Well i just recent changed my timing belt/water pump and it started right up...but now my idle is pretty low, but has yet to stall out...when i rev it up a bit and the rpm's go down, it dips to almost zero and fluctuates a bit (roughly 200-600 rpm's) then slowly goes to about 2-300 rpm's...would this be because my timing is off?

 

It is indeed a possibility. It wouldn't be a bad idea to check it out just to make sure. Which timing mark on the crank pulley did you use to line up TDC?

 

i pretty much followed the write up on C-Speed and lined the crank up and lined the cam gears to the "up" position...the only thing that i noticed was that the gears had notches towards the middle where the two gears had to line up...i noticed that with the "up" arrow facing straight up, the two notches werent even...the intake cam looked like it was about a tooth above the ex. cam...

i read that a tooth off can make the car start but run sh!tty...thing is my car seems to run fine...and thats how the timing was when i pulled the valve cover off before i started working on the timing belt...

 

hmmmm im having the same problem. i just changed my timing belt, H20 pump and installed cams. the timing i think was set right. 95% sure i did it right. the car runs good though. but if i give it a quick hit with the throttle and let off the rpms go very low almost to zero and wants to stall out. i was told that i need to increase the fuel pressure because of the new cams and to advance the timing. check ur timing by the distributor. advance it a little bit. At idle, my rpms is around 700 which is normal. i still havent fixed this probelm because my car is getting painted. i'll check it out on tuesday. let me know if u fixed the problem.

 

you're lucky...at least your idle is normal...my idle is around 200 rpms

 

u lined up the crank gear with the line on the block right? did u put the engine at TDC for cylinder 1 before u took everything apart?

well if u have an LS motor then u can adjust the cam ggears easily. if u take off the valve cover and look on the first cam cap, u will notice that there are two small holes on it for both the intake and exhaust side. the cam als has two holes in it. u can take two small screw drivers and place them in that hole and turn the cams until the screw driver falls into the hole in the cams. this will line them up. im not sure if the vtec motors are the same way. i dont think they are. but u need to have those two notches on the cam gears lined up. remove the belt from the gears and line the cam gears up again.

 

well i juss checked my timing again and the two notches are lined up...the "up" arrow on both gears point straight up with the exception of the intake cam gear which is a bit crooked towards the front of the car...but the two notches in the middle of the gears are lined up exactly... ( )

so maybe my idle issue doesnt have anything to do with timing? any other thoughts?

 

Those little dimples out near the teeth of the cam sprockets are the REAL timing marks. The arrows are only good enough so you don't get the cams completely upside-down. There's 2 dimples on each sprocket, all 4 should line up under a straightedge, along with the camshaft centers.

 

well they all seem to line up...

 

get an inductive pick up timing light and check the timing with it. it sounds like ur timing might be retarded a bit