legacycentral bbs

Ok, I changed the timing belt and idlers, found the right timing marks on the second try, everything was running fine and dandy! Loved the acceleration and the traction on this AWD!

I checked the oil and thought it was a quart low, so I dumped in a quart. I ran it a little, checked it again, and it was over full, up to the notch at least. And the engine started running rough and doesn't have much power. I drained out about a quart and the oil seems to be at the full mark, but the roughness and lack of power are still there.

Did my timing belt jump a notch, or did the over filling make a problem? I noticed some other posts about the difficulty in getting accurate oil level readings. Any help is appreciated.

From my experience i don't think it will cause a problem. A couple of years ago my brother (who is not much of a car guy) went to change the oil on his 92 and drained the trans fluid my mistake (he didn't know this at the time) He then put in 4-5 quarts of oil and took it for a spin. It looked like a jet plan about to crash with all of the smoke pouring out as he drove down the street. He didn't drive it much until I suggested what might had happened. Low and behold we pulled about 9 quarts of oil out of the engine and found that there was little fluid in the trans Topped both off, car is still running strong.

Is there any way to verify the timing without removing the pulley to see the timing mark in back? If I'd know how far from TDC the timing mark is I could count the teeth on the cams.

Overfilling the oil by only a quart shouldnt cause the engine to run rough. It usually takes a few quarts before the crank starts to contact the oil so I doubt you did any harm.

In other words, red herring.

I couldn't understand why, but it sure seemed to start with that oil fill. But I remember when I installed the tensioner on the timing belt, I pushed it against the belt, tightened the bolts, pulled out the pin, and the plunger didn't move. I had used a C clamp to squeeze it. I suppose it's time to tear it apart, again, and check if the tensioner is working. A loose timing belt would likely keep it from running properly.

yeah you might have accidently destroyed the tensioner. when you compress it you're supposed to do it EXTREMELY slowly. as in 1/4" ever half hour or something crazy lol.

You are also supposed to keep the tensioner in a horizontal position at all times. If the timing belt has ever been replaced in the past it could have been killed then.

I recently replaced a headgasket on a 2.5 liter engine and its tensioner was so bad I was able to take the timing belt off by hand!