Car jumped 3degrees Timing after 150miles on Rebuilt

[CPHunter]

Ok so i did my motor build. i started it up last Thursday and this past thursday it died .i did all the checks then i said i'll look at the timing.So i have a question. when my crank is alined with the timing mark my stock cams and gears are both advance 3 degrees in timing. how bad is this. did i bent valves again? or can i just put it back on time and it will run. i notice that everything was tight til i got to the tensioner on the intake side. so if anybody can answer my question thanks alot.

I did the timing before i put the motor in the car. a must have spun the thing like a million times making sure everything was tight and making sure it wouldn't jump. so i am really confused

 

[andymoraitis]

Run a compression test to be sure after re-setting the timing correctly. You may have gotten lucky, but if you're talking about three teeth and not three degrees, then that's pretty dicey.

If your compression numbers come back normal, consider yourself lucky, but if they're really low or zero, the head needs to come off and you need to replace the valves and inspect the piston tops for any gouging. I personally think you bent a crapload of valves (and I hope I'm wrong). Since you mentioned that there were issues with the tensioner. I'd also look into a new one.

Let us know what you find,

Andy

 

[CPHunter]

hey andy. nice name. um i forgot to add. it started up thursday morning and it was making a RFL ticking sound form the the intake side.so is it what i think it is (bent Valves)

 

[andymoraitis]

Andy (cool name you've got there),

Loud ticking on the t-belt side can often be indicative of a bad auto tensioner. If the belt loses enough tension, skipping teeth is a common occurence. Then again, loud ticking can be collapsed lifters, rod knock, sticky valves or a whole bunch of other crap. I'd run the compression test as recommended and see what your numbers look like.

Good luck,

Andy

 

[project_tsi]

I just had a friend do the same thing this past weekend. He had his engine freshed up with new rings, bearings, etc. The machine shop timed the engine and it was correct. He took pleny of pics before installing the engine. I saw the pics a few days ago, it was timed correctly, but I'm wondering if it were tensioned properly. His engine started for 45 sec he said then died, and would no longer start. Upon inspection, the cams are lined up properly, but the crank had jumped 5 or 6 teeth. Anyways I felt the belt, it felt properly tensioned, but I have no clue as to why it jumped. The only thing I can think of is improper tension or the tbelt it self, it was a goodyear gatorback, and I hate them. The head is off again now, getting all new valves, again. This time I will be doing timing, I've never had one jump. And I'm trying to talk him into using a OEM t belt.

 

[CPHunter]

ok i think i figured why it jump, and why everyone (like my machine shop guy) thats done a timing belt to my car has messed up. everytime i looked at the timing belt system i notice the little push rod that pushes the tensioner up was always fully up. the timing belt book i have said i have to have a special tool so i can hold the idle tesioner up while i use a torque rench to tighten it.i had to keep in mind that it had to be tighten the belt threw the tensioner force not the tensioner and push rod. after that you should be able to take the pin out without it moving up. so hopefully this hellps someone incase of a search -Andy

If anybody needs the step by step. i bought the timing belt book for every car up to 2002 so i am willing to scan and give some help

 

[project_tsi]

That does make sense. With the auto tensioner being fully extened when its first time, gives no room for the timing belt to stretch, meaning the tensioner won't take up the slack, meaning your going to jump timing. Glad to see you've figured it out, and let us know how it turns out.

 

[94awdcoupe]

I just had a friend do the same thing this past weekend. He had his engine freshed up with new rings, bearings, etc. The machine shop timed the engine and it was correct. He took pleny of pics before installing the engine. I saw the pics a few days ago, it was timed correctly, but I'm wondering if it were tensioned properly. His engine started for 45 sec he said then died, and would no longer start. Upon inspection, the cams are lined up properly, but the crank had jumped 5 or 6 teeth. Anyways I felt the belt, it felt properly tensioned, but I have no clue as to why it jumped. The only thing I can think of is improper tension or the tbelt it self, it was a goodyear gatorback, and I hate them. The head is off again now, getting all new valves, again. This time I will be doing timing, I've never had one jump. And I'm trying to talk him into using a OEM t belt.

A friend of mine just had his evo built with a 2.3 stroker and also put a gatorback on. I have never seen anything like what happened. We took the timing belt off to inspect it and there was a slice in the timing belt. There are no cut marks, no ruff edges, nothing. This timing belt just ripped for no reason. I will take pics and post them. Needless to say, if you cheap out on your timing belt, then I feel sorry for you. An OEM timing belt costs maybe $30 more then the gatorback and the OEM timing belt will probably save your ass in the long run.

-1 for gatorback.

 

[project_tsi]

Yeah I haven't had a chance to inspect his belt yet, but I'm wondering if something is wrong with it. For me, its OEM or Kevlar.

I strongly advise not using any gatorback belts on our engines. I have tried them multiple times. They seem to always need tightenign, squeek more than any other belt, and I had a alt. belt start to fray, then snap in half, rip out my oil pressure line, leaving me stranded in the middle of nowwhere. The cheap $10 belts work better than these expensive ass gatorbacks.