Update!

Cam cover round two was a success! Both cams turn smoothly with the larger lever of a strap wrench. Now I can set timing and continue with the assembly. Thank you all for your words of wisdom!

Thanks for the replies!

I did not use a cam locking tool, as I don't have VVT and kept reading it was not needed.

Both cams were in the correct orientation based on the sprocket marks lining up with the timing belt cover marks and the slots are the rear parallel to the seam of the cam cover. The ...

I finally get around to tackling my valve stem seal problem. The project appears to be cursed to some degree. Snapping a head bolt is never a good omen. That issue is resolved, head came back from machine shop, and torquing it down went smoothly

When I went to torque down the cam cover, I followed ...

Exactly what I'm worried about. There's no obvious miss, but there's the slight wet/rich smell in the exhaust. Maybe just coincidence that an injector started failing around the time I replaced the barometric sensor? But I'd think a leaky injector would leak down the fuel rail and make for hard ...

Thank you for the compliment and your quick reply.

Unplugged MAF and engine seems to have its pep back when in neutral. Plugged in barometer and starting problem gone as well.

Now if that points to unmetered air, my question is why did it wait until I replaced the sensor the first time and then ...

Greetings,

As the title states I have a wagon with some performance problems. Car has 168k miles (~270k km) with a mix of highway and city driving. I have limited experience with troubleshooting fuel systems (much better at electrical), and I wasn't able to find existing threads that matched the ...