i swear my car is destined to always have a CEL on. just about a month or so ago, i finally fixed my O2 sensor CEL, then just last week i fixed my IAT CEL, now today i get this...AGAIN! i had this code come up about a year after i got my car, and just left it alone for a while, and went to get inspected and all that, and couldnt since im a 96 and had a CEL, so i just ended up not gettin inspected for about a year after it was due, until i got 2 tickets for insp/emiss, so bought a new egr valve, and what do you know, it fixed it right up, so now whats the problem???

i do know it has been running real shitty lately, and im sure my alternator mentioned in my other post isnt helping my car, but lately its been real sluggish, and im thinking my timing is off, cause when i went to put the crank pulley on last week like i said in my other post, i cut a little chunk out of the cover, aligned the crank up, and i didnt see no marks on the cam gears (stock) and was confused, but the intake looked to be off, that was going by the words on the gears themselves.

if that is the case, that is the second time the intake cam has been off, so what would cause that? my tensioner is the same one that came on the car, and i should have replaced it when i did all the timing, since everything else is new, cept that, guess i might have to tear it apart again...hows them new tensioners working out?

I think you thought it thru while writing this post and found your problem....Now for the hard part, actually doing the job again....

In about a week, I'll have my new mechanical tensioner installed and I will post results after the job and after running for a few miles....

Based on input seen here, it's the way to go....

does the new tensioner work with cars that have a plunger type tensioner? also, im thinking slowboy installed the cams the wrong way, cause on the ones i have sitting here, when the crank is TDC, the marks on the cam gears are pointing next to each other where it says 609, but the way it is now, while at TDC, the cams are where it says 2.0l front, so im wondering if they screwed up? would it even run if they were switched up, having intake dowel up while exhause down?

also, what about my EGR valve, its saying a/f reading not detected, should i try taking it off and cleaning it and the tube? do i have to take the tube off to clean it, cause its such a PITA to get it off, and its only a year or so old, damn autozone parts...

Naw, EGR tube is good...Ya may want to clean the yuck off the EGR valve though....

Cam's are hard to install backwards due to the cam seal sides and the cam sensor....Buuuut, the timing mark near 609's are supposed to line up, NOT "2.0 front"...

Yes at www.partsdinoisaur.com , there's a conversion kit to mechanical tensioner and it includes water pump, tensioner, belt, and idler pully, complete with bearings....It is less expensive and will likely outlast the hydraulic unit....Email Bruce out there with questions..>You'll fall over at how fast he replies... LOL...

well i didnt neccesariliy mean backwards, just that they were 180* off, so in otherwards, the marks on the gears are pointing away from one another when at TDC. i think i had my car running like that before last year when i first tried redoing my head and timing, but who knows.

everything in my timing is new, except the tensioner itself, so i wouldnt doubt that the belt jumped a tooth, because it was like that when i took it to slowboy, intake was a tooth off, even after checking it time and time again when i did it.

how do i go about cleaning the EGR valve, ive taken it off plenty of times, so just unbolt to 2 bolts on the block, turn it over and spray come carb cleaner in it?

Copngratulations for not killing yourself while working on the car yet!

Every mod is a near-death experience for some of us.

Sounds like a timing problem, but I'm assuming you found CEL 32 on the chart on the home page...

Don't give up.