My new 3gee is off by 2 teeth on cam gear

[BITESIZE]

Ok, I just got around to checking the top dead center on my new white 3gee. The cam gear is off by about 2 teeth maybe 2.5 teeth. The belt is a little loose and the car has a hell of a time starting when its cold. I replaced the coolant temp senser, and I've checked everything else imaginable . Could my car not starting be from the two teeth being off? It is off going counterclockwise on the cam gear. The tdc mark on the cam gear is pointing twards the radiator. Could I just advance/retard the distributor all the way to make up the differance? The car runs like brand new once it's started and warmed up. It just doesn't start worth a damn when its cold! :(


I plan on changing the timing belt, just not until another month down the road when I can afford to do it the right way by replacing the water/oil pump, and all the front main seals.

[forrest89sei]

It being off 2 Teeth would cause your staring problem, I don't know if you could make up for it with ignition timing.....

I'd just bite the bullet and do the belt

[BITESIZE]

Can't afford to do the belt till May, when I get the rebate check from Uncle Sam. :)

P.s. Do you think the valves are bent or ok? It runs beautifully....

[russiankid]

I would get the timing belt cover off and just reset the timing. I paid $20 for a local shop to break loose the pulley bolt. This way you also know what you defintely need to replace and so forth.

[BITESIZE]

It's leaking oil and the belt is oily so It needs to be done before I drive it around anymore. :( It will just slip from the oil if I put it to TDC anyways.

[russiankid]

It's leaking oil and the belt is oily so It needs to be done before I drive it around anymore. :( It will just slip from the oil if I put it to TDC anyways.

Dry up the oil, and check where its leaking from. That way you can possible temporarily fix the leak.

[BITESIZE]

I'm sure its the front main seal, possibly the oil pan gasket.

[carotman]

Being off by 2 teeth will really mess up your timing.

[Oldblueaccord]

This is going to make me come up with a tool to set up the cam you do a timing belts. It is too easy to mess up on our cars.

You can loosed the belt and slip it around the cam sprocket in a pinch. When I first bought my car it was pretty far advanced so I just jumped it back 2 teeth until I had time to do the belt.

There is a small risk that you may loose control of the adjuster so what ever you do dont remove the adjuster bolt just lossen it enough to slack the belt. I use the back end of a screw driver to help force it over the cam sprocket.

The distributor doesnt have enougth travel to move the spark unless maybe you remove the stud and notch the distributor slots. No matter what if the cam is off you will be down on compression.

I'm very surprised you can climb a hill with the way it is set up.


wp

[BITESIZE]

Yah, i know how to do the trick with the adjuster. IF I did get it back to tdc it would probably just slip again from the belt being all oily. :(

[Oldblueaccord]

Naw its a toothed belt and truefully there as tough as nails nowdays. Mines got soaked bad when I had that oil leak and I ran it for a while. In fact its in the trunk with the jack as a spare and its fine I looked at it a few weeks ago when I spring cleaned my car.

Check it good if you do it for missing teeth is all and good luck.

Made me log back in...... :gun:


wp

[Catalyst]

Yeah your oil leak is probably from the cam seal.

Might as Well do the cam seal, timing belt, and oil pump (if its old) all at the same time. Just had all that done on my hatch. Ran me about $500 total.

[BITESIZE]

Yeah your oil leak is probably from the cam seal.

Might as Well do the cam seal, timing belt, and oil pump (if its old) all at the same time. Just had all that done on my hatch. Ran me about $500 total.

$500? Why didn't you do it yourself?

'll take the timing belt, tensioner, water pump off of the hatches old engine. They are brand new parts. I'll just buy new seals and go that way. Money is tight right now - stupid economy.

[2oodoor]

hell it will only take a half hour to reset it, why not just do it. I don't think it will slip unless the belt is really worn..in that case you are gambling every day anyway.
on the oil leak, The oil pump could be leaking, at least that is what it was on mine. I just bought the seals for the oil pump , ten bucks.
Like old blue says, it is a wonder you can get it to go being two toothless off

you can advance the ign timing to get it to run maybe better but you say it is running good so I would just fix the valve timing

If you get the top cover off, you can see the depth of the belt teeth and you can see how bad the belt flops while it is running

[BITESIZE]

If I can get my daughter to take a nap - I'll cross my fingers. I'll go reset the tdc and see if it starts better.

[BITESIZE]

Wait a minute, on my auto tranny, is the "T" tdc or the white mark, I think I had it backwards. It is only off by 1 tooth if its the white mark.

[Dr_Snooz]

It's the white mark next to the "T". Your oily belt could be why it's off a tooth.

BiteSize, you know more about these cars than I do, so forgive me it you know this already. I'd think it'd have to be a pretty bad leak to saturate the belt. If it's your oil pump leaking, there's a chance it could lose pressure. I wouldn't be real jazzed about driving it that way, really. At least not until I knew what was leaking and why.

[nswst8]

You can take it up with the dizzy but deffinately do the oil seals when you change the belt this is why it probably slipped it the first place.

Use dawn dish soap to degrease the belt it won't harm the rubber like other degreasers. They use it to clean animals after oil spills.

[2oodoor]

It's the white mark next to the "T". Your oily belt could be why it's off a tooth.

.

I don't think that is correct, mine is auto and it was the T scribe mark, I pulled the number one spark plug and watched the piston go to TDC and perfect top dead center of the stroke is right on the T mark.

[BITESIZE]

I don't think that is correct, mine is auto and it was the T scribe mark, I pulled the number one spark plug and watched the piston go to TDC and perfect top dead center of the stroke is right on the T mark.

Ok, but the manual says that it is the white mark? :wtf: I'll take your word for it, but I think I'll double check by taking the 1 spark plug out and looking.:wave:

[2oodoor]

yea I know it gets confusing, I read everywhere about this elusive white mark, and my car had a red mark, a green mark, a black mark, NO WHITE MARK.. so I guess they used different flywheel/torque converters or something. None of those were TDC only the barely visable T.
When I mess with setting up the t belt or adjust valves I pull all the plugs out anyway, it is way easy to turn the motor over by hand then.

[BITESIZE]

I took the spark plug out and I don't see any differance between the white mark and the T mark, so the White mark it is. :)

[BITESIZE]

Well, I just got done putting it back to TDC, it started alot better, I probably need to dink with the distributor now, since I had it advanced all the way. I used my air spray nozzle and blew as much of the oily shit out as possible and used 3 paper towels to dry it up. It looks like it will be ok for a month until I can afford to change the belt and other stuff necessary. Lets hope this helps with the starting issue. :)

[forrest89sei]

Yay :thumbup:

[BITESIZE]

Just took the ol' car for a spin around the outer rim of my neighborhood. It doesn't have as much power as it used to before putting it at tdc. I bet it was so far advanced it was sucking fuel like a whore. I should get better mpg now and it should start better - crossing my fingers. I need to change my fuel pressure regulator, and then coil if it's still not starting well. I need a downpipe since the person before me ran it up a curb, becuase its all smash in and exhaust is leaking out. Otherwise I'm happy with it today.:bow: