Doing first timing belt/waterpump on my son's 87 and besides the harmonic balancer being on backwards both cams were retarded by about two teeth.

I have never seen this situation before.

What is the net effect? Loss of power I would guess for starters.

 

Keven,

As a general statement retarding the cams generates more top end at the expense of mid range torque. As to what that amount of retard does may be another matter altogether.

Does the motor have good compression? I know the cams can be out quite a bit without anything touching but that is a bit alarming. That both are out seemingly by the same amount suggests this may have been a deliberate strategy by someone but who knows..?

Rgds

Fred

 

That much retard will lose a lot of power. (One cam gear tooth = ±7.5°)

Lots of backspacing on those gears, too (typically 2-3mm max). Hopefully the waterpump is not grinding into the block.

 

So that's about 30 degrees retarded? How was your son's car running?

 

Yeah, I am worried about that too. After I pressure tested the cooling system I noticed an aluminum hue after the coolant I pushed out of the waterpump evaporated.

Will know more tomorrow after we pull the waterpump.

 

I drove it and it seemed okay. Not as powerful as the ex-wife's 91 S4. Not a fair comparison.