1986 Toyota Camry 2.0 automatic transmission Sluggish power and distributor positio
 

My Camry has 182000 miles on it. I noticed the higher gear makes the engine power sag. I checked the catalytic converter and fuel pressure and both are good and in specs. When I do the recommended procedure for timing it’s at 10 BTDC in spec. I do notice that my distributor is at the end of the slots in the advanced position. I pulled the distributor and advanced it a tooth but the engine ran bad in any position so I set it back. My timing belt and water pump was replaced a couple of months ago. I do notice that if I start climbing long hills that my catalytic converters has an odor to it like it’s getting too rich. Any suggestions? I’ve done about all that I could do other than maybe mess with the timing belt. My vacuum is also at 16 at idle.

Have you checked for excess exhaust back pressure?

Yes I checked with the vacuum gauge and felt the amount of exhaust coming from the tailpipe. The vacuum gauge initially goes down a little under acceleration then recovers good while accelerator is still pressed

Did the engine have the same issue prior to the timing belt change?

Exhaust smells of gas, rotten eggs?

No. The catalytic converter is fairly new installed about 4 months ago

So, there was no change in engine performance, good or bad, after the timing belt change?

How is fuel flow?

Fuel flow and pressure are good both at idle and good pressure at acceleration. What I might do is check compression probably a worn engine

Situation worse when going up hills?

Yes it does lose speed have to put automatic transmission in lower gear to try to gain speed but it struggles

I drove it up a mountain road. I live in Salt Lake City Utah. It was doing ok when I drove it up before even though it’s slow at getting up to speed but the past two days it’s especially sluggish. When it shifts from 2nd to 3rd it was very hard shift and pulled the engine down considerably. I have to constantly press the accelerator down to go back into 2nd and even then it struggles to speed up. I do notice while going up a hill it will be in 2nd and rpms are almost 3000 then suddenly revs up to 4000 then returns to 3000. The transmission doesn’t seem to feel like it’s slipping but the engine feels like it’s lost a lot of power when climbing and sags down just a little as the gears shift higher on straight roads. Like it initially accelerates then sags a little as it speeds up. When I am climbing hills I have to drive up around 3500 feet above where I started and sometimes there’s a lot of wind.... but I don’t believe that 30mph wind would cause the car to struggle that much.