rough idle and no power 88GL

[WASHroad]

88 GL, just put on new water pump and belts. No history on the car, bought it with broken timing belt. It starts, but not very good, shakes and spudders and a little back fire, I can play with the throttle to get it to run over 2K and it smooths out. But even then it is like a delay throttle response. no real power, it will crawl out of the garage and back in. I had it reving up to 6K , the motor sounded fine, no knocks or rattles. I just dropped the distrutor in at TDC at #1 cyl. no timing light, but I did move it around, it didn't help. Guess I will do a compression check to see how that looks. But I just thought since it was running a driving when the belt broke, it would be fine. I had a manual and set the drivers side like the book side, aligned up the cam and mark. Rotate engine clockwise 360 and set the pass. side belt. Seems pretty basic. Did I miss something on the belt install, it was a Haynes manual.

Thanks

[rxleone]

Sounds like one of the belts might be a tooth off. Take the covers off and recheck timing.

[WASHroad]

I had the index pins at 12:00 and 6:00 I think? But that is easy enough to check.

[rxleone]

I had the index pins at 12:00 and 6:00 I think? But that is easy enough to check.

 

Yeah easy to check and once you had you can rule it out

[MilesFox]

is the firing order correct? 1/3/4/2 counterclockwise. #1 cyl is the front passenger side.

 

sounds like you got the belt sequence right. once going through the rotations, brong the timing mark back to the middle after 2 crank rotations(driver cam up), and then find your 0 deg mark and drop the disty.

 

double check the firing order. let us know how it goes

[WASHroad]

I used the pass, front cyl as #1. Pulled the plug and rotated engine until I have compression. Then just enought to get to the timing marks,, I think I even stopped at about 15 degrees. Located the #1 spark plug wire lead on the cap and then pulled the dist. out and dropped it back in to align back up with the cap location. That got it running, but something is way wrong. After work, I am going to recheck the timing marks. I looked at all the vac. hoses and they all seem to be in good condition. Let you know if I got the belts on correct.. Would one tooth off make that much trouble? and it seems smooth at 2-5K just no power or throttle response.

[GeneralDisorder]

On SPFI cars, the distributor needs to be at 20* BTDC. Timing is electronic on these models.

 

GD

[WASHroad]

Rechecked the timing belt settings and all is fine. Rechecked the dist. setting and all if fine. Started it again today with the same result. I listened and tried to get a little more details of run pattern. Will not start unless the throttle body valve is a little open. Once it fires, it is a rough idle and you have to baby the throttle to get it over 2K rpm.. Engine runs almost smooth at 2K, if you just step on the throttle it will backfire a bit then rev higher. You can do this up to 4 or 5K easy. It feels like you are pulling a pass or the engine is under a total load, if you let it idle down to under 1800 rpm it will shake and die. I have been looking at the Haynes manual and thinking maybe weak fuel pressure. I haven't messed with EFi much at all. Does that sound like something that would cause the engine to run like it is?

[ruparts]

Rechecked the timing belt settings and all is fine. Rechecked the dist. setting and all if fine. Started it again today with the same result. I listened and tried to get a little more details of run pattern. Will not start unless the throttle body valve is a little open. Once it fires, it is a rough idle and you have to baby the throttle to get it over 2K rpm.. Engine runs almost smooth at 2K, if you just step on the throttle it will backfire a bit then rev higher. You can do this up to 4 or 5K easy. It feels like you are pulling a pass or the engine is under a total load, if you let it idle down to under 1800 rpm it will shake and die. I have been looking at the Haynes manual and thinking maybe weak fuel pressure. I haven't messed with EFi much at all. Does that sound like something that would cause the engine to run like it is?

 

the symptoms sound like very old gas, vacuum leaks, plug wires crossed, bad idle air valve, cts , throttle position sensor idle switch not set right, any combo of these. also the timing needs to have the green connectors plugged together to check it or set it.