I recently changed timing belt, tensioner, seals, water pump, belts, plugs&wires, cap&rotor, oil&filter. Now it losses power when going up hills and the exhaust sounds different. I checked, and re-checked timing belt! It seems to all line up, but something is not as it was before. Would taking it to a shop and having them check with a timing light show anything? Any insight will be greatly appreciated!!! Thanks

 

You may have a catalytic converter that has come apart - Chunks of the honeycomb can roll back and block the exhaust flow, worse going up hill. Any rattles from your converter? Still original? E test needed in your area? If not you can simply break up the remaining chunks of cat honeycomb material to "test" for obstructions.

For timing - the timing is not adjustable - (engine speed sensor tells ecu where the engine is and fires the spark plugs/injectors accordingly) The distributor just sends the spark to the correct wire/plug.

 

not sure what a timing light would show that the cam gear wouldn't already tell you. I'd probably start by checking the plugs to make sure the gaps are correct and that they were correctly tightened.

 

Thanks! That was a thought, just hard to wrap my head around the "timing" of the cat going! Will definitely check that out, and let you know what I find.

 

I also was questioning myself with the only thing that I didn't check was the gap of the plugs! I put the old cap and rotor and wires on to see if new ones may have been bad, but never check the gap! If I may ask, what is the proper gap for the spark plugs? Thanks again!!!