Hello all...Thanks for reading and helping I appreciate it I'll try to keep the post short, but there's a lot to tell.

Car is 2000 Honda civic ex, 1.6L vtech d16Y8.

So I commute about 600-1000 miles a week. Decided to run my car out of oil and ruin my motor. I didn't turn the bearings but they were about to turn, some clacking etc. I'm a poor college student and had my brothers friend try to throw a new set of bearings on: no dice (I knew it was a long shot but the quotes I was getting was 1500-3000 grand to have the motor rebuilt at a shop.

Friend says he can rebuild it and just toss him a bit of cash later.

End up with a master rebuild kit, turn the crank, one new connecting rod cause it was bent. He puts the motor back together and it's running weird. Idle keeps dropping to 0 at stops and it's pinging badly. Google tells us how to set the timing (service connector by ECM). Runs perfectly, better than ever in fact. I drive it nicely for 520 miles with no problems, not taking it above 3k rpms. At 520 I decide to start pushing the car a bit more, but never take it above 4k rpm. Right at the end of one of my 100 mile trips the check engine light comes on and suddenly the idle is dropping again and it's like I'm driving the car under water (no power).

Take it to a "professional" shop: They said code was for knock sensor (damn auto zone). turns out it was faulty. They also said my cam timing was off 2 teeth which they fixed. Fixed and new knock Installed and car still runs like crap. They say they cant figure it out. It passes smog with flying colors, compression is good and like new at 25lbs ( i think that's what they said), supposedly no bent valves, etc. THey say take it and drive it maybe the ECM will reset. No dice, so I take it back. They say it's running really rich and that I need a MAP sensor, but they cant find one and of course it's friday and there closing. Problem is the car stalls at stops, drops to almost zero rpms, gas pedal has to be feathered to get it to go up, and feels like I'm driving under water with the e brake on.

Now we get to current problem (lol, sorry): I take it home, buy an autozone (I know bad) MAP sensor. I get my power back, no longer like i'm driving under water. But I still have the funky idle problems and it's throwing P0172 (system too rich bank 1) and P0170 (fuel trim bank 1). Also I cant seem to get the timing to line up right with a timing gun fully retarded at the moment. Which is how the shop had it set as well (although they said the timing was is in).

When the timing was set the first time the distributor was maxed and advanced. After they fixed the cam timing, they said it was in timing but it was maxed and retarded. They did say it was running rich, that my injectors were running at 7 volts (or something like that) when they should be running at 2. Timing however does not line up with gun and "needs" to be further retarded to go in but it's maxed and cant go any further.

Sorry for the long post...I'll sum up.

-do I need to do anything to the valves? did not touch the head when I rebuilt the motor
-why wont the car go into timing? what am doing wrong on the timing? Could anything other than the cam timing mess up the timing internally in the motor (like he messed it up when building)
-any help with the stalling at stops and timing would be awesome.
-any help with the running rich problem would be great too.
-cleaned the dist cap and rotor, noticed the plug wires say 1999 on them, but they are installed at the right cylinders/distributor. Could new cap, rotor, plug wires solve my problem?
-plugs are really white on the node and velvet black all around (from running rich I'm assuming)

the car has a new cat 20k ago and passes smog with flying colors supposedly, new timing belt, new plugs, new MAP, new knock sensor, new motor mounts. The car does seem to run hotter up top, but not on the temp gauge.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. The guy who rebuilt it is coming out today but he's not a honda mechanic, and I start school on monday I know I went about the whole thing wrong by trying to nickel and dime it, and am just trying to get this solved at this point. The car was running great until the cam timing slipped. It's really close to running well, but I'm missing something I think. Thanks. Sorry so long.

 

Check the cam timing again. Take the upper plastic cover off (will require loosening the valve cover and raise it some to unhook from over the timing belt cover) to see the marks on the timing belt pulley. Rotate the crank to TDC and the marks should line up (within +- one tooth on the belt). The spark timing should come in near the center of the adjustment range if the cam is in time.

 

Hi, Thanks for your help on this.

Cam timing is off by about 1.5 or so teeth. the "up" is not pointing up and the left mark is not on the arrow. TDC is the white mark to the right of the 3 marks close together (BTDC)? just to make sure.

This will be the "third" time it was reset if I do it. Is there something that could be making the cam timing go out? Looking at the service manual procedure it says to set the timing belt drive pulley with the pointer on the oil pump. If this was off would it keep screwing up the cam timing? I ask because I cant see it and will have to remove a bunch of parts to get the bottom pulley cover off.

I have the procedures in the service manual to set the cam timing. Is there anything I should watch out for or know before setting it? Or anything else to check before I start?

Thanks a bunch for your help, again.

 

You can set the crank by the single mark on the outside pulley instead of the oil pump, they will be the same as long as the pulley key is in place. Without taking the pulley and lower cover off, you can also confirm the crank is at TDC by removing the #1 spark plug and probing the piston through the spark plug hole.

The tension needs to be set properly and then the tensioner bolt fully tightened. If the belt has skipped there may be damage to the teeth and you might consider a new belt. Turn the engine several revolutions to inspect all the teeth on the timing belt.

 

It is at TDC and out the 1.5 teeth. Timing belt is really lose.

Do I need to take the bottom cover off and crank pulley to set the tensioner? and is it possible that something is wrong with the tensioner that makes it keep going out of timing.

If I do need to take the crank pulley off is there a way to do it without a pulley puller since the bolt just turns the motor?

Thanks again...

 

If the belt has been running really loose you really should replace it with a new one.

It is possible to adjust the belt with the lower cover on by prying out the plastic plug that lets you reach the tensioner bolt.

The best way to remove the crank pulley bolt is with an impact wrench. Once the bolt is out, the pulley just slides off. Be careful not to lose the little metal key.

 

Hello again,

So I finally got everything lined up with the bottom cover still on. I have the adjusting bolt for the tensioner at 33ft lbs like the manual says. The belt slides by hand still and I'm wondering if this is normal? Does it tension up when it turns? or did I do something wrong? I have not put it back together yet because I was wondering about that slack.

I have had the timing set set by a shop before, but it was still running like garbage when I got it back. Im thinking something is making it slip timing and am curious if the tensioner could be bad or installed incorrectly.

Also can I turn the crank by hand to see if it tightens up? or?

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks again for all your help. Sorry about the slow response...i started school and am riding the train back and forth etc...

 

...also is the belt suppose to have equal tension on each side of the belt or only on the tensioner/firewall side?... I ask because before I got it set I had to turn the crank some and I noticed it tightened the belt up really tight, but only on the firewall side of the belt, and I had to tighten and reloosen the tensioner adjusting bolt ...thanks again

 

May want to double check your tensioning procedure. Tensioner Bolt should be loose, you turn crank to advance the Tbelt three teeth, then tighten tensioner bolt. If your spring is not worn, it should automatically set the tension. Your belt shouldn't be sliding off.

 

Thanks all for the help. I did manage to get it running but not well enough to feel comfortable making my 750 mile a week commute. I think something may be wrong with the tensioner (or my work lol). Took it to reputable mechanic today to look it all over. It drove and idled fine but I noticed the belt was making noise. I may have it too tight or something. Either way I was able to get it to the shop, and verify that the previous shop did a really poor job.

Thanks again everyone...I appreciate it.