2.3L ('83-'97) Missfire at idle and loss of power. Engine idles smoothly with spout connector disconnected

[Juicyfruit85]

IT FIXED IT!!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! I. MOVED IT OVER 1 TOOTH AND NOW ITS SO SMOOTH AND A LOT MORE POWER!!!

 

[tomw]

Eleventeen posts later... Yeah, what I said, the cam timing is off by a tooth or two... One will make a difference from my experience.
When you go to set the ignition timing after you get it back together, make sure you disconnect the SPOUT plug before doing the adjustment. Supposedly, the timing will be un-adjusted by the computer for a few minutes after a cold start, but if you try to set the timing expecting it to be fixed, you may be surprised.
tom

 

[Juicyfruit85]

Eleventeen posts later... Yeah, what I said, the cam timing is off by a tooth or two... One will make a difference from my experience.
When you go to set the ignition timing after you get it back together, make sure you disconnect the SPOUT plug before doing the adjustment. Supposedly, the timing will be un-adjusted by the computer for a few minutes after a cold start, but if you try to set the timing expecting it to be fixed, you may be surprised.
tom

Thanks for the advice. Knew about disconnecting the spout and already reset the timing as soon as I got everything going. I work on cnc machines as my daily job and have no problem performing mechanical procedures and figuring out how things work. But I've never dealt with a timing belt before and dont have the long term knowledge of troubleshooting old engines. I know I had a lot of posts but I was on a deadline to get this thing going well and was just trying to supply as much information as possible instead of having a thread where it was like a check list of being told to check things and reporting back every night for the next two weeks. I also had a bad fusable link, MAP, 02, and isc/iac and fuel delivery issues and had to trouble shoot all that at the same time so it was very convilooted. And was replacing the clutch and doing the brakes. At this point I've been all over this truck and feel that only having to ask for help on 1 part of it is a win for me. But thank you for the help it was the last little push I needed. I wanted confirmation on timing because newer duratec engine have a timing mark on the rear flange of the pulley and above the pin that the tensioning spring pushes off of on the block and the actual timing mark is on the timing belt cover on the inside so I was confused about it and wanted to make sure I wasn't about to have a valve/piston collision because from what I've read online half the people say it's an interference engine and half say it's not so I just wanted to verify