Pinto Car Club of America

Okay so I have a 2.0 Pinto Engine. Back in March it seemingly randomly died. Well it turned out that what had caused it to die and not start was because it had jumped time. You guys on here had helped me to put the timing back correctly. Pintony had said:

"If the belt is off and the crank pointer is at tdc.
and the cam pointer is pointing at the dot or "Straight up"  and your dist. rotor is pointing at #1 plug then everything is correct."

He seemed to be right ((thank you once agin Pintony for all of the help)) but the engine seems to be doing the same thing again. It kinda died earlier and now it wont start.

I believe I lined everything back up again i.e. the crank pointer is now at TDC (which stands for Top Dead Center as in essentially 12 o'clock, correct?) The Dist. rotor is pointing at the #1 plug and I believe the cam shaft is at the dot or 'straight up' as Pintony put it and yet for some reason this time the engine will get spark yet still won't start.

Any idea on what I am either doing wrong or any other possible problems?

Thanks so much yall!

Does it back fire ? Does it crank real slow? Does it crank real fast? Does it smell like gas in the engine compartment? Did the car die all at once ( as in while you were driving ) or did it just one day decide not to start?

Well it is not an engine that is in a car any longer. I have it in my Dune Buggy. It doesn't crank exceptionally fast or slow it seems to crank at a normal speed. It doesn't backfire. Yes, I can smell gas. It died while I was driving it then wouldn't start....

If the bad belt that caused it to jump time the first time is still on the engine replace that belt and it should be ok.

Tune up...  Change the points!!  (At least check them visually and put a dwell meter on it).  My old 2.0 died on me on the way to the beach in Spain.  Points went bad/burned.  State motorcycle cop stopped and had a small nail clipper with file - cleaned it right up - good enough to enjoy the weekend!

TDC is not 12 o'clock, more like 11 o'clock when you line up 0 to the pointer. The keyway will be at 12 o'clock. Do you have a belt cover installed? Sand is murder on timing belts, when the engine revs the belt flexes and sand can get thrown on the pulleys causing the belt to jump.

Is the belt tensioner working properly?

Tom