It would have totalled my 97 Dodge Intrepid with 226,000 miles, cost wise, if I had to pay somebody to do a timing belt change, so I installed a new timing belt, tensioner, tensioner pulley, water pump, and front crank seal and serpentine belt. The engine is a 3.5L interference engine.
When trying to start it after the maintenance it gave me a sickening feeling, firing a little here and there and sounding like the timing was off. I gave up and went away for a while. When I got back I gave it one last try, even flooring the pedal, just in case. When it started I spewed a lot of white smoke … it was just flooded … life was worth living again!
This car has multi-port injection and dual throttle bodies. My question is: Why did putting on a timing belt flood the engine?
I think it has something to do with my following instructions and rotating the crankshaft 2 revolutions and then rechecking cam /crank timing, but why did that flood it? I thought the injectors fired electrically and the battery was disconnected during the entire procedure.
Turning the engine a few revolutions is not enough to flood the engine, even if the injectors were firing, which they weren’t.
Are you sure you don’t have a leaking injector? There is nothing about a timing belt replacement that should have caused this problem.
Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire!
I can’t say one way or another. However, this car fires right up in just a revolution or two, cold or hot, and I never get any chugging or smoke, nothing.
I thought flooded engines made gray/black smoke when they get going. Could you have spilled some coolant down the intake?
I’m not at all familiar with Chrysler electronic stuff, but I know some cars remember what position the engine stopped in so it knows which injectors and spark plugs to fire immediately before it even gets a signal from the crank sensor. It could be that moving the engine or even just disconnecting the battery confused it and it fired the wrong injectors for a few turns.
Although, usually if the engine’s flooded doesn’t that usually result in a puff of black smoke? Is there any chance you got some water or coolant into the intake while you were working on it?
I Don’t Think …
… so. I only spilled coolant when I pulled the water pump out of the front cover and just a drip or two near the recovery tank. Any parts of the intake system should have stayed covered.
Please See Above Answer
I’m going out to look at it again, but I can’t see how.
I’m back in the house. I looked under the hood. I still can’t figure any way of spilling coolant into the intake, but who knows? It’s 52 degrees F outside, 100% humidity, raining, and I started the car and ran it after it sat all night. There is no visible exhaust of any color.
Well, if it’s running fine now, I would maybe even blame it on the fact that the battery was disconnected.