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i'm pulling all my hair out with this one, my engine wont start and once i stop cranking the motor starts to turn backwards and blows alot of smoke out the intake i bought the car cheap cuz the guy said it needed a head gasket as it was blowing white smoke but that all checked out and the headgasket was good so i was thinking possibly the timing belt skipped a tooth and now the motor is trying to run backwards oh yeah i should mention it's had this problem since i got it but it will start after a long period of cranking and it runs fine except for a huge flatspot right when you step on the gas. it's a 4cylinder car no turbo automatic front wheel drive if that helps any advice would be great cuz this is drivin me nuts i have to get it fixed so i can insure it next month for my wife. thanx a bunch. oh yeah and its a '91 i think 3s-fe
I think the question now is more to find a solution.
There are a few basic things to check before going any further :
Once your engine is running (you told us you managed to make it start after a while), how is it running : no bad or strange noise ? How is idle : very smooth, not erratic at all ?
Check sparks on all cylinders, then check if fuel is coming to the carburetor while you crank the engine. If that seems fine, I would start checking compressions, this needs no more than 10 minutes in a garage so it shouldn't cost a lot of money but will at least give you a good idea of the condition of the engine.
ok, once you've checked all that and it seems fine, you could go ahead and check the timing belt (just like you said) for any possible teeth(s) of difference.
Just let us know if you have any questions and keep us informed !
You didn't skip a tooth, you skipped half the damned belt.
The only time white smoke(unburnt fuel+freshly burned fuel) blows out the intake is when your cam timing is off 180degrees.
To quote myself from an hour ago,
Quote:
The engine sucks air in the tail pipe and pushes it into the intake manifold where a huge puddle of fuel waits. Eventually some runs into the combustion chamber, ignites, travels back to the waiting pool in the intake manifold and POOOOOOOOFT.
Kiss the air filter good bye!
*edit*
And yes... A motor will run barely run like that once it catches. It'll stall quickly, but you will get enough revolutions for the cylinders to all fire about in cycle, until the fuel puddles have ran out and no more fuel can drain into the cylinders through the intake valves.
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Yes the next thing to do is to find a solution. But if he or anybody does this again then they're not learning from the mistake. It's good to offer solutions to move forward and repair the car, but once you leave your back door open you'll commit the same mistake and that could have been avoided altogether.
Toysrme, if he skipped the timing belt would that ruin anything else inside the engine? Rods? Valves? Would a rebuilt engine be in order?
Yes the next thing to do is to find a solution. But if he or anybody does this again then they're not learning from the mistake.
Yes, everybody makes mistakes (including me !!!! ) and the aim is to help you out + make you and us learn something from it.
What Toysrme says definitely makes sense !!!! It would be good to check very carefully the timing belt. Best way to check it is to take your time, check several times and just take it easy. And as Pineaple says you won't have broken anything since the 5sfe engine (just like many Toyota engines) are non intereference engines.
I am sure you'll eventually find out what is the problem, just let us know how it goes...
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