Hola all... Found a question similar to mine, but no answer. So, I'll ask my question.

First things first: 88 Volvo Wagon (106,000 miles) w/ an 89 B230F engine transplant (80,000 miles) and an automatic tranny.

I'd never driven it before, found that my girl's 88 240 wagon has the worst accelleration from 0 to 20 ever. Started in on the basics... Cleaned up the mass airflow sensor, the throttle body, etc. (I've never seen grease soaked grass inside a MAF before.) Checked the plugs. Nasty. Checked the distributor cap... thrashed. Replaced cap and rotor.

Checked the timing. Timing is off. Waaaay off. Like thirty degrees to the right of TDC at idle. The harmonic balancer doesn't seem to be slipping... the mark doesn't move around. Loosen the bolt on the distributor hold down. Can't turn the distributor far enough to get the timing mark to 12 degrees. It's jammed against the end of the slot and it's nowhere near 12 degrees.

If I pull the bolt that holds the distributor down, I can twist the distributor far enough to get the timing set properly at 12 degrees. Wagon runs GREAT this way. Except, of course, the distributor isn't properly held down, so I'm afraid to go farther than once around the block, lest it move around.

At this point, I'm wondering if a) I should just drill and tap a new hole in the block that gives me enough room to adjust the distributor far enough or b) check the timing belt to see if it's off a tooth or four.

So I changed the timing belt (found the belt had slipped a tooth or two). Put the belts back on. Threw the light back on it.

The timing mark is now very close to TDC. That's better... but still not quite the 12 degrees BTDC that the emissions tag specifies. And, of course, I can't turn the distributor any further in the slot.

Sooooo... here's my question(s) (finally):
Is there something that could have slipped inside the distributor?
Is there someway the distributor could have been installed wrong?
Could it be a problem w/ the ECU?
Should I I just drill a new hole in the box to move the bolt that holds the distributor down?

Again, I'm pretty sure it's not the harmonic balancer slipping... the Wagon runs heaps better w/ the timing properly set to 12 degrees. Of course, I can't bolt the distributor down there... but man, this is driving me nuts.

Any thoughts would be gratefully recieved!

Thanks,
P