Timing Off?

[xirdneh]

pull the water pump pulley off
remove upper belt cover
shine a light down to the lower timing gear on crank
line up its mark to the mark on block
then check upper cam timing gear marks

[irowiki]

ot much power at all on hills

What kind of hills? This is about par for the course for a tercel.

[rocketscience]

What kind of hills?

Not big ones, it was bogging down to 45 or so on the rolling hills along the coast. I think if I got a better jump on em it might do better though.

[teranfirbt]

If you're at the end of the slot in the distributor, pull it out and advance it one tooth, then move it back to other end of the slot. There should be enough overlap that you'll be able to get the timing down to around 10 btdc with vac lines pulled (runs better that way)

[rocketscience]

Success! I shined my flashlight down behind the lower TB cover and lined up the notch on the crank with the dot on the block, and discovered that the notch on the outside of the harmonic balancer was several, maybe ten degrees ATDC, so I made a new mark showing 0*. Once I had that lined up I looked at the cam timing marks and found the belt a tooth off. Fixed that, put it back together and timed it around 8 or 9 BTDC and it seems to be running a lot smoother than before. Thanks for the advice! I'll post again after I take it for a drive or if I have any other problems.

[ARCHINSTL]

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Tom .

[rocketscience]

It totally does!! I was really relieved to find it, I use the site tdiclub for my vw which is a very very good forum full of lots of very knowledgeable people and am so glad that there exists one equally as awesome for these cars. Thank you!

[rocketscience]

I took it for a test drive and it did great, idled well and seemed to drive better overall. I am getting a pretty good clacking noise around 2-2.5k mostly when I first drive it that I'm guessing is the fuel pump? I can hear it ticking away at idle, but it seems slightly more pronounced now (could be imagining that) I'm gonna check the valve lash for good measure but I was wondering, ping usually occurs before 2k and sounds like marbles right?

[dlb]

pinging tends to occur at lower rpm but can occur throughout range. just depends on the load, the air/fuel ratio, how advanced the timing is. basically any time you try to lug it up a hill in too high a gear by giving it more gas. it sounds like tiny little hammers in your engine. i wouldn't describe it as marbles, it's much smaller and subtler than that. you likely won't notice pinging if you aren't listening for it or if your radio is on.

good idea to check the valve lash, fuel pump is another possibility. was the engine warm or cold? clacking noise could also be piston slap but that usually occurs while the engine is cold and goes away once it's warm.

[rocketscience]

I've noticed it when its cold, it usually goes away when I drive for a few minutes.

[rocketscience]

I also don't hear it when its idling, but I can hear the fuel pump, its pretty noisy and is my first suspect. It was odd, when I got the timing belt lined up right and started it I did hear a louder clatter at idle for just a few seconds before it quieted down, and haven't noticed it at idle since.

[irowiki]

Might have been the fuel pump priming itself

[rocketscience]

Driving today I tried to listen and note a bit more detail. Its not really a clatter at all, more of a high pitched sound, almost like belt squeal but slightly more percussive that follows the rpms and only happens when I press the accelerator. And it kept doing it when the engine was warm, but seemed to lessen after driving for several minutes. Does that sound like the fuel pump? Maybe I should start a different thread, this is kind of off topic.

[Gottolovem]

Can you take a video and post it?
For the audio of course I've seen an engine running before

[rocketscience]

Yeah I'll do that