I'm in the process of doing a timing belt on my 02 3.5 XLS Sport. I took off the timing belt and rotated the crank gear less than a quarter turn clockwise until I realized I made a mistake. I didn't set my timing marks and my belt is off. Yes I know, very stupid. Does anyone have advice for setting my crank and cam timing correctly without the belt? I don't want to risk bending valves. I'll get my belt on as soon as possible, but I'm worried that it's out of sync now and I want to get it timed correctly. Thank you in advance

 

That is an unfortunate mistake, but not the end of the world. Remember that even if the engine is out of timing, you will still have somewhere near 30 degrees of free rotation before some valve will interfere with the cylinder. If you rotate the engine by hand and not force it, you can find the places where those interference positions start and stop. Don't be afraid that a valve touched the cylinder when you rotate engne by hand. When engine is running, you have thousands of explosions happening inside of it. If a valve touches the cylinder when you turn engine by hand (not forcing it), it is not going to hurt it.

Here is what you need to do to find your timing again or at least to "free up" the engine:
1. Get a small mirror, good flashlight and something to mark the timing marks with (bright white nail polish). Keep your old timing belt.
2. Look again on the crank gear and find the timing marks. There is a stamped dot on the crank gear - that is your mark. Find the marks on the crank case. It is short line about one centimeter long. Mark both of them. This will help you see them better later.
2. Find timing marks on both camshafts and cam gears and mark them too.
3. If you only rotated the crankshaft out of timing (didn't touch the camshafts), try to rotate crankshaft back to approximate position where you started.
4. Install your old timing belt over all pulleys and take out slack (to not torque to full tension, do not release the tensioner).
5. Slowly rotate crank gear with a ratchet forward (clockwise). You are trying to move all gears to the position where they align with the timing marks. If at any point you feel resistance to rotation - STOP. You found an interference point. Rotate crank gear back a little to move away from that spot.
6. Examine the relative position of the timing marks on the crank gear and crank case as well as marks on the camshaft gears and cylinder heads. You should be able to tell which of the gears is the furthest one out of time. For example you can see that both camshafts are in sync and they are away from timing marks on the heads by about 1/3 of rotation), at the same time crank gear is off its timing mark by a quarter rotation. You know that you need to adjust only crankshaft position then. Remember - the crank gear rotates twice for each rotation of cam gears.
7. At this point remove the belt and rotate which ever gear is off by one or two teeth in the direction to "catch up" with timing for the other gears.
8. Reinstall the belt on all gears and repeat Step 5. Do this until you can freely rotate the engine.

I can't tell enough times - GO SLOW and be patient. At times it may feel hopeless, but if you don't hurry and try to think through it, it will work. If any adjustment you made to the rotation of an individual gear makes interference worse, reverce the action and repeat procedure again. You may need to make that adjustment in a different diretion. You always want to rotate individual gear by no more than 2-3 teeth in ether direction before installing the belt and testing again.

Once you find that the engine can be rotated withhout any interfrence, turn it through full two rotations to make sure you have "all clear". After this stop at the timing marks and proceed with the belt replacement.

Use your old timing belt throughout all this procedure. Once you get close to proper timing marks, you can take old belt off and install your new belt and check/set timing.

Good luck.

 

Thanks Hunter D, this information will really help. You are right, I should have went slowly. This is a valuable lesson not just for me, but for anyone doing this type of procedure.

 

I’m in need of some help with my montero sport 2000. It seems like it wants to not go. When it’s cold it runs fine but as soon as it warms up it wants to act funny. I’ve changed my spark plugs and the coils and they wires to them. It was okay for a minute but then it started doing the same thing. Rough idling , when I get to 60 mph it wants to make a weird noise.. I’ve got my transmission checked they say it’s not the transmission. I go through drive thru and I had to sit a minute and when I went to leave white smoke came out the exhaust for a min literally then it stopped…Plese help me..

 

It is difficult to diagnose this with so little information. Lets start with the obvious - with rough idle and lack of power, do you have the check engine light on?

 

Based on the description of the smoke, that likely just bad valve stem seals. Quite common on these engines. It was likely the smoke was faintly blue, if it was engine coolant it would be white and smell sweet.

 

I’m sorry for the late response. I have 5 codes that pop up and they are
P0442: small leak in the EVAP
2 ways to clear it is the gas cap.
Option 2 The canister Purge Valve.

Code 2 : P0128- A code P0128 may mean that one or more of the following has happened: Low engine coolant level Leaking or stuck open thermostat (likely) Faulty cooling fan (running too much) Faulty coolant temperature (ECT) sensor Faulty intake air temperature (IAT) sensor

Code 3 P0403- Exhaust Gas Recirculation Circuit Malfunction". Which online it says I need a mechanic for sure because of the difference of the code could mean.

P0403 is an OBD-II generic code that indicates that the engine control module (ECM) has detected the engine exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) circuit has malfunctioned. The ECM detected a short or open circuit in the EGR vacuum control solenoid or wiring to the solenoid.

Code 4 - P0110 is a general code for a problem with the Intake Air Temperature (IAT) electrical circuit sensor sending incorrect voltage input signals to the Engine Control Unit (ECU). This means the voltage input to the ECU is incorrect, which then means that it is not in the correct range and causes the ECU to incorrectly manage the fuel system.

Code 5 P0105 is the general code for a problem with the MAP circuit having an electrical failure or malfunction. The MAP sensor is an integral part of the fuel injection system and provides signals to the Engine Control Unit (ECU) for smooth operation and good fuel economy.

 

With so many codes related to engine power management, I would think they are all related in one way or the other.
When did all this started happening? Was it all of a sudden or gradually? Did anyone work on the vehicle just before all these malfunctions appeared?
As far as trying to sort them out, - start with the esiest things first - check coolant level, check wiring circuit integrity (see if a rat or a possum chewed through a bunch of wires somewhere), check to make sure your engine grounds are clean and actually securely connected to the block, heads and intake manifold. Disconnect amd reconnect every connector under the hood. It is possible that a poor or corroded connectors are giving computer bad signal which is getting amplified with other errors. Is it possible that couple connectors are plugged into wrong sensors/solenoid? Don't really know, but I suppose one could force a wrong plug onto a wrong end if they are not paying attention.
After this, you can try to clear all codes and see which one gets set first (or if all of them pop back on again rapidly)

 

Thank you so much for the response. I’m not AT all Auto smart, so I have no idea where to begin. I did just have my coils pacts and all wiring that connects to the coil packs. Plus all the sparks Plugs as well. I just dont know if I should start with the EGR Value or if I even got the part then no one to replace it. It’s been happening for about two weeks I tried to get the auto stores to run it for codes but they wouldn’t do it for me.