Technical Lacking Power

[Panther96]

Car is a 1.4 16v (90PS), so no turbo.

I recently rebuilt the top end due to a timing belt failure.

Car has had new water pump, tensioner, timing belt, head gasket, all exhaust valves replaced, inlet valves all removed and ground back in, all valves checked for leaks and all OK prior to refitting the head, new seals on the inlet and exhaust manifolds.

The car starts first time, idles evenly, revs OK, when driving it's really smooth, no jerkiness, miss-fires or anything like that it just seems to be lacking in power, it will happily cruise along at 70mph but it just takes forever to get there ! There's no engine management light or other warnings.

Is there anything obvious I should check?

 

[bugsymike]

Sounds like you did quite a thorough job.
For piece of mind and to eliminate it, a physical compression test showing all cylinders around 180psi, a valve timing check, also if crank / timing sensors use any external reluctors or vanes to trigger check for any damage or distortion. Possibly check for anything restricting gas flow, blocked air filter or exhaust etc.
After that probably down to reading live ECU data to see if anything related to ignition timing advance or fuel table comparisons etc. or any pending error codes.
This may sound totally stupid but whilst checking a customers Citroen for another issue, I deleted an error relating to the clutch pedal position and customer reported back to me that the car was going much better. It turned out he had had a worn clutch replaced by the Citroen Dealer and they didn't delete an error code relating to the clutch, apparently when the vehicle detected the worn clutch it put the ECU in a reduced performance position (not quite a limp mode) to allow the vehicle to "manage " the weak clutch.

 

[The Panda Nut]

dealer scan to see if the car has reset its self to transport mode or some similar thing. You may need to try instructing it to do a comprehensive relearn of all its functions and see if this changes something. It should be fixable as you seem to have done everything required.

 

[Panther96]

Big thanks for the replies guys, hopefully now sorted thanks to the tips on here.

I have a cheap as chips bluetooth OBD2 reader off ebay (cost about 6 quid and had it years), never thought to try it, plugged it in and ran the 'Car Scanner' android app and checked for fault codes.

It threw up a camshaft position sensor malfunction, probably caused by the timing belt failure, I cleared the code and then re-scanned and it didn't reappear. My daughter drove the car 120 miles back home last night and I was very nervous about her driving such a long distance alone late at night in a car where I had recently just rebuilt the top end. Thankfully there was no drama and she made it home all OK.

When I asked if everything was OK with the car, in her words "It was an absolute dream and he's back to his nippy self", to say I am relieved is an understatement.

Thanks again, forums like this are a godsend at times.