Car died in the middle of the street and I had to get towed home. Pulled the valve cover and found the cams way off ( - ) ( l )
Pulled the timing belt and 5-6 teeth were ripped off. Put everything back together, exactly as the manual says to do it. Just like I always do it... crank, tensioner, water pump, exhaust, intake. Loosen adjustment bolt, turn counterclockwise 3 teeth on the cam, tighten bolt.
Started right up and ran like complete crap. Pulled the valve cover again and found the cam 2 teeth off and the belt not staying in the exhaust cam grooves.

So...WTF? The only thing I can think of is the tensioner spring is weak and is not tightening the belt enough.
Any input from the gurus? I'm not looking forward to doing this again and having it come loose right away.

 

Are you 100% sure the pistons didn't hit the valves?

 

I'm not 100% sure on anything, but the cams turn over without issue (just enough pressure to get over the cams) and the valve clearances still seem to be adjusted normally on each valve. Luckily, I was sitting at a light and the idle went 800, 700, 600, 500, 500, 500, dead. So it was not at high RPM. I had my timing belt snap at redline before and nothing hit. Maybe I was just lucky, but I was under the impression that the stock valves and pistons would not hit on a B18C, as the cam rest normally with most valves fully closed

I do have a crower valvetrain with stiffer springs, but haven't had this problem in the 20-30K miles since they were installed.

I'm leaning towards weak adjustment spring. It doesn't seem to get it very tight.

In the back of my mind I am wondering if a valve is bent and causing the cam to create resistance on the Tbelt and tear off the teeth. I'll double check this tonight when I tear it all down again.

 

weak adjustment spring?

belt is stretch? tensioner spring is stretch? Are these new parts, or new to you? Are these oem, or oem-like partstore?

 

All new parts, not OEM. At the risk of looking like a fool, I will finish out this thread.
Belt was extremely loose on startup. Did I tighten the adjusting bolt after I moved it 3 teeth? NO
I guess working on it until 2AM got the best of me.