Hey all. Im working on a little 89 Reliant K. It has a TBI 2.2.

It idles all over the place sometimes and is real weak off the line. (i know its only a 2.2.. but my 88 aries was much stronger off the line). I went to check the timing and with the coolent temp sens plugged in it jumps all over the place. With it unplugged it jumps up and down a deg or 2.

Also, the timing belt has a mark on it from the grove in the tensioner pulley. There are no cracks and it doesnt look like it jumped timing. What is the life expectancy on these belts?

Thanks.

Well, It's been a while since I had my LeBaron GTS Turbo 2.2 L, but I'll try.

You are doing the right thing by disconnecting the coolant sensor whilst checking the timing.

The "Hall Effect Sensors" in the distributors fail quite often , and they are cheap and easy to replace. First, check that connector, though !

The timing belts are rubber (of course) and the maintenance interval is around 60K miles. My car was still running fine at 173K with one timing belt change. I had gone through 3 head gaskets by then, though ( it WAS a Turbo).

Good luck.

Yep, I always do the t-belts at 60k, however these are non-interference engines, so no huge loss if it snaps on you.

I would remove, clean and then reinstall the AIS motor on the throttle body. Sometimes that helps, other times does nothing. Have you tried checking for codes just in case by chance the computer knows something is wrong?

These cars will run REAL bad if they starve for fuel. If the fuel filter is old, put a new one on.

I personally was in an 88 dakota when the belt threw on its 2.2...we dragged it back to the house and threw a new belt on...good to go. I wouldn't be too worried.

OK ill pull and clean the idle motor. I'll also change the fuel filter.

I still dont know if the jumping timming is making the idle erratic or if the erratic idle is making the timing jump around.

Here's the timing belt. Ive been looking at the FSM and it doesnt look like a big deal to change. I'll just do it so i dont get stuck 500 miles from home.

Hows the compression? Did you do a recent compression test? 2.2 engines tend to carbon up the intake valves to the point of plugging up the bowl. It usually happenned in the center two cylinders. That could explain the down on power feeling. Usually the head gasket goes next. Combustion chamber treatments every 10,000 miles or so is recommended to keep this from happenning. I have removed a few heads and physically removed the carbon buildup, polished up the valves/bowls etc. That tends to restore the power.

Would a differance in compression from cyl to cyl be a sign on a gummed up intake valve?

I took apart a TBI 360 once and the intakes where so gunked up i dont know how it ran...

If the air can't get into the cylinder to get compressed...? I would think that if a cylinder or two are not funtioning properly on a 4 cylinder (loss of efficiency), that might explain why it is down on power. That was my experience. I didn't ask for it to be my experience. The service manual mentions frequency of combustion chamber treatments to be important. We just have extremely poor quality gas in Canada. There must be some sort of reversion problem with the center cylinders that the engineers knew about and chose not to fix until they got away from throttle body injection.

Well the compression checks out. It seems to be running rich at times. I changed the O2 sensor with no change. If i rev it in N it spits some black smoke. And the cat seems to get real hot real quick

I noticed the hose to the EGR is plugged. Could this effect idle if its closed all the time?

No, if the EGR is stuck closed, you are fine. Sounds to me like it's time to put a fuel pressure gauge to it so see if that's a problem.

K. Good advice. Ill have to rent a gauge for EFI.

Tonight im working on replacing the timing belt.

Well since i dont have the special mopar tool PN 45534354.34455,3 to adjust the belt tension im am just guessing here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xh4KDJFBxUM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5OsoMgRJFM

It flaps up and down i'ed say 1/2" maybe. It sounds like i dont want this thing to be tight like a Vbelt but i hope its not to loose

And for some reason with the engine half apart it started to idle normal.

Rule of thumb for the timing belt is you should be able to twist the belt to about 90* in either direction, but no further. If memory serves anyway.

Fuel pressure for an 89 should still be 14.5psi I think.