To check timing just put wrench on crank bolt and turn til marks line up ( Your bolt is old style BTW) Idle issue and bad miss- could be intake issue- I paid 2700 for mine - and had to drive 2 hrs home- same issue- Drove OK but got worse quickly. My truck would buck/cough Esp if up above 50mph. i know it says intake was done -but are you 100% sure? My truck had 125k when I got it. I reluctanly tore down intake- And spent around 450 for all intake parts- truck runs great now. As for fuel Vacuum my truck does that too- esp when hot weather. no noise though- maybe you were hearing air trying to escape? Good luck! I do like my SR- but still don't feel as confident as my ol 1990 LS with 270k LOL! I had hard time believing that was the issue with mine. I was sure it was something else- Hopefully part off the Butterfly did not fall in...

The butterfly did go into the top end for the prior owner. One head was pulled and repaired. Junkyard intake installed.(not the best option, but cheap) I suppose its possible something remained from that incident.

That's what I was initially thinking, too, Lloyd. The red flag was that one cylinder head was replaced, but not the other. Who does that? What if there were parts from the grenaded butterfly left hanging around over in the other side?

Man, I sure hope to hear that the timing stayed intact. If it jumped...bad juju. On the other hand, parts getting gulped into the intake system isn't good, but I'd rather deal with that particular problem than vales that went clangity-clang against pistons.

Get that engine spun around to check that timing!

John B.

Well, didn't get as far as I wanted to get tonight since I got off work later than expected, but managed to get a few things done. Namely this:



and this:



Got my crank pulley tool made so if anyone local needs one for their timing belt change, let me know.

The crank bolt came off easy. TOO easy. Got my 25" breaker bar on there and it took no effort to break it loose. I wedged the new tool on the frame rail.





A couple more things I found. Drained the oil via the drain plug. Didn't drop the pan. Caught the first quart or so in a cup before letting the rest go into the drain pan so I could look at it more closely. I let it set for a while so any particulates in the oil would be at the bottom. Slowly poured it from the cup to the drain pan while watching for any metal, or anything at the bottom of the cup. Nothing found except black oil. I ran a couple of tanks with fuel injection cleaner so cleaning some carbon out of the top end may explain some of the blackness in such a short time.

Also, took the alternator to O'Reilly to have it tested. Grabbed the pulley and spun it for the parts guy, and he didn't even bother to test it. It's gone. New alternator in the garage along with a new negative battery cable, and a new positive terminal to replace the beat up one that is currently there.

Saw a wire loom that had melted on the right side exhaust manifold and it appears to be the battery to starter cable. Looks like it got hit so that will have to be replaced. I'm wondering if the starter got shorted and is partially engaging? Maybe causing the noise I heard? Wishful thinking. Will look into further tomorrow.

Need to rent a harmonic balancer tool tomorrow so I can get the rest of the timing cover off and finally get an answer on the timing. Didn't have time to get to it tonight.

And a neat little artifact I found wedged between the Y pipe and the transmission:



Wonder what else I'm going to find?? Sorry for the long update. Hoping to document this saga from start to finish for anyone else new that comes along. Hopefully this thread can be of some use in the future.

Thanks for the help everyone.

Jay

(Edit: Link to website showing how to make the crank pulley tool. Credit to the website owner.)

Homemade crank pulley tool

What you describe is possible. I had a starter engage off-road, then a fire started in a horrible place. In the end when someone had re-assembled my engine they left a bracket for the tranny filler tube out of place.(upside down) So, they simply welded it to the fire wall, pinching the starter hot lead.

I had a fire in a horrible place once. But a shot cleared that right up. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />

I think mine was like winch hill #4 on Fordyce creek trail. And that fire wall material takes a lot to put out.

Well, I got as far as I could tonight. Crank pulley and balancer are off. Pulled what I think was number one spark plug (left front facing engine). Didn't have the right tool to get into the spark plug hole. Didn't realize they were quite so deep in there. Lined up the crank gear on the timing mark after feeling compression stroke on number one. Sorry about the photos. My camera doesn't do so well when it starts getting dark.



Obviously taken from front of engine, left to right.









Looks to me like the timing is off, but I'm seeing only half a tooth off?? Maybe you guys will see it differently. Is it off? The manual is a bit unclear in the copies I got. Do you line up the crank gear on the peak where the dot is, or in the valley where the white paint is? I just went back out and rotated the timing mark on the crank gear to the valley, and each cam is off one tooth. Looks like this guy I bought the Montero from assembled this thing wrong for all 4 cams to be off.

Thanks again all,

Jay

Call that dude up and tell him he f'd it up, se if he'll give you a partial refund to cover the repair, send him the pictures.

line them up to the white painted lines on the cam gears