1990 Acura Integra LS
Heres the story...

The car just got a water pump put in at a shop, when i got it back it was missing bad. I brought it back to them and they "fixed it"... well it still misses, not as bad though, its driveable and everything.

The car has no lower timing cover. When we took the VC off to check the cam gears, they are off by atleast a tooth or two. While the #1 piston is at TDC, the cam gears are not, the marking are atleast one tooth off on the intake and exhaust cams.

While the #1 piston is at TDC the crank pully is pretty much 180 degrees opposite, i cannot even see the timing marks on the pully...

WTF, how is the car running, it does miss, not bad though.. And when I floor it and get to 5000 RPM's, it just pretty much hits a "rev limiter"

Can anyone please explain how the timing is off so much and teh car still runs? also Taking the car back to the shop is out of the question, i will never step foot on there property again...

TIA,
mike

 

Which piston are you looking at for the #1 piston. Go buy a Haynes manual for your car or better yet, the Helms. It will show you how to set the crank pulley at top dead center with the white line, and the cams to TDC.

This happens often when people change their timing belts. They don't get the cam timing set correctly with the crank pulley. And then your distributor runs off the intake cam, so if its off, so is your ignition timing, not to mention the valves not being in time with the pistons. You did have the timing belt replaced didn't you?

One tooth off on the cam gears can make your car run like crap. Also the plug wires being out of order can do the same thing. And if you paid the shop with a credit card, consider refuting the charges since they screwed up.