Have had some issues with my timing belt after a head gasket replacement. It ran fine for several weeks then really lost power. Popping the belt cover off revealed that the cams had equally shifted, due to a missing washer (my fault) at the back of the tensioner arm. All put back together and properly aligned and it does not start. I did check using a vacuum gauge that the #1 cyl. was properly on the compression stroke at TDC and distributor pointing at plug one. Compression on passenger side cyl bank is good, but only about 20 PSI on all three cyl on the driver side. My guess is the driver side valve timing is somehow way off? Aligning the cams they acted as if they are strongly affected by the valve springs, as one would normally expect.

Brilliant ideas?

 

When you reinstalled the belt, did you turn the crank two revolutions to confirm that the cams came back to the right place? (Because of the strong affect of valve springs, some can end up with a "loop" in the belt that, once pulled out, leaves a cam in the wrong place)

Any chance you have a bad head gasket on the driver's side? A crack in the head?

 

It did run fine at idle with both valve timings slightly off and vacuum gauge indicated valve timing, not head gasket. Indeed the crank was rotated twice and remained with all the marks lined up. Belt installed quite tightly, wondering if the locating pin on the cam is broken? Casual inspection revealed the pin in the hole, but will have to pull the valve cover (drivers side much easier!) perhaps to check the actual valve timing, which will also revel if there is a disconnect between the cam and the sprocket.

Hmmmm