If he didn't line up the belt to begin with, it would not have run right from the get-go. Then the comment about slack in the belt. My $0.02 is...

Critical part for the new belt install, timing marks aside, is the pre-tension setup:

1) Hydraulic tensioner: If you don't put in a new one (should have gone new based on the miles), then the old has to be compressed in a vice and a keeper pin inserted to hold it there until the job is done.

2) Tensioner puller: Pre-tension the pulley, ideally with a special tool that makes it easy to do.

Steps 2 and 3 are the ones that either get missed due to not knowing, or are skipped by the fly-by-night types that are changing the belt just to get the rig sold. The FSM covers all of this, and anyone who has not changed one of these belts, has no business doing so without real service manual info, IMO.

When done, the keeper pin gets pulled out to release the hydraulic tensioner. Done properly, there will be no resistance to the keeper. You can pull it with a flick of your pinky.

The next problem you will have is that to check for compression, you will have to pull the intake. And it snowballs from there with 200k+ miles. (Do the plugs, VC and plug tube gaskets for starters. Also should have done the oil seals on the front of the engine when the t-belt was done.)


GL...