Off a tooth??

[4GZChatch]

Hey all, I think my timing is off a tooth on my car, but I really can't tell. As I was driving to school this morning, (the first real time this car has been on the road...) it wouldn't idle right in the driveway, and then died once at the end of my street. After that, it ran ok, but seemed hesitant at partial throttle. Once I got the throttle open, and got the rpm's above 2500, it ran great, otherwise it felt hesitant. The car has been sitting since August, so I thought there might be a chance of bad gas, since it sort of has the same feeling as when you lose fuel pressure. Any ideas? I really don't want to have to get into the timing belt if I can avoid it...

Thanks!

[91B16Civic]

same thing was happening to me and mine was off a tooth. I was also low on coolant at the time and it IACV caused the idle to not work either. If you have a timing light it will be easy to check.

[4GZChatch]

I didn't even think of the IACV... I'll check my coolant tonight once the car cools off... I didn't think you could check for the timing belt being off with a timing light. Can you? How do you do it. I have one...

It's not going to hurt the car to drive it with it off, will it? I have to drive it again tomorrow before I can fix it...

[4-Door Flunky]

My coworker had her Civic's timing belt replaced at a shop here in Santa Fe. The mechanic installed it in a position that was off one tooth.
Her gas mileage decreased between 20% and 30%. Her car wouldn't go over 85 mph. It had trouble revving over 4,000 (I'm guessing here).
Those were the symptoms on her car.
No damage was done.
Flunky

[91civicDXdude]

i've changed my cam timing on my SOHC a whole tooth and it didnt change much...certain ECU chips i try have the timing advanced too far and to counter this, i had to retard the cam a tooth. It loses a little bottom end, but it sure rips ass in the top end. Sometimes, you can check if its off a tooth by checking your ignition timing. If the cam timing is off, you can advance or retard the distributor all the way, and it still isnt in time.

[4GZChatch]

The funny thing is that sometimes it feels great, and pulls hard, and then two minutes later, it feels like crap. It's really better at 3K rpm and higher, and bad in the low end. I'm gonna throw some Heet in there to try to clean up the gas, and I guess I'll just check the timing belt over the weekend too...