My son, 29 years young has a ''98 Rodeo. It had a howl coming from the front of the engine and replaced the water pump to fix it. Well that wasn''t it and now we are having trouble getting it to run correctly again.

We carefully set the overhead cams and the crank in the aligned positions and installed the belt with lines as indicated in the manual. Did it four times. It will run but when placed in gear and gas is applied it kind of backfires. Seems to still have a timing problem.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

I am having the same issue after replacing my water pump. What did you discover? I can't seem to get the timing right.