Neon 2.0 Timing issue

[turbo84voyager]

I have a friend who is a local mechanic that is having a timing issue ( we believe) with his neon. He just picked up the car and it is a dog. It is a 03 with a 2.0 SOHC 5-spd. He has a 95 SOHC 5-spd and he said it has quite a bit more power. He went to replace the timing belt and noticed someone had some marks with paint on the crank so someone was obviously working on it before. He said no matter what he does, the cam timing appears to be off 1/2 a tooth. He verified the TDC mark on the crank and it is right on but no matter what he does the cam marks are off. He has done quite a few of these over the years and never ran into this problem. He does not know the history of the car. It is possible the head was changed. He said it does run better in higher RPM's which makes sense with the cam timing being off a little. Has anyone ever come across this? I was thinking mabe the head was shaved excisively.

Thanks!

Justin

[shackwrrr]

Any access to a scanner to read cam crank difference? Possible head shave, or possible that someone pressed the crank gear on wrong without a key.

[turbo84voyager]

Any access to a scanner to read cam crank difference? Possible head shave, or possible that someone pressed the crank gear on wrong without a key.

I will ask him if he has his scanner on it. The crank is correct. He verified it with a dial indicatior and TDC lines right up.

[cordes]

If the belt and tensioner are good then I too would wonder about excessive milling. Does he get a code when running it? IIRC the first time I did one of these motors I ened up of by a tooth and while it ran just fine it threw a code for it. I reset the timing and it was fine with no code.

[turbo84voyager]

I did more research and found an article on allpar that discusses the timing marks being slightly off on some of the neon cam gears. Its only off by at most 1/2 tooth which sounds like this one. Mabe it was a casting issue. There is no code and my understanding is 1 tooth will throw a code. Its been a few years since i did one so I cannot remember how the mark was on the last one. His bigest complaint is the car is lacking power on in the low end. He said if he tries to accelerate it feels like it looses some power if you get on it until the rpm's get up then it takes off. He said his 95 has quite a bit more low end power. Mabe this is normal on the 03.

[cordes]

95 was about as light as they got. I could see feeling a big difference between the two based on that alone. Not only that, but wasn't 03 the year with the crappy factory cal for the trans? I know they supposedly reflashed them free by request, but that could have something to do with it too. It doesn't take much for a 130CHP motor to feel slow.

[Sgt Craig]

He isnt setting the timing right.The crank has to be half a tooth off before the tensioner is set.When the tensioner is set itll pull it back into time.I know doesnt make sense but im betting that hes doing it wrong.