Ok, so most of you know, I have been working on my timing belt and finished it today... but here is the deal, when I was putting my water pump on, one of the (5) boltsseized up and sheared off. So I just put the rest of the bolts on and finished the project, (I am assuming the water pump will work just fine still). Also, I don’t know the correct way to refill the radiator, so I just tried to fill the reservoir... Anyway it started right up and ran fine, so I think the belt is good, but when I accelerate, there is a bad rattling sound... I can’t place the location of it, other than the engine bay. Any ideas? Also my car started to overheat when I tested it, so I quickly turned it off, and filled the radiator... could that have been it? In the morning I am going to check it again before work, so any thoughts would be welcomed!

 

Yes, your car overheated because you only filled the resevoir. What you should have done is filled the radiator, started the car and let the motor suck fluid from the radiator, then keep topping it off until the level stops dropping.

As for the rattle, I have no idea, but I dont think only using 4 of 5 bolts on something as important as the water pump was the best choice

 

For the waterpump, the bolt was sheared off inside the block... so I would have to pull the engine and whatnot just to get it out. I figured the cost/ effort for that, I might as well get a new engnie with a lot less miles (I have 162K) instead. So if the pump goes bad, and I wreck the engine, I'm swappin a new motor. Also, i did fill the radiator, just not all the way because I did not know if I could overfill it like you can with oil. Anway, thanks for the reply though, I'm gonna go out and check it right now

EDIT, the coolant was very low, so I refilled it, and now it seems to run great. The rattle is still there, but I think it is a little better, or I could just be imagining it... lol

 

Glad to hear its coming along.

Does the rattle happen all the time? Only during acceleration?

 

Thanks, and yeah only on acceleration... I dont know if it is just something loose or not because when I'm just sitting still, I rev up the engnie and no rattle at all... just when there is a load on the engine accelerating, or going up a hill also...

I alsmost forgot, when my car is warm, it idles really low - 300 or so (bottom of the tach) so do I need to do some other adjustment after the timingbelt? sorry for not knowing...

 

You need to check the spark timing. The new timing belt is not stretched out like the old one was, which causes the spark timing to advance. This leads to spark knock, or the "rattling" under load like you describe.

 

id say pull the top timing belt cover off and get a flash light and watch the timing belt with the motor running... if its moving and or ya can hear the noise louder with the cover off then id say pull the motor and tap the busted bolt out and replace it...

or you could cut a whole in the inner fender in that spot just large enough to get the tap inplace and try it that way.. and then just use a bolt and some large washers to close the drilled hole up....
at least thats how i would do it if pulling the motor is not a option...

 

well there is no way to tap the bolt with the engine still in the car... I really dont think that is it... like I said, I can rev the engine up and there is no rattle whatsoever... only when it has a load on it. So how d oI go about checking the spark timing? is there a thread already on how to do this? Thanks again

 

So I think that i am a tooth offin my timing... I busted out the timing light today and tried to fine-tune the timing because I heard that I needed to... the only issue was that I could not find the marks!!! so we were trying desperatlye to fine tune it by saying "ther it is... oh I lost it" until we saw that it was clearly to one side... This makes me think that I skipped a tooth on the timing... DAMN! can I fix this easily? The marks are to the left of the pulley when looking from the drivers side, (to the front side of the car) so am I one tooth retarded or advanced?

Also is it bad to drive my car like this? I have to pick up my GF from the airport (1 hour drive) on tuesday...

EDIT: I tried to rev my car up, and it is only reving to 3500. It is acting like there is a rev limiter... am quite sure that I am a tooth off, but in what direction?

 

I think you are saying the marks on the pulley have not reached the stationary mark when the plug fires. Remember that the engine turns counterclockwise. This would mean the timing is advanced too far. Note that to get a valid reading you must jumper the test plug on the ECM like you do to read out the codes.

You should not drive like that. I think you should be able to loosen the belt and slip it a tooth without taking the belts and crank pulley off again. Pry out the access plug so you can loosen the tensioner bolt.