Well, when I was driving around the other day my car made some loud ass noises, like my tranny went or something, so i pull over to the side of the road, and pop the hood to hear it better, and antifreeze is spraying all over the place. So I shut off the motor and look under neath, and it is pouring out like niagra falls! Then I'm like shit! I get the car towed, we look at it, and see the water leaking from the water pump, so we go out and get some beer, tools, and new parts, and stay up all night fixing the damn thing. The only problem is the timing belt did not want to line up exactly at TDC whatever i did!! It is about an 1/8th or a quarter of a tooth off, and now the car has -14 Hgs of vacum, and the idle is very lopey. Do you think it will be fine running like that? It sounds like total shit!

No. Fix it.

might want to do a coimpression test - if it jumped time when the waterpump broke, you may have more issues than you think.

Anytime our cars jump time you can pretty much expect a bent valve(s). My personal best is 4 so far. You'll need to align the crank sproket 1/2 tooth before TDC and when you adjust the tensioner per the haynes/chilton it should align properly.

It sounds like you have bent valves. The fact that it will start and run says that your not as bad off as you could have been.

Originally posted by new2tuning
It sounds like you have bent valves. The fact that it will start and run says that your not as bad off as you could have been.

I honestly don't think I have any bent valves, seeing how my timing lined up perfectly before I took the belt off. It runs pretty good once you get to about 2,000 RPMs with a very occasional mis. But the idle cannot be good for motor mounts for sure, or the motor itself.

Hate to bring up an old topic but i'd rather not make another.


I have this same lope at idle.

I had a vac leak (because i'm a dumbass and left it open on the mani) and fix that and it helped.

The car runs fine. No issues whatsoever.

I had the same problem with my timing belt. I swapped in a 95 sohc neon shortblock and i didn't ask if it was ever decked or not so i dont know if that had anything to do with it. The cams line up. The crank is litterally a mm or two off. My brother and I tried several times to get it to line up (using haynes and parts dinosaur tb install instructions word for word; yes i used a torque wrench on the tensioner pulley) perfect and a cunthair off is as close as we got.

I just ran the car about 30 min ago to show my friend who now has a neon himself that's getting work done. (i guess i got him interested) It idled fine at 1,100 rpm for a minute or so and then droped back down to 900-850 and started loping. Battery voltage is good. I get about 15 in/hg of vac that is stable on the gauge. I've had it running for 3 days and that is the first time it's ever done that. Not the lope but the 1,100 rpm smooth idle.

Well if at any point that the water pump was screwing up if it jamed up or something it might have caused your timing belt to jump and it may have smashed the valves a bit. It could just be running like ass because you can't get it to line up right so the timing is off. Did you just put the timing belt on as it was when you took it off or did you go through the entire order to make sure all the marks and lined up to where they should be like when you are doing something like replacing the head?

I dont think the timing jumped at all when the water pump went. Before I took off the belt I made sure the timing marks were lined up, the cam gears and the cranksahft marks both lined up perfectly. so I left them there, and then took the belt off, then changed the water pump, and set the crankshaft 1/2 tooth BTDC, wrapped the belt around everything, turned it back to TDC, then tensioned the left, and it would always change the cam gears slightly and the crankshaft. So after a while of that we left it as close as we could get it, which is where its at now. Any other ideas?

keep trying, it's hard i know, it took me like 10 tries to get it to line up perfectly

Hate to bring up an old topic but i'd rather not make another.


I have this same lope at idle.

I had a vac leak (because i'm a dumbass and left it open on the mani) and fix that and it helped.

The car runs fine. No issues whatsoever.

I had the same problem with my timing belt. I swapped in a 95 sohc neon shortblock and i didn't ask if it was ever decked or not so i dont know if that had anything to do with it. The cams line up. The crank is litterally a mm or two off. My brother and I tried several times to get it to line up (using haynes and parts dinosaur tb install instructions word for word; yes i used a torque wrench on the tensioner pulley) perfect and a cunthair off is as close as we got.

I just ran the car about 30 min ago to show my friend who now has a neon himself that's getting work done. (i guess i got him interested) It idled fine at 1,100 rpm for a minute or so and then droped back down to 900-850 and started loping. Battery voltage is good. I get about 15 in/hg of vac that is stable on the gauge. I've had it running for 3 days and that is the first time it's ever done that. Not the lope but the 1,100 rpm smooth idle.

EDIT: I did have a vaccum leak but fixed it. Now i'm around 20-18" of vac and the lope is still there but not as bad. I have no other vaccum leaks. I do have an uncalibrated fcd on my maf and i'm n/a, i also have a 255hp fp. My egr is blocked off as well. Could that have anything to do with it?

Originally posted by 2GeclipseRS
I do have an uncalibrated fcd on my maf and i'm n/a,

If you have a MAF, then yes that could be it...

