a little history on the car. it's an automatic 85 turbocoupe with 70K miles. when i bought it, it was overheating and had a blown head gasket. the overheating was a simple fan relay. the head gasket wasn't that bad at all. it would still run and drive just fine. it had plenty of power and ran like a good running 2.3 turbo should. i took it down for an afternoon and swapped the head gasket... i found out exactly why california cars suck, lol... sooo many vaccum lines. anyway, i got it all buttoned back up and reset the timing and fired it up. started right up. went to take it for a drive and it just felt like it was really under powered. it builds boost just fine, but won't go like it should.

played with the timing last night. first i played with ignition timing... no change. then i played with cam timing. i advanced it two teeth and it wouldn't even stay running... dropped it back a tooth and it ran, but ran like shit. then i took it back to one tooth retarded and it seemed like it helped a bit. so i got excited and retarded it another tooth... didn't really like it. so i went with one tooth retarded and took it for a drive. it seemed like it had a bit more power, but still no where near where it should be. this thing has be befuddled. i mean, it idles great, free revs in neutral great, and just runs great. when you put it in gear, it'll drive great and shifts great, but it doesn't seem like it's puting the power to the ground. what the hell could this be. i'm actually thinking about doing something that i havn't done in years.... take the car to a shop.

help.

 

Maybe the transmission? Because if everything spools fine and all, then you put it in gear and it feels like something is holding it back... Or maybe a vacuum line or 2 may be crossed?

 

the thing that get's me is that it ran perfect before the head gasket swap. all i did was take the head off.

 

Did you spray around your intake manifold and vaccum lines with some either yet?

 

i didn't even think of that. i'll try that tonight after work.

 

Did you reinstall the Pill/reconnect the spout connector. I would set both cam and crank timign to TDC and also make sure the distributor is pointed towards number 1.

 

yes, the spout was out when i set timing and it's in now. and the dizzy is spot on.

 

What method did you use to set the cam timing? Does it make boost?

 

i set the cam timing the way i've always set cam timing... set #1 to tdc, and rotate that cam gear to the center of the three marks and tighten everythng down... and make sure the dizzy is on #1 of course. it builds 10psi just fine.

 

Guess the most common mistake about doing the hg swap is setting cam timing.

Take the car and set it to tdc like you think it should be then use the string method to verify its correct.


String Method- with the motor in the assumed correct timing take crank to the tdc mark on the timing cover. Then remove the cover and use a string to make a line from the center of the bolt holding on the aux pulley to the center of the bold holding the cam sprocket. The string when taunt should aling perfectly with the pointer on the cam pulley.
This method is used when timing marks are suspect and is full proof for a stock cam/pulley set up.