Heat & torque
I changed the cambelt and auxiliary belt on my daughter’s 2001 Peugeot 206 1.4, which has an unknown belt history and was suffering occasional overheating problems, mostly when left ticking over. Everything seemed fine, except that the crankshaft key had left a mark on the sprocket, so had not been engaged correctly. The engine was timed with a camshaft wheel bolt and a bent 6mm drill to lock the crank.
The car tends to stall easily when pulling away (a new clutch was fitted recently by Mr Clutch), but we have resolved the overheating problem, with the car now running about 10°C cooler and just over the 80°C mark. My son-in-law has complained about the stalling, but he’s a bit of a boy racer so could this be due to his driving technique or would the sprocket being half-a-tooth out make a huge difference to the engine temperature and torque characteristics?
Tony Nicholson
From the data you supplied,
I’m assuming this is the KFW (TU3JP/L4) engine. As you have locked the crankshaft and the camshaft using a bolt and drill, I would expect the timing to now be correct. The crankshaft position sensor on your engine should be at the rear of the block and senses off the flywheel end of the crankshaft, meaning that although the valve timing may have been slightly out, the ignition timing in relation to the piston position should not have been affected.
The drive for the cambelt should be from the crankshaft sprocket and this is not touched when replacing the belt, meaning the only problem would have been a possibly offset crankshaft pulley – although not ideal, this should not have affected the engine timing in any way. Unless you mean that the sprocket itself was turned, in which case a new sprocket and key would be required.
Having said that, if the old belt was slack or had stretched, it may have allowed both the ignition and valve timing to be retarded, resulting in overheating. It may also have been jumping over the water pump (driven off the back of the belt), causing overheating.
The best test as to whether the engine is stalling or being stalled would be for you to give it a quick run round to
ascertain if there is an issue with the vehicle or whether the problem is just an over-enthusiastic driver!