today on the way home. my 98 neon, dohc decided to shell the water pump on me.

when i pulled over to inspect the high pitch squealing. the car died on me. but restarted ok, i ran it long enough to start it and promptly shut it back off to prevent damage to the heads/pistons.

ive done a timing on a 95 sohc, but never done a dohc. how much is similar between the two engines?

i will have a new water pump in the am. debating a new timing belt while im in that far. car has about 148k miles on it. will my tensioner be ok?

 

Pretty similar for both the DOHC and SOHC. Change the timing belt and idler pulley at the same time. You don't wanna have to go back in there to do it all over again.

 

ok. new water pumps in...several innappropriate words later not as bad as i thought it would be. forgot to order the new belt so ill get it on the way in the morn. do i need both idler pulleys or just one?

 

Just the idler pulley should be good enough.

 

ok. i ordered part #BK246 from RockAuto.com. its a cloyes timing belt kit. comes with a new belt and 2 idler pulleys. after researching to make sure the idler and tensioner pulley were the same first. did a 2nd day air order

i chose this kit from cloyes cause ive had great luck with their timing chains in the past on my performance Chevrolet motors.

figured i might as well do both, cars been a great lil investment. gets about 25mpg for me. had about 145k miles. but runs like a champ!

 

Nice. I prefer the Gates timing belt myself, but to each their own.

 

replaced both pulleys and installed the new belt. spun the motor a few times by hand and checked to make sure my timing was still on before i reinstalled the cover, crank pulley and mounts.

once i started the car. it idles rough, but soon as you touch the gas it smoothes out.

im a tad stumped. only code from the key dance was 31 which is Evap purge flow monitor failure or evap solenoid circuit. makes sense since i had the vacumn lines disconnected so i could take the timing cover out.

anyone have any idea's before i strip it down and check my timing again?

 

I'd double check the timing again. I don't know how many times I have heard people swear up and down that they had the timing right and went back and redid the timing and it works.

 

ya, found my mistake. i was aligning the timing marks on the camshafts by where the notches lined up and not across the centerline of the bolts. going to redo it here after i eat lunch.

hopefully i didnt mess anything in the heads up.

 

There you go. After that, you should be good.