Not sure if I'm correct on this, but I don't think the timing is adjustable on this engine. There is a crank sensor, which is not adjustable, and a cam sensor as well. Cam sensor is on the driver side exhaust sprocket, which is in a fixed position as well.

Any chance the wheel for the crank sensor is on backwards?

Heck, there's a chance of anything being backwards right now <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />. I'll find out more this week as I get time to dig into the front of the engine.



Idle is stable. It does not misfire as I rev the engine, just no power, and is slow to bring the revs up. But no miss.

I've been digging around to see if maybe the cam gears are indexed differently, and I may have them swapped, but I'm not having any luck as of yet.

Take out the air cleaner element and try it.

No change with the air filter element removed. Looked at the air filter with a flashlight behind it, and the filter is plenty clean. Can see light through it all the way around.

I did notice while working the throttle from the engine bay with the filter in place, that I can hear a low sucking sound from the airbox. Similar to when the secondaries open on a 4 barrel carb when you punch it. I had a buddy stop by yesterday, who has owned several Mistubishis and he seems to think I'm dealing with a sensor issue (specifically the MAF or the TPS, or a vacuum problem. His opinion is the timing is on, and fuel is not an issue.

I'm going to pull up the vacuum diagrams in the FSM and make sure everything is good there. And see what tests can be done on the TPS and MAF. Might be able to borrow some working sensors from the AZ crew to troubleshoot with.

One thing to note is while checking out the MAF, if I gently shake it, I can hear a rattling noise like a loose part within the little black box above the connection. Also, the engine doesn't run any different with the MAF plugged in, or unplugged. Curious.

Also, I noticed that someone put RTV sealer at the connection for the TPS., so it has been messed with at some point.

Did some more checks. TPS is fine, and within spec. Borrowed a known good MAF meter. No change there either. Time to start digging deeper. <sigh>

Oh boy. Something definitely isn't right here. Got everything torn down, including the intake to get ready to do a compression test. The spark plugs I put in were virtually new: only had a few minutes of run time on them before I pulled the engine. There was a little soot on the ones I put back in, but nothing major.

I pulled the spark plugs so I could run a compression test. Plugs on passenger side are showing an ashy color, indicating a possible lean condition. Here's the kicker: The spark plugs on the driver side are completely clean. They look brand new. They didn't look that way when I put them in there. Oil shows no signs of coolant, so I'm guessing a no spark (or no combustion) condition on the driver side? Fuel vapor cleaned the soot off the plugs? I am totally confused now. Anyone have any ideas? Looks like I may have been running on only 3 cylinders?

EDIT: Well, found my problem. Sort of. NO compression on any driver side cylinder. F**K...

180 or better on the passenger side, so it looks like I didn't damage anything on that side at least. Now to find out what the hell I did on the driver side.

The heads are not the ones that came off the motor ..Right.?

Put the plugs back in ... Kill the spark ... Pull the fuse for the fuel pump ... Now turn the motor over as you would trying to started it ... "Listen" to how the motor "sounds" as it turns over ... There should be a even "rhythm" thats "even" as each Cyl hits TDC ... If you have the cams off or the compression is low on a cyl or cyl bank the "rhythm" will be "off" ..You get what I'm saying...?


I'm still saying cams are off ... I dont care what the timing mark on the cam and crank gears are at ... I care were the cams are pointing and number one is at TDC...

No, the heads are the new ones from Clearwater. I've got the driver side head down to the cams now. I'm not sure how to tell I've got the cams swapped on the driver side. I had to call Clearwater regarding the passenger side, and they told me how to tell the difference by looking at the cam pin vs. the first lobe on the cam. Intake side with the pin straight up, the cam lobe would be at 11:30. The exhaust side would be at 9:30. Need to look at another engine to see if I swapped the cams on the driver side. A bunch of friggin rookie mistakes on my part... Gotta learn somehow I guess.

With the timming marks all lined up where are the cams pointing on #1...?