Okay I'll admit, I kinda cheated a little bit with my first timing belt and water pump install. I honestly took my time and was very careful about every procedure with numerous printed off DIY's to follow. But the problem that I hope is not a problem is the water pump. When I was bolting the new water pump on, I somehow over tightened one of the screws. I knew it wasn't good but just with my pissed off attitude and wanting to finish by evening, I said screw it. It was the lower left bolt if you looking straight at the pump on the gear side where the timing belt is. Now I knew a leak could be probable but I went ahead and put everything back together and hoped for the best. Than once everything was back together I doubled check my install list and found out I had forgot to do one thing. I didn't check the mark on the oil pump with the crank gear. But here's the thing, when I took the belt off and replaced it, I made absolute sure the gears did not move. I think i wiggled that belt off as gentle and slow as I possibly could. I do remember looking for a mark on the oil pump but never finding one so I said to myself, "I'll come back to that" But I never did. I hit myself for that.

When we started up the car for the first time, everything ran great, except for a loose alt. belt which I tightened more. But after a week, the car was noisier and ran a little rougher than normal so I was thinking that the cam and crank were off for sure. So i took off the valve cover and checked the marks on the cam with the head while making sure the timing mark on the crank pulley itself was aligned to the arrow on the plastic cover. Everything was lined up good but with the crank pulley being aligned with the arrow on the plastic cover, wouldn't that mean the crank gear would be aligned to the arrow on the oil pump?

So yeah, long story kinda but I got two things against me here and the reason I'm asking these questions is both of the engine running kinda rough & loud while with concern. Please, please, give me your advice! Thanks for reading if you read the whole thing!

 

just a thought for the roughness, i did a timing belt and water pump at work on an 01 EX and it came back about a week later with a "rough idle" i looked the car over and found the liquid filled mount on the driver side was blown out, replaced the mount and car continued to run great. so check your mounts.

 

Drivers side mount is good and not ripped. I do remember replacing the lower drivers side mount where the a/c is when we did the timing belt.

 

Bump

 

i cant see why it would matter where the oil pump is as long as everything lines up at TDC. check your distributor's timing with a timing light and other than that the next thing i might check is the fuel filter.
its not a B so i doubt its your valve lash, so since you didnt have to mess with that thats probably not your problem.
If the water pump isnt leaking i dont think thats the problem at all

 

Your oil pump gear should have a keyway so it only goes on one way. Then you slap the crank pulley on (also has a keyway) Like up the timing mark with the mark on the timing cover. Line up the cam marks to the head (with the valve cover off). If everthing is in line you dont have cam timing issues, maybe ignition timing?

 

Dang dude, that's exactly what I wanted to hear. I just wasn't sure if by some slim chance the crank could be off but I always wondered about the keyway being there and if the pulley was aligned to the timing cover, the crank must be aligned to the oil pump arrow.

As far as I know, the ignition timing was set after we checked the cam and crank marks. It was off a little but now it's aligned. Fuel filter was replaced with the timing belt change along as the spark plugs, wires, pcv, cap/rotor, etc. I did the whole shebang and now the car just runs like crap.