M030
HalfDork
1/22/12 9:51 a.m.
I'm about to take a 1995 Volvo 850 in trade on one of my old "science project" Porsche 924s from a guy who "does all of his own repairs and maintenance."
Said Volvo won't start after it's been running for 20 minutes or more, and has NO power going up hills, etc. Upon closer inspection, I found that the timing is retarded, because the belt was incorrectly installed two teeth off. I asked the seller about this, and he informed me that "850s have no timing marks, so I got it real close."
It DOES have timing marks, by the way.
If I take this car, my first order of business will be to change the timing belt and properly set the timing. Yes, using the marks.
My question is this: since this guy has been driving the car with the timing so far off for about a year and a half, what kind of collateral damage could he have done to the engine?
as easy as that belt is to r&r, i'd just do it and find out.
My guess would be burned valves and more wear on the bores and rings.
Do a compression check on it.
Unless the valves have been hit, nothing.
might be a bit more carboned up... but I do not forsee any real problems.
As long as it didn't overheat, I don't see a problem.
wow what a moron. even if there weren't marks he could have marked the belt in three spots and transferred the marks to the new belts. thats what I did with the beetle so I didn't have to worry about the factory procedure and the almost invisible timing marks lol.
I would think next to nothing damage wise besides carbon build up. The cylinder temps wouldn't have been very hot with the timing retarded. Now if he was 2 teeth off in the other direction there would have been alot of preignition getting the temps up, potentially causing damage such as a burnt valve or head gasket. It probably wouldn't have made it a year and a half if it was advanced 2 teeth.
IDK how the cam timing and the ignition timing are related but, in general, retarded ignition timing increases exhaust temps. this could lead to damaged catalytic converters.
