Timing Belt

[pickster1107]

91 Festiva GL, blew a timing belt last week, replaced belt, now I lack power' especially passing power, pedal to the floor barely gains speed. plenty of speed in first three take off gears, slowly climbs after that' once I reach 55mph in order to pass someone I better be going down a hill! anyone else have this problem? or have the solution? help would be greatly appreciated. keep in mind I am not mechanically orientated. Thank You.

[Zanzer]

Recheck your timing belt to make sure you don't have the cam gear a tooth off.

[pickster1107]

P.S. Thank You for your reply

[pickster1107]

You Sir have my humble apology, Once again after trying everything I could think of I rechecked the timing belt, apparently the guy that I had put it on originally, used the wrong timing mark. I rechecked it again today and re-timed it properly' runs like a dream again!! if not for your advice I would never had checked the timing belt for a third time! glad to know that you know what you are talking about. thanks again for your feed back.

[Zanzer]

Thanks for the kind words, I'm always happy to help. I'm glad it was an easy fix and solved your problem. It's a fairly common mistake so it's a good "go to" solution if there's an issue immediately after installing a new belt

[TorqueEffect]

My Festiva has the same symptoms. I have no idea if the timing belt has ever been changed. Could this be why?

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[Zanzer]

It would have to be pretty stretched (if it was installed correctly). Has it always been like this since you first got the car?

[TorqueEffect]

Yeah, been like this the whole time I have had the car. I have never driven another Festiva so I can't say if the engine has anything wrong with it in terms of power.

I know the take off gears it pulls decently well, but to get up to highway speeds when pulling onto the highway, I have to leave it in 4th gear until about 55 or 60 or else it would take ages in 5th, and that would be dangerous.
That and when doing my own 0-60 sprints, the car is doing 14-15 sec 0-60, when I hear from people on here it should be 10-11 sec 0-60.

[Zanzer]

That is a little sluggish. My B3 pulls fairly well in 5th but it's also a 30k Ford crate motor. But even with that there are times when 4th does come in quite handy in helping it get out of it's own way LOL. It would be nice if you could drive another B3 car or 2 for comparison. They aren't exactly powerhouses but when properly maintained they can hold their own on the interstate given a little extra time. I drove mine from my home here in NC to Rock Hill, SC today and maintained a minimum of 75 on the interstate and was passing other slower cars without too much effort.

I see by your sig that the car has 310k so she does have a little wear on the mill. How many miles of that have you personally clocked? If it had higher miles on it when you got it or you've put 40-50k on it yourself I'd definitely recommend changing the belt as a security measure anyway. Anytime I get a vehicle with over 50-60k on it I at least inspect the timing belt...although 9/10 times I usually just go ahead and change it (and the water pump if it's belt driven) since I'm there anyway, unless it looks absolutely brand new.

Mechanical timing is pretty simple to check on a B3. Just pull the covers, get the engine on TDC, and look at the locations of the marks on the cam gear in relation to the marks on the head and crank pulley to oil pump.

There are a few other things that could display the same symptoms though; in need of a tuneup, dirty fuel filter, that kind of stuff.

[TorqueEffect]

Well 310k miles is actually on the body of the car. The motor has about 140k.

I did a tune-up to the car shortly after I bought it a year ago, and I have only put about 10k miles on it. I did the spark-plugs, cap & rotor, plug wires.
Also I changed out the bad coolant sensor on the intake manifold, changed the Bosch o2 sensor for a Denso. Also have ran quite a bit of fuel system, and injector cleaner through it.

I had been thinking of changing the fuel-filter. I guess I will go ahead, and buy one, see what my results are.

[Zanzer]

Good deal, sounds like you are well on your way then. If the car has 140k and you aren't sure of the belt mileage I think I would still change it for peace of mind. Any car that uses a timing belt (not just Festivas) have a service interval of 50-65k.

A new fuel filter is never a bad idea and as far as the fuel injection cleaner, I use Chevron Techron. Almost any cleaner you buy off the shelf is going to have Techron in it as the active ingredient so I prefer to go straight to the source Also, I've had very good luck using the 20gal treatment size bottle in 10gal tanks. It won't hurt anything to double up. If I have a really stubborn fuel system I use a 20g bottle of Techron and a bottle of Seafoam together.

[TorqueEffect]

Yeah, looked in there and the fuel filter definitely has been there a while. I tried loosening the the bolt that tightens the filter down, and the bolt broke, lol.

So yeah, ordering a Pentius fuel filter, Pentius Air filter (current one looks fine, but why not, only a couple bucks more), and a new fuel pump strainer (current one keeps catching on the float, plus does hurt to change it out)

I have run Lucas, STP's Seafoam imitation stuff (Was given to us free at work to get us autozone employees to sell it), and actual seafoam itself, so I think the system is thoroughly cleaned, plus it is a brand new gas tank, only been in there a few months.