Hi Everybody,

This is my first post and I was hoping for your help. I know there is a lot of helpful people on here and I would be grateful for your input.

Recently I replaced the timing belt on my 3rd Gen TL Magna Wagon 3.5 V6. When I replaced the timing belt I also replaced the coil in the distributor.

Upon completing the installation of the new belt and the coil, I took the car for a drive. The car starts completely normally, revs freely in neutral, idles normally and sounds completely normal in either of these modes. However, when I drive the car and it’s under load I notice straight away that the car is lacking in mid range torque and has a low down growl in the mid rev range It sounds like a v8 with a nice throaty sound. Upon returning from the drive, I noticed the exhaust is extremely hot.

I then replaced the distributor with one from the wreckers, changed the spark plugs and checked all the electrical. Still the same problem! I put a timing light on the car, after it warmed up, it sits on about around 7-8 degrees. I tried to advance the timing by rotating the dizzy which made no difference all ( I went both ways for the hell of it and still no benefit. ). Large low down noise … Retarded timing maybe ( I think this because reading online, the glowing exhaust and the noise are hallmarks of retarded timing ) ??? But why?

At this point I am convinced it is not the electrical system and it’s the timing belt is on wrong. But this is where it got interesting for me. I rechecked the timing belt and the marks all seemed close… So I rotated the crank 180 degrees and reinstalled the belt and .still the same problem…When installing the belt the marks on all three pulleys were close but not exactly aligned both times.
When looking at the front of the motor the right cam pulley and the crank pulley would line up perfectly with their marks on the block and the rocker cover, but for the left pulley the mark on the rocker cover would be pointing to the right of the mark on the pulley ie inwards by about 2/5 of one belt tooth ( not very much to look at, it seems spot on unless you put your head about 4 inches from the mark)

My reasoning for leaving it in this position is that if I went moved it one tooth the other two pulleys would be out…. What do you guys think? Is this the problem… Did I do something completely stupid that I haven’t thought of?? I know I should just try it and check but I want a second opinion first. Why shouldnt it be one whole tooth out?? Any thoughts?
Thanks
Adam

Can't help you re the belt, though there are many others here who will be able to, but I can say two things about rotating the distributor. 1) it won't do anything to the ign timing since that is handled by the crank angle sensor at the other end of the motor, and 2) you shouldn't be able to turn it. The distributor has a one-way fitting on installation, ie. it should only be able to go in one way unless it is very worn. Is there any chance the crank angle sensor was damaged or something while doing the belt?

Sounds very familiar - when you release the tension on the cam belt tensioner it cant change the right cam and crank distance if the belt is tight but if there is any slack the right cam will get out of sync with the crank.

If there is no slack on that link, the tension can be taken up between the cams - ie: the left cam rotates which might be your problem, when I had that problem I made sure to put the left cam 1 tooth advanced, so when the tension went up it pulled the slack out.

Ensoniq5 - Thanks for the tip, Yeh now that I think about it, the dizzy had no movement in it.. Naturally I suspected the timing would be controlled by the ecu... Um yeh the Crank angle sensor was well looked after.. I did put the metal disc back on carefully also...

bb61266 - Thankyou also - I think this could be the problem ... One tooth would make sense to answer the problem.. it ticks all the boxes in terms of what could cause it....The car should behave exactly as its doing if thats the case... So you know people say... If it smells like chicken, tastes like chicken, and looks like chicken... Its probably fish... Haha.. Jk Chicken!! Thats the only thing that I really touched and it does seem a bit funny... Ill try changing it back one tooth and see how it goes!!

You are supposed to set the belt up and then rotate the engine clockwise 2 turns to take the slack out of the tension runs (crank to front cog to water pump pulley to rear cog) and then check the marks again. Did you do this?
First time i did the V6 belt the rear always ended one tooth retarded, took 3 repeats to get it right.

HI MadMax, Yes I definately did this.. And Just for fun ( haha not really!! ) I pulled the whole thing apart 3 times just to check it all because it didn't seem right and each time it came back together as I have it now... When I can muster up the motivation.. I will try again one tooth advanced !! :( If at first you don't succeed! Why cant cars just be easy!??? hahaha

Cam belt change rule:
1 cam (eg Lancer) is easy.
2 cams (eg Magna) is harder.
4 cams is . . . . . .

Make sure you have the bottom marks lined up perfectly - whiteout and a torch helps - top marks, same, can be difficult to judge alignment as the marks are so far apart (across the belt). Hopefully +1 on the rear cam fixes it.