Hello,

I am new to this forum and have a question about the cam timing on my 1996 Montero LS. This has the 3.0 SOHC 24v engine which I just replaced the timing belt in (second) at 160k miles. While I haven't done this before I found the job to be quite interesting while frustrating at the same time.

Now let me get to my question. I would like to know what the result would be if I were a tooth off on the cam timing. By this I mean the tooth off is on the cams, not the crank. The timing mark on the crank is hard to see due to the access problems in this model as I did not remove the radiators. If I were a tooth advanced, or retarded on the cam timing, what would be the result in the engine performance. This is my wifes car and after completing the job I took it for a test drive and it seemed sluggish or less torque than it had. I don't drive this vehicle often and drive an Ford with a diesel so there is a big diffence that might be effecting my ability to discern any diffence. My wife drove it and seemed to think that it was a little sluggish when you needed the torque but it is fine at higher RPM's. I experienced the typical issues with stalling after replacing these parts but got past that thanks to all of the discussion on this board. Now I need to determine if I should dismantle and check/change the cam timing.

Any assistance here would be greatly appreciated.

Steve