Start and stalling issue, and a history behind the mystery.

[Mynxenoa]

Hey guys, I have a 2001 Galant GTZ (Second post besides my new member post so bare with me)

I've had quite a few problems with this car to be honest with you guys. I've done a timing belt, a starter, and looked for a water hose that was leaking water before I got here. The maintenance was close to none on this car from the last owner and I still think this thing has a fighting chance. This is where we are at:

The car will turn over but it will instantly die afterwards. Rented out a code reader and got all of these: (8 codes displayed, posted in order)
P0421 P1400 P0403 P0340 P0335 P0300 P1400 P0300

I'm not sure how to set the distributor to TDC and quite concerned if I get the spark plugs out of order how should I place them back in order. (I've noticed some numbers on my stock cap for the distributor but I don't know what they mean or any kind of resource that will teach me how to set the distributor to TDC.) The timing is now out of line and I don't know if a timing gun will do me any good or not.

The early tell-tale signs were: a jumping with switching gears, highs/lows rpms, late acceleration, and stalling. There was no service light that popped up for this sort of thing and there still hasn't been one ever since I actually sprayed out the MAF about two-three weeks ago. It broke down last weekend. The starter went out and I replaced it but I'm looking at fuel and electric related problems. I want to see the car start and stay on.

[boostzealot]

first off welcome! glad to have you. now lets see if we can get you on the path to getting that GTZ back on the road.

lets start with the distributor. since our distributors have the cam sensor and ignition coil internal to the design of the dizzy its essential to have it placed correctly when installing it. if you have never removed it then you wont have to worry about this but there is an easy way to check if it is properly aligned with the motor. this problem is usually avoided by the engineers at MMC who have given technicians a break. the wiper arm on the end of the dizzy that is driven by the back of the  rear bank cam has an angled notch on it that allows it to fit properly in the cam. the other side of the wiper arm does not so it wont fit if it is 180* out of time. again, if you have never removed the distributor as a unit from the car you will rarely encounter this.

now, if you are concerned with the numbers on the dizzy cap, there is an easy solution to that as well. the numbers indicate which cylinder will be fired when the rotor contacts its wiper on the under side of the cap. so that number 1 is cylinder 1 and when the motor is at TDC (not the dizzy) you can tell by looking at the rotor's position. if when you pull off the cap the long end of the rotor is pointed to where a number was, that means that that particular cylinder is at TDC. so, in order for you to get it to TDC for timing and such, turn the crank with a ratchet on the crank pulley and have someone watch the rotor to see when it reaches cylinder 1. that will and should be TDC for the motor. you can confirm this by pulling off both cam timing covers and verifying that the timing marks line up with the  notches in the valve covers.

let me know if ive lost you. lol i tend to get very technical when explaining things. its snowing out right now otherwise id take some pics for you. i hope you havent jumped a tooth on the timing and surely hope you get her running well soon. a simple replacement or regapping of the spark plugs along with a few other tune up items usually gets 6g72 equipped cars back on their feet. happy motoring!

[Mynxenoa]

Is there a way I could of placed the angled notch in the wrong way and bolted it on? Every time that I turn my crank to tdc the distributor moves as well (there was a time the rotor was on the wrong way). I tried to set up my distributor but there are no how tos. So I just tried to mimic the lastone as closest as I could. Also by starting the car out of time isn't it possible to blow out the engine? I work on this project with my dad and he is the master of quick fixes but engines are delicate things and I would prefer its done carefully. Glad I found you and this forum dude. I can't wait for the reply lol

[boostzealot]

ok, sorry for taking so long.
the dizzy rotor is supposed to move whenever you rotate the motor. this is because the dizzy is driven directly off of the rear bank cam. since the cam moves with the crank via the timing belt, that is normal. as far as installing the dizzy with it timed 180* out, this is and should be impossible because as i was saying it wont fit flush with the head. that would cause oil to be EVERYWHERE once you cranked up the oil pressure because the dizzy has an o ring on it and helps keep the oil in the head once its fully seated. if you dont have oil all over the place and the dizzy is fully seated on the head then its (the distributor) timed in correctly.

when i read that you had the rotor installed the wrong way i kind of cringed because you cannot install it incorrectly either. it has a certain way it goes on and only fully seats when you have it matched up the right way. the other two ways will not allow it to seat onto the face of the dizzy base.

if you start the motor with it not properly timed in as far as the timing belt is concerned you will not blow out the engine. what you will do instead since these motors are interference motors is bend some valves and lose compression and will never be able to get the engine to start because of the vast amount of pumping losses created by the valves not sealing properly in the combustion chambers. this is why its very important to verify the timing on the timing belt side is  fully correct like 5 times before you actually start the motor after performing a timing job on the car. also you are technically not supposed to start the engine right after a timing job anyway because you have to allow the hydraulic tensioner to fully expand on its own. after about 30-40mins you spin the crank by hand to verify the timing is still good and the tension on the belt is proper and then you can start the motor.

let me know if this helps at all?

[Mynxenoa]

I wanted to give you an update man. There was a once upon a time where I did a timing job by myself just to get the car going, I'll say that it was completely bootleg and we never got the component kits replaced with the timing. We used a tensioner that should of been changed a long time ago and it finally went bad on us. The symptoms were obvious to the guy that did my diagnostics. It just needed a proper timing job, and now it needs an O2 sensor.

[boostzealot]

so it should be running well here soon then. jolly good.

[Mynxenoa]

Well I got a new problem. The Camshaft seal is leaking oil, and they didn't touch that. I'm in trouble aren't I?