I just finished putting the new top-end together (heads, intake, cam, etc.) and adjusted the valves and went to start the car and it runs real rough. It's un-drivable and feels like a timing issue but I could be wrong. It's giving me both crank sensor codes P0335 & P0336. The opti is brand new and so is the plug wires, plugs, and coil. I thought I was real carefull when putting it all back together but I can't remember if the marks on the crank gear and cam gear were "perfectly" lined up so I suspect the timing chain may be a tooth off on the cam gear... does this sound plausable? It's the only thing I can figure but don't want to start tearing down again if I don't have to.

 

Lining the dots up on the timing chain is one of the easiest things to do when you're doing it, so unless you REALLY dropped the ball I highly doubt that's the problem. I think the more likely scenario is that you have some plug wires crossed.

 

I thought of that and tripple checked the plug wire routing. I'm pretty confident they are correct. :-/

 

Always take a picture of the timing chain alighment before you put the timing cover on.

 

Are you sure you got the opti lined up correctly?

 

You know I'm kicking myself for not doing that...

Yes, that I am sure of. I took a picture of that before and after with the cap off so as to make sure the rotor position was in the same spot.

 

Did you verify that the cam dowel pin went in the correct slot?

 

There's only three slots on the back of the opti for the pin to go into so I'm assuming since the rotor was in the correct position yes - otherwise the rotor would be off 120 degrees either either way if it wasn't, right?

 

To put the Opti back on with the rotor in the same position it was in when you took it apart, you would have to have the cam dowel in the exact location it was in when you took the Opti off. Are you saying that when you installed the new cam, you insured that the dowel was in the exact same position it was in before you started the whole project?

On the other hand, with the pin 120 cam degrees (240 crank degrees) I doubt it would even start.

 

And that's what I was thinking to - and the car does start - just runs like ****. But if the cam/chain was just a tooth off one way or the other the rotor on the opti might "appear" to be in the same position as when I started, would it not?

 

Did you set a few valves way too tight?

 

It's possible... I was planning on checking that again tonight after work to see if it makes an improvment...


OK.... lets forget for a moment that I have a brian and am somewhat capable around an engine. Let's pretend I'm a noob and say I did drop the ball compleatly and install the chain a tad off - is the codes the car throwing and the way it's running sound even somewhat possible it's the chain being a tooth off? The only reason I'm going down this road is because of a post in another thread that Shoebox had said...

 

I do not think a tooth off will cause the engine to run very bad. The ECM will try to compensate but will never get to where it should be. I think you have other issues, maybe the sensors themselves during the re-assembly are messed up or vacuum issues. Regardless, I think that a dis-assembly is in order.

 

Oh, yes it can. Depending on which way it is off, it might manage an idle, but have almost no power when you increase the RPM.

 

x2....