my car is a pos

[A//// Guy]

Yea actually timing can be thrown off without breaking the belt... it happened to me. The belt just skipped a couple teeth...

[sleepydsm]

At KK we all told you "boost leak." Good job listening.

[xluciusx]

Yeah, at KK I KNEW I had a boost leak cuz my lower coupling had a hole in it. So I came home and replaced it and then it continually got worse. (Because the replacement coupling was falling off)

Its still fucked up :( , just not as badly anymore :)

[TheBlizzard]

yup and that would randomly change without throwing the belt
Just because you may have never seen it does not mean its not possible. I have seen it happen first hand and some cars will run fine with two teeth off but will have little to no power under boost. Very hard to diagnose.

Like I said first thing I would do a boost leak test. Just because you put new couplers on doesn't mean there isn't a leak from something like the intake manifold/throttle body ect.

CRAIG

[JET]

They won't usually run fine when 2 teeth off, but they will run about 75% while one tooth off. It can also happen randomly. Usually it is an older belt (or a cheap one) or the tensioner or something is weak. A piece of foreign material jumping into the belt can also do it aka. a rock, piece of plastic or a midget. :)

[xluciusx]

So as far as plug gap is concerned is it best to have them at .28? The manual says .28 to .31, whats the difference? When I checked them they were all gapped almost exactly to .28
Its a lot better now that the coupling is fix but it still does this weird thing where it kinda stutters at full boost in 4th gear and feels like stuttering when I'm on the highway going about 70 in 4th or 5th. I wish I could explain it better, Cher was with me one night at got to see it first hand...

[TheBlizzard]

.28 is fine for plug gap.

[niterydr]

Well I guess I never thought about it just skipping a tooth. It could happen, but it would be more likely to happen during install versus only jumping 1 tooth and then recatching itself. I'd start with the boost leak test first as well.

[A//// Guy]

More likely yes... a stretched belt or tension got loose is what happened to me. This was quite a bit after a redone timing belt. Maybe 10000 miles +. I believe it skipped on startup, when the belt loosens a tad and then when I started the car, the force somehow popped it a couple teeth back. The car ran pretty shitty and knocked like mad, logger and eventually loud enough to hear...

Anyway so yea. The stuttering could be your plugs or spark plug wires. I had the same stuttering under boost issue and it was the wires.

[Goat Blower]

I hope you're not gapping your plugs to .28, that's about a quarter inch. Try .028 instead. :D

And the -11 on your plugs is the same plug with a larger gap, just squeeze it down to .028.