Ok.

Now i have another issue and i think it's my coolant system. You know what? I'm positive it's my coolant system.

I tried to burp it but the damn allen head screw on the t-stat wont budge. It's not rusted. It just has some cream colored bullshit around the threads.... I cannot get it to pop loose.

Today, while cruising, i notice the smell of coolant. I drive home and coolant is everywhere. I blew the upper heater hose that connects to the t-stat. Replaced it with a silicone spare i had laying around.

I cranked the car and let it idle. It WILL idle fine for about 45 seconds to 2 minutes and then it decides to lope a bit. Can't be the timing.

I smelled coolant again. I popped the hood and the overflow tank is boiling!!!! I check the coolant gauge and it's all the way to the top so i immediately shut the car off. I've had it running fine for a week. What gives?

What could it be?

Originally posted by 2GeclipseRS
Ok. Now i have another issue and i think it's my coolant system. You know what? I'm positive it's my coolant system. I tried to burp it but the damn allen head screw on the t-stat wont budge. It's not rusted. It just has some cream colored bullshit around the threads.... I cannot get it to pop loose. Today, while cruising, i notice the smell of coolant. I drive home and coolant is everywhere. I blew the upper heater hose that connects to the t-stat. Replaced it with a silicone spare i had laying around. I cranked the car and let it idle. It WILL idle fine for about 45 seconds to 2 minutes and then it decides to lope a bit. Can't be the timing. I smelled coolant again. I popped the hood and the overflow tank is boiling!!!! I check the coolant gauge and it's all the way to the top so i immediately shut the car off. I've had it running fine for a week. What gives? What could it be?

Busted t-stat, headgasket, low coolant.

Originally posted by DarkOne

Originally posted by 2GeclipseRS Ok. Now i have another issue and i think it's my coolant system. You know what? I'm positive it's my coolant system. I tried to burp it but the damn allen head screw on the t-stat wont budge. It's not rusted. It just has some cream colored bullshit around the threads.... I cannot get it to pop loose. Today, while cruising, i notice the smell of coolant. I drive home and coolant is everywhere. I blew the upper heater hose that connects to the t-stat. Replaced it with a silicone spare i had laying around. I cranked the car and let it idle. It WILL idle fine for about 45 seconds to 2 minutes and then it decides to lope a bit. Can't be the timing. I smelled coolant again. I popped the hood and the overflow tank is boiling!!!! I check the coolant gauge and it's all the way to the top so i immediately shut the car off. I've had it running fine for a week. What gives? What could it be?

Busted t-stat, headgasket, low coolant.

I was driving around with a busted t-stat for god knows how long. I replaced it before the motor was cranked. I pulled it out in peices. How it broke all to shit in there, i'll never know. (Yes, i got ALL the peices out before starting the car).

The headgasket is a brand new mls i put on probably 3 weeks to a month ago..... I've only been driving the car for a week since i put the motor back in.

Coolant was put in and topped off same day the motor went in.

Map, maf whatever the passenger side sensor is on the intake manifold....

Man, my car is so f'd. Right now, the only reason i'd consider getting rid of it is because now it's a chore to work on. I put a new shortblock in and it starts dicking around. It's costing me waaay too much money to fix. I was happy when it cranked but now it's looking like it's getting sold as soon as this is sorted and it's turboed. I just got my spare block bored and crank polished ready for some forged goodness too. *shakes head*

Ok fellas. Just got back from not-so-advanced auto parts.

We ran obd and all that popped up was one code. It was insufficient egr flow..... Duh. My egr is blocked off. What gets me is the rear o2 sensor hasn't thrown a code yet for my cat being hollowed.

I drove around for 5 miles (close to home ofcourse) and it was fine. The needle was steady at medium temp. Only one of my fans kicks on right now but tomorrow i'm pulling the bumper off and putting a pusher fan on. It's huge compared to the two wimpy stockers and i'm hoping that will help.

Any ideas for getting that allen head screw off to burp? I'm affraid i'm going to snap an allen wrench or strip the screw using a bit.

Bumpski

Checked map sensor voltage....

Come to find out, my map sensor voltage was 6.0-7.5

The thing is, i set it to 4.8.

I removed the fcd and voltage was .4 on the secondary wire and 3.8-4.2 and holding at 4.2 at idle on the primary.

Things are back to normal. I started the car up and it idled at 1100 and then backed down to 900-850. My boost (vac for now) gauge is stable and the needle isn't bouncing all over the place anymore so i guess i got shit sorted. That would definately be the reason why i killed half a tank of gas in 120 miles. That should have lasted me 100+ miles more.

Thanks for the help on that. Now, i'm still lost on how to get the burp screw out of the t-stat housing or can i do it some other way?