Recently I replaced the timing belt, water pump, thermostat, both drive belts, and the valve cover gasket. All went well, timing marks all line up and the rotor points to the #1 plug terminal on the distributor cap. The car starts fine and idles great. Well the car has zero power. The car is fuel injected. We to my surprise while looking under the hood, the cat turned glowing red and ignited into a slow burning flame. So I cut it off and got a stainless steal pipe to fit in its place to see if that would help. It did!! But the power is still very poor/low. It takes approximately 2-4 seconds for the rpms to jump every thousand rmps while the car is in neutral. I drove it around the block and it will get up to speed but just takes too damn long to do it. I haven't yet put a timing light on it to check how many degrees it may be off, I plan on doing that tonight when I get home from work. Any info would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks,
Nick
Daytona Beach, FL

Yes check the timing! Timing way too far to retard can still let it idle smooth but could explain way too much unburned fuel which the converter will try to finish. Please report back on your findings. Did all this start when you did this work or was it poor before? - T
Tom Greenleaf - MetroWest Boston - USA
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http://www.autoacsystems.com/tomgreenleaf/

In Reply To

Thanks Tom!, Of course all this started after I was done with the work. The car sat for 3+ months before I could get to it. When I was putting the new timing belt on, the rotor wasn't pointing to the #1 plug wire terminal at TDC so I manually turned the aux. shaft until it pointed where it needed to be. I think that is what caused the advance/retard in the ignition timing. Sound like it could be a explination for it? I'll check it tonight and let you know the outcome!
Thanks,
Nick
Daytona Beach, FL

Hey all! The ignition timing was off by quite a bit. I was at 7 degrees ATDC and needed to be at 10 degrees BTDC. The car runs great now.

Thanks,
Nick Thornhill
Daytona Beach, FL