavy acceleration. If I could describe it, I would say that it's a pulley running a muck.

The car has new water pump, timing belt, power steering/alternator belt, new plugs, wires, dizzy cap and rotor button.

The only thing that I can think of is that I didn't get the timing exactly right or the tension on the belt isn't tight enough. Does anyone have any ideas? The Factory service manual says to line up the lower timing cover with the "white" mark, however, the colors are faded as this car has 230k miles on it. I lined it up with the MIDDLE of the THREE marks.

Please advise! I know you guys will help! ---- thanks a bunch!

Edit: Customer described it as "dieseling". But only a little.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

did you also replace the tensioner? usually that should be done too or it wont work right with a new belt. also you may want to double check the ignition timing. and did you adjust the valves at all? prolly not the cause but its usually recommended when doing timing belt. its possible you didnt get the timing exactly right, but good enough to start and run. im not sure what you can do tho if the marks are faded?

RonJ

You definitely set the mechanical timing incorrectly. You aligned the pointer with the red mark, which is used to set the ignition timing with a timing gun. You are probably two teeth off from TDC1.

The crank marks are arranged like this:

III I

You used the middle red mark in the group of three. You should have used the single lone mark, which is white.

timotee

Thanks, RON! You sexy beast! I saw the single marking next to the three but I was convinced that this mark couldn't be the one I needed. So I basically just need to pop the valve cover again, pull the belt off the camshaft pulley, rotate crankshaft to correct marking, and make sure camshaft is also TDC, and reinstall, right?

timotee

Also, I did NOT replace the timing tensioner. It was on my to do list for the customer, however, he bought the wrong pulley. Autozone gave him a pulley for the A/C belt. --- Then tried to tell the customer that there is only two belts on the car when there are actually 4, timing belt, p/s belt, a/c belt, alternator belt.

Ignorant. :O

ScottDR

Just adding to Ron's post: If you hit it with a timing gun at idle (warm of course) you will notice the marks will not be near the right spot. Then you will not be able to adjust timing far enough to do so. The belt is re-adjustable while only requiring loosening the tensioner, removing the valve cover and upper timing belt cover and having an assistant help slide the belt off the cam pulley and back on after moving the cam in the proper direction a tooth or two with a wrench/ratchet. After reinstalling, check and adjust timing again to verify.

Been there, done that. At least the fix is simple.

Nosepicker

Good stuff guys. I just wished there were more of this in this forum.